Saving a stock game

[Klapaucius]

This is a very basic question, I realize, but just so I am clear before I break something.

I want to take a look at Galileo's Planet pack now that there is an updated release. However,  the developer states I should save my stock game because it will completely overwrite everything. So, what exactly am I saving to where? Just my missions and saves? Or is there other stuff I should be backing up as well?

I did not want to clutter up the Mod thread with this question since I think it is really just about general saving practices.

 

 

 

[James Kerman]

Personally, I would create a new instance of KSP outside of steam (if you're using it) and set that up as a standalone Galileo save by deleting everything in the KSP saves folder besides scenarios and training.

[Klapaucius]

31 minutes ago, James Kerman said:

Personally, I would create a new instance of KSP outside of steam (if you're using it) and set that up as a standalone Galileo save by deleting everything in the KSP saves folder besides scenarios and training.

How do I do that?

[James Kerman]

Basically you navigate to the KSP folder (usually found in steamapps) and copy the entire folder to another location (or you can use a search function to find the KSP root folder) - then go into the saves sub folder and delete everything besides scenarios and training.  Install Galileo and any required dependencies and game on.  Doing this will stop steam updating the Galileo install and still leave your stock game intact in its original location.

Edited September 15, 2018 by James Kerman

[Klapaucius]

14 minutes ago, James Kerman said:

Basically you navigate to the KSP folder (usually found in steamapps) and copy the entire folder to another location (or you can use a search function to find the KSP root folder) - then go into the saves sub folder and delete everything besides scenarios and training.  Install Galileo and any required dependencies and game on.  Doing this will stop steam updating the Galileo install and still leave your stock game intact in its original location.

Cool. I know where all the folders are and currently have shortcuts so I can get to the mods, saves and screenshots folders.

So is it because you are taking it out of the steamapps folder that Steam non longer updates it?

 

Also, I install most of my mods via CKAN. Will it try to install in the other version?

Edited September 15, 2018 by Klapaucius

[James Kerman]

 

4 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

So is it because you are taking copying it out of the steamapps folder that Steam non longer updates it?

Yes.  It will still update your original steam install however the new Galileo install will be immune to game breaking update blues .  Its always a good idea to have heavily modded games outside of steams update regime.

[Klapaucius]

Just now, James Kerman said:

 

Yes.  It will still update your original steam install however the new Galileo install will be immune to game breaking update blues .  Its always a good idea to have heavily modded games outside of steams update regime.

I guess that means I should not install Galileo via CKAN??

 

And, thanks so much for the help!

[James Kerman]

I haven't used CKAN personally but I would assume the answer is no.  Manually installing mods is fairly simple in KSP.

6 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

And, thanks so much for the help!

No worries, Mate.

[Klapaucius]

Just now, James Kerman said:

I haven't used CKAN personally but I would assume the answer is no.  Manually installing mods is fairly simple in KSP.

It is, but CKAN is just nice because it automatically figures out what else you need (eg module manager or whatever) and installs it. It also looks for mod updates.  And it is very easy to install and uninstall as need be. 

For example, I like to use hyperedit on occasion, but I don't keep it installed because it has some weird effects on the game--like making the relay tower at Woomerang disappear.

[James Kerman]

Just now, Klapaucius said:

I like to use hyperedit on occasion

The debug menu has some pretty good options as an alternative to hyperedit.

[Klapaucius]

1 minute ago, James Kerman said:

The debug menu has some pretty good options as an alternative to hyperedit.

Mostly I just use the Mission Builder if I just want to explore somewhere, but sometimes in a shared challenge you need another option for  folks who don't have the add-on.  I'll check out the option you suggested.

[severedsolo]

11 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

So is it because you are taking it out of the steamapps folder that Steam non longer updates it?

Actually Steam won't update second copies of the game even if you leave that copy in the Steam folder. It specifically looks for the one called "Kerbal Space Program" to update - secondary copies will be untouched.

For instance:

 

Usually this would have another copy that I use to play too, called something like "Kerbal Space Program - 1.4.5 Modded" - but I've moved to Linux for most day-day stuff. I digress - my point is that Steam leaves "Kerbal Space Program - ModDev" alone.

[swjr-swis]

On 9/15/2018 at 2:50 AM, Klapaucius said:

I guess that means I should not install Galileo via CKAN??

It's been a while for me, but when I last modded KSP I had 5 installs of the same version with different mod sets, all but one handled by a single CKAN instance. If nothing major has changed since then, you just need to tell it that you have multiple installs and provide the paths for each in the settings - this works across different versions of KSP too.

With a bit of OS filesystem trickery, you can even use the same single download folder so CKAN doesn't redownload the same mods over and over (hint: mklink /d <pathtonewKSPinstance>\CKAN\download <pathtomainCKANdownloadfolder>).

[Klapaucius]

Actually, what I wound up doing is this. 

1. I copied the game and renamed it.

2. Cleaned out the Gamedata folder in the copy per instructions

3. Downloaded The Galileo Planet Pack and related addons via CKAN (because it is so much quicker and easier) into the stock game.

4. Cut those mods from the stock folder and pasted them into the GPP gamedata folder.

5. Voila!

It turns out CKAN does not update both games.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Klapaucius

[swjr-swis]

9 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

It turns out CKAN does not update both games.

 

I'm not sure what went wrong for you, or if they removed that functionality from CKAN (which seems very unlikely), but here's a screenshot I found from an old CKAN install:

Spoiler

 

This one was obviously from a point in time when I had just one CKAN-modded instance per KSP version, but it worked the same with multiple installs of the same version. All installs I added to CKAN started as copies of a clean Steam stock folder. CKAN was then pointed to them (the 'Add new' button asks for a specific path to the KSP base dir), which then allows you to select which KSP install to work with from this dialog or from the CKAN main menu. From that point all modding for these installs was done through CKAN, which updated and maintained the mods for each of them side by side for a good while.

[Klapaucius]

17 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

 

I'm not sure what went wrong for you, or if they removed that functionality from CKAN (which seems very unlikely), but here's a screenshot I found from an old CKAN install:

That is awesome! I did not realize I could do that.  Thanks!  I've now been able to create 5 different versions:  Stock, Extra Solar, Kerbol Origins, Galileo and one with just mods galore.