how can i make mods

[flameboy]

hey i'm interested in making a mod with new parts with new actions but i don't know how or where to start. if you can help please do. 

[Vanamonde]

Thread moved to Add-on Discussions, since it is seeking rather than offering help. 

[Gaarst]

First, read a good C# tutorial.

Then, take a look at the Plugin Development Help and Support section: it contains several tutorials explaining the basics and how to get started; and more importantly it contains several modders who will be happy to help newcomers.

Edited February 8, 2017 by Gaarst

[Galileo]

On 2/6/2017 at 5:00 AM, flameboy said:

hey i'm interested in making a mod with new parts with new actions but i don't know how or where to start. if you can help please do. 

It's A LOT to learn if you have no experience in Unity or any other coding language. On top of learning Unity, you would need to learn the KSP API, so basically 2 languages. I have taken multiple classes over the past year to learn Unity at my university and I still couldn't write up the simplest mod for KSP. If you are willing to learn, be prepared to learn a lot and to mess up and be discouraged, but don't let it stop you.. Unity can be extremely cool and fun to use. Good luck!

[VikingStormtrooper]

Maybe you could start by simply making new parts that use exactly the same functions as the stock parts - learning this took some days in my case, nothing terrible.

As soon as you feel confident about your modeling/texturing/configuring skills, you may move to coding, that is harder in my opinion, at least if you have no or just little experience.

[Azimech]

Instead of starting with a plugin, I suggest playing around with existing parts. The way KSP parts are set up, it's incredibly easy to make a copy and modify it.

Download a few mods, for example mods that modify existing parts to have different specs. Compare the differences.

In my opinion, you'll learn the most about KSP if you start with the simple things. With just a few lines in the configuration file of a part, you can change the shape of a model, for example make it oblate. Change it's mass, resource contents, in the case of engines the thrust, ISP, curves etc. Every little thing you change has an effect not only on the part but the craft as a whole.

Also some of the existing part modules can be scripted to have a different behaviour, which can be seen as a form of programming.

Now the big question is: What do you wish to create? I can give you some examples and some pointers where to look. I can't code though.

 

[kerbiloid]

 

[Adstri]

Modding can be hard. All I gotta say.

 

But in all seriousness, I would start small. Don't try to add a crap ton of extremely complex parts on your first attempt. When I was first learning how to code, I got too ambitious and tried to add things into the game that most people aren't even able to add themselves. After MANY failed attempts and many months wasted, I wanted to quit. It just all seemed to complicated. But, I looked everything over, and I restarted. And then I was able to get to where I wanted to be in the first place.

TLDR; Don't be too ambitious at first. Try to start small at first by editing stock parts then move on to bigger things.

 

As to where to start, I would practice modeling at first. Try to practice in free modeling programs suck as Blender.

[HebaruSan]

So far, other commenters have assumed that you don't know how to program in C# or a C#-like language; that's a strong possibility, but it's not quite a certainty from what you've said, so for variety's sake I'll address the question of where to start if by chance you do know how to program in C#.

To be posted on the forums, mods are required to have their source code available. I don't know the original reasoning behind this rule (possibly to discourage malware), but it works very much in your favor as a new modder, because it means that for anything that any currently known mod can do, you already have a ready reference implementation that shows you exactly how to do it. Learn about all the mods that are similar to what you want to do, then download their source code and open it in your favorite editor to see how they work and which objects and functions they use to accomplish each important task. You should never simply copy any code unless you can confirm that it's allowed by that code's license (and even then, you should always give credit), but if you're stuck on, say, how to get keyboard input, it can be tremendously helpful to be able to see how others have done it in the past.

These links were particularly helpful for me recently:

• https://github.com/HebaruSan/Astrogator#plug-in-authoring