You Know What I Like About KSP?

[CobaltShock]

I sure like that mods are so easy to download. Take Minecraft as an example. When I got Minecraft, there was no way that 8 year old me was able to download a mod without help from my cousins or an adult (I actually got a mod downloaded for me as a gift at my 9th birthday). Come May 2013, when I got KSP, mods were incredibly easily to download because of 3 reasons:

1. Easy places to get the mods, and organized at that (Curseforge, what used to be spaceport, spacedock, what used to be kerbalstuff)

2. Downloads were very easy.

3. Instructions included in the mods most of the time

Just my opinion, but this is also what makes KSP a great game. An avid modding community, and I thank you guys for making KSP the way it is. This isn't the only thing I like about KSP, it's just something that makes the game great.

[Moach]

that is not by accident

 

modding was an intensively upheld priority in development for KSP - and the community was built from the ground up with the premise of fostering all the best possible conditions for authors and users alike since a very early stage in production

 

I know this, because I was there.... me and my brother (HarvesteR) had plenty of open discussions about just how to approach features he was working on with regards to potential modding options - I would always remind him to keep that in mind, even though most of the time, he did not require even being told

that's because both of us started our careers in game development not as programmers - but as a pair of prospective mod makers for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004:

the internet has kept a good record of this history: http://simviation.com/fs2004jets84.htm

that link points to that very first foray into game development for the both of us - mind that we kinda shared the username "Moach" for that project, for the sake of simplicity, or whatever... eventually I kept that name and he went with "HarvesteR" (I reckon mainly because of MetallicA, as in "harvester of sorrow")

 

how's that for a KSP pre-history lesson? 

 

anyways - that's why modding has been such a primary concern - since we've experienced first hand just how powerful mods are as a force to bring a community together

 

also, back when the forums were first setup, (back in a time when I was the first moderator) we deliberately came up with a few guidelines for modders and how they should post their releases in a way we thought would be most beneficial for both authors and users. those were simple tips, like:  keep the first post always updated;  no pics, no clicks; include links to any dependencies; and so on....

eventually it was a modder who realized that besides making new parts, it was possible to forcibly "inject" code (C#) into the game with a certain method - this user was very thoughtful and informed the developers before anyone else about just how this was done

so that method was eventually officialized, and in doing so, a proper SDK was established - a measure which was intentionally taken to ensure that users had no need to "hack" into the game, and successfully avoided a scenario such as found in games like IL2:1946, where the lack of an "official method" made for a host of mutually incompatible mods, and a huge deal of headache to anyone trying to install them (it is so that modders will do whatever it takes to make their mods work, and unless this is made easy for them, it will probably mean each will come up with his own unique solution, often conflicting with those of others)

 

it is curious however, that KSP may be one of the very few games in the entire videogame industry that have been developed with a thorough understanding of the symbiotic relationship between modder and developer - this lesson remains mostly unlearned, and goes unheeded in almost direct proportion to the budget of game design companies lately....

 

so that's actually how it happened - an omnidirectional round of thanks goes to all those involved with the KSP modding community, on either side of the compiler (and modders of any game, really) 

 

cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gameslinx]

Cudos for not mentioning Ckan and installing mods the correct way

[ZooNamedGames]

2 hours ago, Gameslinx said:

Cudos for not mentioning Ckan and installing mods the correct way

What's wrong with CKAN? Works fine for me. Rarely causes issues. Hell of a lot faster and reliable than when I used to manually manage downloads.

[Moach]

there are one or two mods that install incorrectly through CKAN - hardly a common problem (or even enough to take away from its merits) -- I currently host a set of roughly 130 mods, and of those, some 90% were installed effortlessly through it - the ones that were not were so just because they weren't available in the network, and only one or two of the whole lot had been installed incorrectly (by no direct fault of CKAN, probably a packing error down the line)

so that's a success ratio of well over 90% -- given the fundamentally unpredictable nature of what it tries to organize, I'd say that is a massive accomplishment

 

if I was in charge of things, I'd have made it such that the features it offers were built into the game from an early stage (no longer possible) - of course, this is only evident in retrospect...

and retrospect is a such a brilliant place, everyone in retrospect is a genius - why can't we all just live there?

 

anyways - try and get some mods together in a game like IL2:1946 without a pre-compiled finite collection installer (such as B.A.T; S.A.S.ModAct or HSFX) - or try to get a pair or so of those collections into the same install.... 

 

you'll soon see that KSP excels in mod support and cross compatibility in a way that could very possibly rank amongst the top ten best-moddable games ever built

 

 

cheers

[Gameslinx]

5 hours ago, ZooNamedGames said:

What's wrong with CKAN? Works fine for me. Rarely causes issues. Hell of a lot faster and reliable than when I used to manually manage downloads.

It's not the most reliable and often crashes or installs mods incorrectly.

It's also difficult for modders because if something goes wrong it isn't the modders fault,yet everyone will complain about it.

[HebaruSan]

Personally, I'd prefer if people only installed my mod via CKAN. Since I maintain the metadata, I can make sure it installs exactly as intended. Manual installation invites misunderstanding and misinterpretation of instructions; for example:

 

[NSEP]

Downloading mods in KSP is easier than Minecraft. But i actually could download any Minecraft mod in litterly under 1-2 minutes, when i was 10 years old. You just have to repeat it 100 times (wich i did) to become faster at it. 

[White Owl]

On 5/25/2017 at 8:26 PM, Moach said:

anyways - try and get some mods together in a game like IL2:1946 without a pre-compiled finite collection installer (such as B.A.T; S.A.S.ModAct or HSFX) - or try to get a pair or so of those collections into the same install....

you'll soon see that KSP excels in mod support and cross compatibility in a way that could very possibly rank amongst the top ten best-moddable games ever built

Many Muns ago, shortly after I bought my first PC, IL2 '46 was the very first game I ever attempted to mod. I think that was the first time I even became aware that it was possible to add a user-made mod to a game. And I distinctly remember very carefully following all the instructions to download and install one of the big integrated modpacks. It didn't work at first. So I went to the modders' forum and politely asked how to make it work...

That was also my first experience with exactly how rude and nasty people can be to total strangers on the internet!

KSP is such an improved experience, in every way. I love this game. I love these people who make, mod, and support this game.

[Overland]

Mods in KSP, easy txt file editing of parts and mod install started as a way to retrieve a downed plane with a train on rough terrain

Once I found out how easy it was to change how things operate... Things grew

KTP Landtrains I drive and adore greatly are the product of how easy it is (and to fix stock things)

I hope taketwo preserves the ease of access along upcoming parts of the franchise

 

Forums not too bad either for someone who uses KSP outside of its intended ways

Edited June 2, 2017 by Overland