Looking for what to do in KSP.

[Kerbalstar]

Hello, fellow forum-goers,

I’ve been feeling a bit “burnt-out” with KSP. Or perhaps that’s not the right wording. I want to play KSP, I just don’t know what to do.

So, I’m looking to you, the community, for some advice. Are there any challenges I should do? Any places I should go? Any mods I should try?

As for challenges, I’m looking into some BDA challenges, as a fun distraction, since I never play with that stuff (I don’t even have BDA installed.), but I’m looking for something more space-based (although I’m open to some good Kerbin challenges too), and something that I can base a save (or at least a long mission) around. 

As for places I should go, any ones? (Full list of places I’ve been in spoiler.)

Spoiler

Places been to and returned from with Kerbals:

The Mun (many times).

Minmus (many times).

Duna (there with Kerbs 3 times, back once).

Places I’ve been to with Kerbs but have not returned from:

Ike (once).

Dres (once).

Gilly (once).

Places I’ve been with probes:

Jool (once).

Laythe (once).

Eve (twice).

Places I’ve never been:

Moho.

Vall.

Pol.

Bop.

Tylo.

Eeloo.

I’ve also successfully captured one asteroid, once.

So, any missions, or mission profiles I should try? Any great places to visit?

As for mods, are there any you really feel are “essential” or “game changing”? Any stand-alones or packs? I’m fine with 1.4.5 or up compatible mods. Anything to make the game feel “fresh”. (Just no graphics mods, by PC can’t handle ‘em. Unless they’re really low impact.)

Also, I’ve heard some good things about MKS. Is it something worth starting a new save for? If so, what should be my goal? Colonize the Kerbin system? Colonize the Kerbol system? Colonize Duna? Colonize Duna and the Kerbin system? Also, what game mode should I play in? Is it worth it?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Note to moderators: I hope this is the right place for this? It felt sort of like it, as it’s not just a mods question, and not just asking for challenges, so?

Edited December 21, 2018 by Kerbalstar
Added note to mods.

[qzgy]

Something that, while not really space based, is an extremely fun and frustrating challenge is trying to make a stock turboprop heli.

I know that there's currently a thing called PFC being ran by Jolly Roger Aerospace. Maybe you could consider entering that for fun.

You could also try in a stock-ish save to do a grand tour? Or even a Jool 5. If you want to extend it, you could try a colonization run of one of the planets you haven't visited.

[The Aziz]

You should visit Moho then. The fun part is slowing down to stay in orbit, because you'll be going at ridiculous speed. Or go as low as you can around the sun wihout blowing up.

But for more actual things to do, idk, MKS is quite complex, I would go with some rover/base/station parts, maybe easy life support (Snacks?) if you're ready for that (I learned I wasn't), some logistics, like KIS/KAS for easy base building

[Superfluous J]

(Added Duna to the list, and now the list goes up to 11)

I have always had fun doing what I call "Kerpollo."

• Start a Science save. Normal values for everything, and I try to go light on mods. I do allow myself ForScience because I hate collecting science.  In my 1.6 save that's the only mod I have installed, at least so far.
• You only get 11 launches. You may never use probe cores, and each launch must have at least 1 Kerbal until you've unlocked a docking port, and then they must all have at least 2 Kerbals and at least 1 of them must stay in orbit while the other(s) land(s).
• Each launch must complete the goal of the launch or you must revert. Make backups because once you start docking and undocking, you can lose the ability to revert. You can revert or quickload at any time for any reason, but you MUST do it if you for some reason can't complete the mission. No rescues. Do-overs ONLY.
• You can send any number of vessels to the launch pad or runway, but may only lift off from the ground under rocket or jet power 10 times. In other words, science cars to farm KSC science are OK.
• You may only land in ONE spot on each world (except Kerbin, as you'll be landing there 11 different times). No biome-hopping and no driving or EVAing to different biomes. you can collect as much biome science from the air or space (from as many SOIs as you happen to go to) as you want, but nothing from the ground in any other biomes than the one single one you land on from each world.
• Each mission MUST be self-contained. No leaving fuel in orbit of Kerbin to use with another launch. This could be extra hard on one or two of the last missions but hey.
• Your two goals are to 1) Complete all 11 missions and 2) when done with the final launch, have the entire tech tree unlocked.

You can do your launches in any order but you should probably not vary too much from:

1. Kerpollo: Orbit Kerbin and land.
2. Munpollo: Land on Mun, then return to Kerbin.
3. Minpollo: Do the same for Minmus.
4. Gilpollo: Gilly's turn
5. Ikepollo: I like Ike.
6. Drepollo: Dres DOES exist.
7. Eelollo: Eeloo's pretty this time of year.
8. Mohollo: Mahalo for doing Mohollo!
9. Dunpollo: Our first air world and our first return to a previous location.
10. Evollo: This one could be #11, but it's nice to end on the grand finale:
11. Joolollo: A Jool-5, any way you'd like but you must land someone on each moon and also return them all to Kerbin.

The practical upshot of this whole endeavor is that when you complete it, you'll be able to say you've literally been everywhere in the Kerbin system and returned successfully.

I put a lot of work into this. Maybe I should make it a challenge.

Edited December 27, 2018 by 5thHorseman

[SiriusRocketry]

52 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I have always had fun doing what I call "Kerpollo."

• Start a Science save. Normal values for everything, and I try to go light on mods. I do allow myself ForScience because I hate collecting science.  In my 1.6 save that's the only mod I have installed, at least so far.
• You only get 10 launches. You may never use probe cores, and each launch must have at least 1 Kerbal until you've unlocked a docking port, and then they must all have at least 2 Kerbals and at least 1 of them must stay in orbit while the other(s) land(s).
• Each launch must complete the goal of the launch or you must revert. Make backups because once you start docking and undocking, you can lose the ability to revert. You can revert or quickload at any time for any reason, but you MUST do it if you for some reason can't complete the mission. No rescues. Do-overs ONLY.
• You can send any number of vessels to the launch pad or runway, but may only lift off from the ground under rocket or jet power 10 times. In other words, science cars to farm KSC science are OK.
• You may only land in ONE spot on each world (except Kerbin, as you'll be landing there 10 different times). No biome-hopping and no driving or EVAing to different biomes. you can collect as much biome science from the air or space as you want, but nothing from the ground in any other biomes than the one single one you land on from each world.
• Each mission MUST be self-contained. No leaving fuel in orbit of Kerbin to use with another launch. This could be extra hard on one or two of the last missions but hey.
• Your two goals are to 1) Complete all 10 missions and 2) when done with the final launch, have the entire tech tree unlocked.

You can do your launches in any order but you should probably not vary too much from:

1. Kerpollo: Orbit Kerbin and land.
2. Munpollo: Land on Mun, then return to Kerbin.
3. Minpollo: Do the same for Minmus.
4. Gilpollo: Gilly's turn
5. Ikepollo: I like Ike.
6. Drepollo: Dres DOES exist.
7. Eelollo: Eeloo's pretty this time of year.
8. Mohollo: Mahalo for doing Mohollo!
9. Evollo: This one could be #10, but it's nice to end on the grand finale:
10. Joolollo: A Jool-5, any way you'd like but you must land someone on each moon and also return them all to Kerbin.

The practical upshot of this whole endeavor is that when you complete it, you'll be able to say you've literally been everywhere in the Kerbin system and returned successfully.

I put a lot of work into this. Maybe I should make it a challenge.

Sounds incredibly tricky to do in so few launches. I'd extend it out a bit maybe, add Duna.

[Superfluous J]

20 minutes ago, SiriusRocketry said:

Sounds incredibly tricky to do in so few launches. I'd extend it out a bit maybe, add Duna.

Oops. I never actually meant to exclude Duna. That's why I don't like to make involved challenges

11 launches. Add Dunpollo, probably in the Eeloo-Moho area somewhere.

[Foxster]

A crewed Eve landing and return is considered an end-game challenge by many. It's still my favorite.

The other biggy is to visit all of Jool's moons with one mission.  

Establishing a re-fuel facility at Eeloo is also kinda fun. 

Personally I'd not want to tackle the more challenging missions without MechJeb just so that I can concentrate on the craft design and mission planning without having to worry about the tedium of the burns. 

[N_Danger]

I had a Science play through where I went to every body possible (except asteroids) and landed a Kerbal. Then I returned her/him to Kerbin. 

And EVE was the most challenging for sure. Tylo was tricky too. 

[purpleivan]

Looking at your list @Kerbalstar it looks like there's plenty of planets to send some brave little explorers to, and then bring them back from.

My suggestion would be to do a Jool X (as opposed to Jool 5 challenge) mission, with X (0 - 5) being the number of moons that you decide to send your crew down to. Even if all you do is orbit Jool waiting for a return window, it's the best place in the system to hang out in.

If going down to the larger moons is pushing your designs limits, then you can always drop in on Bop or Pol for an easy to access surface location.

[Snark]

12 hours ago, Kerbalstar said:

So, any missions, or mission profiles I should try? Any great places to visit?

I've got quite a few suggestions, if you had already drained the stock solar system dry.    However, from your list-- sounds like there are quite a few places you haven't fully exploited.

Among those, I'd suggest crewed exploration of the Jool system.  It's fun, it's interesting, there are five worlds to play with (with very different conditions on each), and there are plenty of opportunities to have pretty views.  (Land in the right spot on Laythe, and you get a really cool view of Jool looming huge on the horizon.)

Another possibility would be to do a new career game using an alternate solar system arrangement.  Galileo's Planet Pack is a complete replacement of the solar system (you start on the planet Gael; Kerbin doesn't exist), so it'll get you quite some variety.  New Horizons is another good one-- it keeps all the stock bodies, but adds a bunch of new ones and totally rearranges the solar system (Kerbin is a moon of a gas giant, for example).  On a more modest scale, there's Snarkiverse, which doesn't add any new bodies, but does rearrange the existing ones-- so that even if you prefer to stay in Kerbin's neighborhood, you'll have a very different experience going to Mun and Minmus (and Dres, which becomes Kerbin's near neighbor).

[Kerbalstar]

Thanks everybody for the responses, especially @5thHorseman, and @Snark. 

@5thHorseman, I'll try that, it sounds like fun!

@Snark, some good ideas there. I've tried to go to Jool, but I never have enough DV to get there. One time I got a ship with 4 Kerbs into high, hilly inclined orbit, but it ran out of DV. Any suggestions?

[qzgy]

10 minutes ago, Kerbalstar said:

One time I got a ship with 4 Kerbs into high, hilly inclined orbit, but it ran out of DV. Any suggestions?

How are you capturing? Actually, how are you doing your mission in general?

On the few occasions I've been to Jool, I use as much as possible a gravity assist from Tylo to capture. Gravity assists in the Jool system are your friend.

[Kerbalstar]

Just now, qzgy said:

How are you capturing? Actually, how are you doing your mission in general?

On the few occasions I've been to Jool, I use as much as possible a gravity assist from Tylo to capture. Gravity assists in the Jool system are your friend.

Burn retro at periapsis. I haven't got the fine-tuning skills to get a Tylo capture yet. Any ideas?

[qzgy]

3 minutes ago, Kerbalstar said:

Burn retro at periapsis. I haven't got the fine-tuning skills to get a Tylo capture yet. Any ideas?

Yeah thats quite inefficient. Honestly, your best bet is to mess with maneuver nodes until it does work. PreciseManeuver is so helpful in that sense of making the exact maneuver you want. There also might be some tutorials out there to help you, but I'm not sure

Edited December 21, 2018 by qzgy

[Superfluous J]

5 minutes ago, Kerbalstar said:

Burn retro at periapsis. I haven't got the fine-tuning skills to get a Tylo capture yet. Any ideas?

I took some care to describe what I did and why to get my Tylo misison working in my latest (though aging) YouTube video:

Spoiler

 

 

[Kerbalstar]

3 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Yeah thats quite inefficient. Honestly, your best bet is to mess with maneuver nodes until it does work. PreciseManeuver is so helpful in that sense of making the exact maneuver you want. There also might be some tutorials out there to help you, but I'm not sure

Okay, thanks!

5 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I took some care to describe what I did and why to get my Tylo misison working in my latest (though aging) YouTube video:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Thanks!

[Waxing_Kibbous]

You could try to create a photo album of Kerbals posing in front of all the anomalies in the game. It'd be a good idea to have ScanSat for that one.

[Klapaucius]

Why not install a planet pack?  I've been on a kick of trying those out and some are just amazing.  If you do not feel like rearranging the whole system, add the Kronkus pack which adds a gas giant and moons to Kerbin. Otherwise, favourites are: Before Kerbin, After Kerbin, Gameslink and Galileo. This gives you base planets you can fly on with similar Kerbin characteristics but still quite different. 

 

Second suggestion: build a submarine.  If you have the DLC, I would suggest doing this in the Mission Builder. It saves you the tedious trip to the water from the airfield every time you test it.

[Heliocentric]

Maybe try and re create some real life rockets? I sometimes do that and it keeps me occupied for a while.

[septemberWaves]

Challenges are good since they set a goal for you, and because they give you restrictions to work with which can make things more interesting since they force you to do things you wouldn't necessarily do otherwise. I'd recommend my Doing It Constellation Style challenge (link is in signiture) if you want a specific suggestion (it's in the process of being updated but the first chunk of it is already pretty much ready to go, only some of the later sub-challenges still need working on). It sets a lot of tasks for players to complete and you can go for a high score if you want; and since you asked for mission profiles it definitely provides those. There's also a few similar challenges that I'd recommend (which are linked to in the first post of my challenge), or alternatively the Shuttle Challenge could be good if you're any good at making spaceplanes.

Edited December 27, 2018 by septemberWaves

[Triop]

Do survey contracts in career mode, that will keep you busy. 

[aleis]

You could plan a mission with the intent of doing a mission report with story.  Dont even have to have the story idea until after your done. Screen shot stuff as it happens and when things go wrong (as long as it's not catastrophic) just go with it and work a story around it later as to what had to happen to rescue the kerbals.

 

I did one (way back) and it made a rather boring mission much more fun. It also challenged me to work with some craft build mistakes instead of just reverting. 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2019 by aleis

[cantab]

Any good planet pack will make KSP feel fresh and exciting again.

Alternatively, since you're interested in BD Armory, how about creating a Duna or Eve air force? Be interesting designing performance aircraft for such a strange environment. You'll probably want some mod engines of course.

[razark]

On 12/20/2018 at 11:27 PM, Kerbalstar said:

I’ve been feeling a bit “burnt-out” with KSP. Or perhaps that’s not the right wording. I want to play KSP, I just don’t know what to do.

If you feel the need to ask other people what to do in a game, it's time to take a break.

Go play something else for a while.  Play a different game.  Or try playing Real Life.  The graphics are amazing, and it's a completely open world experience.  The choices you make can be completely life-changing.

Come back to KSP after a month, and you'll find something to do.

[Kerbalstar]

On 1/4/2019 at 1:16 AM, Triop said:

Do survey contracts in career mode, that will keep you busy

Thanks!

 

On 1/6/2019 at 12:12 PM, aleis said:

You could plan a mission with the intent of doing a mission report with story.  Dont even have to have the story idea until after your done. Screen shot stuff as it happens and when things go wrong (as long as it's not catastrophic) just go with it and work a story around it later as to what had to happen to rescue the kerbals.

 

I did one (way back) and it made a rather boring mission much more fun. It also challenged me to work with some craft build mistakes instead of just reverting. 

 

 

Good idea!

 

On 1/6/2019 at 2:40 PM, cantab said:

Any good planet pack will make KSP feel fresh and exciting again.

Alternatively, since you're interested in BD Armory, how about creating a Duna or Eve air force? Be interesting designing performance aircraft for such a strange environment. You'll probably want some mod engines of course.

Thanks!

 

On 1/7/2019 at 12:06 AM, razark said:

If you feel the need to ask other people what to do in a game, it's time to take a break.

Go play something else for a while.  Play a different game.  Or try playing Real Life.  The graphics are amazing, and it's a completely open world experience.  The choices you make can be completely life-changing.

Come back to KSP after a month, and you'll find something to do.

Thanks! 

I've started working on a new space program, using only replica launchers to establish an infrastructure throughout the Kerbin system.