Looking for a planet pack(s?) recommendation.

[etmoonshade]

I've been looking around at OPM (which I actually installed,) JNSQ, Beyond Home, and a few others, and my eyes are starting to cross because there are so many options.

I'm looking for a few things:

• Leaves the stock planets alone
• Sticks to adding planets and/or stars (e.g. JNSQ/Logical Resources changing ore distributions is an example of something that messes with things - if I want extra features, I'll find another mod)
• Provides a new star(s) to travel to

Am I looking for a unicorn here, or is there something I'm missing?

Edit: OPM is probably the closest to fitting the bill here, but I'd like to leave the Kerbol system eventually.

Edited July 30, 2020 by etmoonshade

[etoanrish]

Blinding Light leaves the Kernel system intact and adds external.

Galaxies Unbound is another one.

Alternis

Beyond Home is actually close to the scenario you mentioned. In this one, billions of years (?, huh, should be a million or so) have passed since Kerbol the Star went wild and there was an evacuation to the new star system. They have regained spaceflight and can now explore the system where they evacuated to as well as eventually build ships to visit the badly damaged system where they originated. Very novel idea.

Extra Solar is another mod that lives up to the name.

Hope this helps etmoonshade.  These run on various versions, mostly the newer ones.  I use 1.8.1 on most of these mods.

EtoanRish my handle here.  Let me know what you think about these mods which I gleaned from searches.  I also was searching a 2 to 4 months back.  If you see one that I didn't mention please add to this thread.

 

[etmoonshade]

1 hour ago, etoanrish said:

Blinding Light leaves the Kernel system intact and adds external.

Galaxies Unbound is another one.

Alternis

Beyond Home is actually close to the scenario you mentioned. In this one, billions of years (?, huh, should be a million or so) have passed since Kerbol the Star went wild and there was an evacuation to the new star system. They have regained spaceflight and can now explore the system where they evacuated to as well as eventually build ships to visit the badly damaged system where they originated. Very novel idea.

Extra Solar is another mod that lives up to the name.

Hope this helps etmoonshade.  These run on various versions, mostly the newer ones.  I use 1.8.1 on most of these mods.

EtoanRish my handle here.  Let me know what you think about these mods which I gleaned from searches.  I also was searching a 2 to 4 months back.  If you see one that I didn't mention please add to this thread.

 

Blinding Light (and I think there's two others in the same series? Maybe dim something...) are on my informal list already, based on a recommendation elsewhere.

Galaxies Unbound, which I also looked at, looks like it's in dev? If it's a mature planet pack and I'm just misreading the thread, I'll have to give it a try.

Alternis Kerbol Rekerjiggered (if that's what you're talking about) seems to entirely overhaul the Kerbol system, which means it's out of the running (although it looks hella cool)

Ditto for Beyond Home, I'm sure - and again, it looks like an extremely cool concept, just not what I'm shooting for here. It's actually on my "maybe try later" list.

As for Extrasolar... it looks great in theory, but I'm always suspicious of a mod that says "do not use CKAN" - it gives me the vague feeling that it's probably badly behaved in some way. And it's especially grating since I recently (finally) started using CKAN. ;p

 

Fortunately Kopernicus has a version released for 1.10.1, so I shouldn't have any problems running planet packs that are just planet packs - according to the dev over there, compatibility for basic configs is surprisingly decent (one user reported running a pack from 0.23!)

I appreciate the recommendations though - as you can see, there's more than a few of them that I'd already stumbled across, but you came up with at least one that I didn't. There's just so many planet mods out there that it's a lot of searching to find them all, and a thread like this would hopefully let people suggest the ones they use if they fit my requirements.

 

 

[etoanrish]

Thanks for the reply. if you see any others please add them to the thread. I found three or four more but it didn't seem like they matched what you are asking about. They only modify the base system and don't add any stars. . Looks like other mods are in development. Maybe someone can tell us more when they see this thread.

Galaxies Unbound works well as is. I consider it a mature planet pack. Kinda fun. 

There are planet packs which do not seem complete at all, as if the person started work but didn't bring it to a playable level. One clue is no description in cover page, like here's a list of planets with info, and there are not many comments by users.

Anyway, hope there will be more people commenting on this thread. 

What planet packs have you found interesting, everyone?

[OhioBob]

On 7/30/2020 at 1:59 PM, etmoonshade said:

• Leaves the stock planets alone

That's not JNSQ.  While the stock bodies all exist in JNSQ, they are completely redone with new stats and textures.
 

On 7/30/2020 at 1:59 PM, etmoonshade said:

• Sticks to adding planets and/or stars (e.g. JNSQ/Logical Resources changing ore distributions is an example of something that messes with things - if I want extra features, I'll find another mod)

Rational Resources in JNSQ is optional.  You don't have to install it.
 

On 7/30/2020 at 1:59 PM, etmoonshade said:

• Provides a new star(s) to travel to

In addition to what other have said, there's also Grannus Expansion Pack.  It adds a second star with a family of planets and moons.  It can also be used with the stock solar system and OPM.  An installation of OPM + GEP adds OPM to the stock solar system with GEP as a binary star/solar system orbiting Kerbol.
 

Edited August 1, 2020 by OhioBob

[etmoonshade]

10 minutes ago, OhioBob said:

That's not JNSQ.  While the stock bodies all exist in JNSQ, they are completely redone with new stats and textures.
 

Rational Resources in JNSQ is optional.  You don't have to install it.
 

In addition to what other have said, there's also Grannus Expansion Pack.  It adds a second star with a family of planets and moons.  It can also be used with the stock solar system and OPM.  An installation of OPM + GEP adds OPM to the stock solar system with GEP as a binary star/solar system orbiting Kerbol.
 

Yeah, like many of the more extensive planet mods, JNSQ seems neat - it just changes gameplay bits in ways that I don't particularly want to deal with. 

Not installing various optional items isn't that much of a problem - it's maintaining that not-installed state through updates, etc.

KSPI-E is an example of something that annoys me with this (and I'd dump the damnable thing if it weren't so much fun otherwise) - lots of bundled patches and other stuff, and I don't want most of it. It's usually an extra 30 minutes to an hour to field strip it so it doesn't do weird and unexpected stuff to my game.

I actually grabbed GPP because someone recommended it as fitting these criteria, and imagine my surprise when all my Kerbals got renamed!* Stripping out all the extra stuff is possible, but again - whenever it gets updated, I'm going to have to go through and remove all the bundled stuff if I install with CKAN. This one's also probably going out the window once I grab some other planet packs, just to reduce my maintenance load. As I said elsewhere, chalk one up for manual installation I guess - that's how I've was doing it since KSP 0.7.

I'll have to check out GEP. I had a recommendation for it from elsewhere, but I was compiling info before starting to download extra stuff (especially based on my experience with GPP.)

 

* Among other things - lots of other things :V  To be fair, diving into the install instructions may have alerted me to this issue, but I made the mistake of switching over to CKAN shortly before starting to think about planet mods...

[OhioBob]

20 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

I'll have to check out GEP. I had a recommendation for it from elsewhere, but I was compiling info before starting to download extra stuff (especially based on my experience with GPP.)

GEP is pretty nonintrusive.  It's designed to plugin simply with other planet packs without really changing anything.  The only thing I can think of where you might see a difference is that GEP includes a plugin called Sigma TweakChutes.  It fixes what I think are some bugs in the way stock parachutes work.  The only place it might affect you in stock KSP is landing at high elevations on Duna.  Stock parachutes full deploy when they get to a certain height above the terrain.  They do this whether the pressure limit for semi-deployment has been met or not.  TweakChutes stops this.  Parachutes won't full deploy unless they have first semi-deployed (just makes sense).  This is used by GEP because one of the GEP bodies is designed so that drogue chutes work, but not main chutes.  It's intended to create a Mars-like landing experience.
 

20 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

As I said elsewhere, chalk one up for manual installation I guess - that's how I've was doing it since KSP 0.7.

I always manually install.  I tried CKAN once and didn't like it.  I trust myself to do things right more than I trust CKAN.
 

Edited August 1, 2020 by OhioBob

[etmoonshade]

This is making me think now. Is there a mod that allows you to block another mod and/or .cfg from being loaded? My problem here isn't the initial work to clean up a mod, it's the work to maintain it after updating it. If I could tell KSP the equivalent of ![WarpPlugin\Patches\USI_NF_Mode.cfg] or ![GEP\TweakChutes], it'd make life a lot easier.

One part of me wants to make that a request on the MM thread. Another part of me realizes that it'll probably be used for nefarious purposes by people who think their mod is THE most important and perfect thing in the world, and anyone who wants to play things a different way is wrong and should be prevented from doing so. :V

[Lisias]

13 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

This is making me think now. Is there a mod that allows you to block another mod and/or .cfg from being loaded?

You can try not installing it...

 

13 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

My problem here isn't the initial work to clean up a mod, it's the work to maintain it after updating it. If I could tell KSP the equivalent of ![WarpPlugin\Patches\USI_NF_Mode.cfg] or ![GEP\TweakChutes], it'd make life a lot easier.

I kinda "solved" this problem shoving some patches on my __LOCAL stunt with :FINAL on them.

It helped me to solved some problems on the field, as Fuel Switches being shoved on parts that already had Fuel Switches.

It's a bit worksome to craft that stunts, but once it is made right, they are pretty convenient.

[etoanrish]

Wow, lot of alphabet things there.  What is: JNSQ, KSPI-E,  MM thread and GPP? If they are planet packs, do you have a link, or I could look them up once I know the meaning.

Thanks in advance. etoanrish

[etmoonshade]

31 minutes ago, Lisias said:

You can try not installing it...

:V

I mean, if I'm installing stuff by hand, sure. What's another couple of hours of work when it takes me a day to download all the new versions by going to each thread individually? I have tasted the fruit of CKAN though, and it is very tasty.

 

31 minutes ago, Lisias said:

I kinda "solved" this problem shoving some patches on my __LOCAL stunt with :FINAL on them.

It helped me to solved some problems on the field, as Fuel Switches being shoved on parts that already had Fuel Switches.

It's a bit worksome to craft that stunts, but once it is made right, they are pretty convenient.

The problem here is that I don't want to remove or modify a single part or even a group of parts - I want to prevent something from being loaded in the first place, or possibly revert changes that were made.

I could certainly go through and remove the TweakChutes module (or whatever it's called) with MM if it's added to all parachutes... unless the patch provided there deletes the stock 'chute module first? And even if it just modifies the stock 'chute module, I'm still left with one extra .dll loaded that I'm not using, right?

I imagine I could create a patch that's the inverse of a .cfg, but that leaves me with a problem if that .cfg is ever updated - suddenly, there's something that's scaled to 1% power that I'm not expecting, and I need to go diff the configs and edit it.

23 minutes ago, etoanrish said:

Wow, lot of alphabet things there.  What is: JNSQ, KSPI-E,  MM thread and GPP? If they are planet packs, do you have a link, or I could look them up once I know the meaning.

Thanks in advance. etoanrish

FWIW, most of these should come up on a search even with the TLAs*.

JNSQ is a planet pack that very much doesn't fit into the paradigm I've described here. Stands for Je Ne Sais Quoi, although I'm not even bothering with the various accent marks.

MM is Module Manager, which is bundled with a whole LOT of mods. Makes it really easy to tweak things, and a lot of mods seem to use it for compatibility.

KSPI-E is KSP Interstellar Expanded, a mod that adds a crapton of near and far future tech (mostly centered around power and propulsion.) Probably one of the most complex mods out there, and has a learning curve that makes Dwarf Fortress look like the Greater Flats of Minmus.

GPP is Galileo's Planet Pack, another one that doesn't fit my requirements but I ended up installing it anyway due to a bad recommendation. Actually the predecessor to JNSQ as far as I can tell. Again, good and detailed - but it adds a bunch of stuff that I don't want, which is what I'm asking about disabling above.

Edit: There's a fair number of acronyms that you can hold your mouse over, and it'll tell you what they mean. MM is one of those, although the remainder you asked about aren't. Just a tip for when you're browsing the forum though.

* Three-letter acronyms, even if only one of them has three letters 

Edited August 2, 2020 by etmoonshade

[Lisias]

48 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

I mean, if I'm installing stuff by hand, sure. What's another couple of hours of work when it takes me a day to download all the new versions by going to each thread individually

Or use KSP-AVC . it warns you about new versions, and on a click you are directed to where to download it.

 

48 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

 I have tasted the fruit of CKAN though, and it is very tasty.

And yet, you ended up going back to manualy doing things because you don't want what they are installing automatically on your KSP.

If you want things your way, you probably need to do it yourself. If you prefer that someone else do it for you, he will do it his way, unless you convince him otherwise. How to do it?

 

48 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

The problem here is that I don't want to remove or modify a single part or even a group of parts - I want to prevent something from being loaded in the first place, or possibly revert changes that were made.

Don't install it!

Perhaps the problem you have is diferent you describes? You want to prevent that something be patched on some parts, but still be available to others?

 

48 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

I could certainly go through and remove the TweakChutes module (or whatever it's called) with MM if it's added to all parachutes... unless the patch provided there deletes the stock 'chute module first? And even if it just modifies the stock 'chute module, I'm still left with one extra .dll loaded that I'm not using, right?

The approach I took was to undo the unwanted patches, but it can be cumbersome because you usually needs to patch back the original values - what usually demands to have a copy of the ModuleManager.ConfigCache before you installed the thing you want to second guess. Since I do control my KSP using mercurial, it's easy to me.

What you want, I think, is a fork of the thing customized to your needs. Even Gentoo and its very custimizable portage ends up forcing you to accept some things - unless you write your own package.

 

48 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

I imagine I could create a patch that's the inverse of a .cfg, but that leaves me with a problem if that .cfg is ever updated - suddenly, there's something that's scaled to 1% power that I'm not expecting, and I need to go diff the configs and edit it. 

Well, this is the path I ended up taking. I needed some tools to help me on that, and it's indeed a bit cumbersome sometimes. But I couldn't find any other way.

[OhioBob]

2 hours ago, etmoonshade said:

I could certainly go through and remove the TweakChutes module (or whatever it's called) with MM if it's added to all parachutes... unless the patch provided there deletes the stock 'chute module first? And even if it just modifies the stock 'chute module, I'm still left with one extra .dll loaded that I'm not using, right?

TweakChutes just adds a module to the parts that can be easily removed with a MM patch.

@PART:HAS[@MODULE[TweakChute]]:FINAL
{
	!MODULE[TweakChute]{}
}

 

[etmoonshade]

47 minutes ago, Lisias said:

Or use KSP-AVC . it warns you about new versions, and on a click you are directed to where to download it.

 

And yet, you ended up going back to manualy doing things because you don't want what they are installing automatically on your KSP.

If you want things your way, you probably need to do it yourself. If you prefer that someone else do it for you, he will do it his way, unless you convince him otherwise. How to do it?

 

Don't install it!

Perhaps the problem you have is diferent you describes? You want to prevent that something be patched on some parts, but still be available to others?

 

The approach I took was to undo the unwanted patches, but it can be cumbersome because you usually needs to patch back the original values - what usually demands to have a copy of the ModuleManager.ConfigCache before you installed the thing you want to second guess. Since I do control my KSP using mercurial, it's easy to me.

What you want, I think, is a fork of the thing customized to your needs. Even Gentoo and its very custimizable portage ends up forcing you to accept some things - unless you write your own package.

 

Well, this is the path I ended up taking. I needed some tools to help me on that, and it's indeed a bit cumbersome sometimes. But I couldn't find any other way.

I'm not specifically talking about discovering new versions of mods. When I get back into KSP (which can be anywhere from months to years between it happening,) I work(ed?) from a spreadsheet and just download everything again since almost everything I've got has new versions.

Ultimately, it sounds like the simplest solution is indeed to just "don't install it." An easier solution would be nice though, one that lets me continue to use CKAN and blacklist the stuff I don't want to install.

Hell, maybe that's really a feature request for the CKAN devs now that I think of it - a blacklist option for installs that lets you say "For this mod, I don't want you to copy this particular file/set of files/folder"

(in fact, I've just opened an issue in CKAN to request this exact functionality)

Just now, OhioBob said:

TweakChutes just adds a module to the parts that can be easily removed with a MM patch.

@PART:HAS[@MODULE[TweakChute]]:FINAL
{
	!MODULE[TweakChute]{}
}

 

That's fair - I'm just looking for a more generalized solution. 

[Lisias]

58 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

Ultimately, it sounds like the simplest solution is indeed to just "don't install it." An easier solution would be nice though, one that lets me continue to use CKAN and blacklist the stuff I don't want to install.

Things are clearer to me now. You want "on the fly" customisations of the distribution packages, selectively preventing parts (or dependencies) of the package to be applied. I can see your point, but I also see the package maintainer's point of view: they probably aren't going to give support for instalments customised this way. What's probably not a problem for you.

Oddly enough, in the end what would really solve your problem is a personal fork of the thing. I think you will still need to maintain your black-list on a release to release basis to a point you may prefer to do it manually again and save the burden of fixing the blacklist after having to debug the instalment when something had changed.

[etmoonshade]

1 minute ago, Lisias said:

Things are clearer to me now. You want "on the fly" customisations of the distribution packages, selectively preventing parts (or dependencies) of the package to be applied. I can see your point, but I also see the package maintainer's point of view: they probably aren't going to give support for instalments customised this way. What's probably not a problem for you.

Oddly enough, in the end what would really solve your problem is a personal fork of the thing. I think you will still need to maintain your black-list on a release to release basis to a point you may prefer to do it manually again and save the burden of fixing the blacklist after having to debug the instalment when something had changed.

Oh yeah, that's the real rub. I expect resistance to the suggestion because it'll be one more thing blamed on CKAN. And indeed, I like to think that I'm clear on when I've fiddled with an install if I'm asking for support. 

I don't think that a simple file/folder-based blacklist would really need a lot of maintenance - at least with all the mods I've seen, even if stuff changes within a mod, most of the patch filenames and mod folder names stay consistent. If you're curious how I envision a blacklist working, you can see the issue I opened with CKAN.

[JadeOfMaar]

4 hours ago, etmoonshade said:

GPP is Galileo's Planet Pack, another one that doesn't fit my requirements but I ended up installing it anyway due to a bad recommendation.

Somebody never noticed GPP_Secondary. It's an optional mod that makes GPP: into a remote star system; not delete the stock planets. Knowing that, the recommendation is very good in your case. (Just be sure to delete its KSC++ stuff. You won't need it, and it has some recently reported issues that need fixing under Secondary mode).

As far as keeping up with game updates is concerned, you're better off learning to not jump on the KSP release hype train, and stick with whatever good version of KSP for a long time. You seem like you have a very simple and straightforward vision for your game, so I'm sure that for you, the "new features" hype trains aren't worth your time. Say you start a game in 1.9. Don't update until 1.11 or 1.12 or a bug somehow occurs that ruins your playthrough. I've seen some nasty bugs come about in 1.x.0 releases then a 1.x.1 hotfix has to rush out after.

• 1.5.0 had the epic drag cube system failure
• 1.6.0 conflicted with ModuleManager
• 1.9.0 I think reverted a major issue that cropped up with wheels, again, but introduced the Atlas shader and its GPU-saturating goodness
• 1.10.0... well, a few serious things had to be fixed by 1.10.1

Notice that trend and resist getting into the flow of putting up with that.

10 hours ago, etmoonshade said:

As for Extrasolar... it looks great in theory, but I'm always suspicious of a mod that says "do not use CKAN" - it gives me the vague feeling that it's probably badly behaved in some way. And it's especially grating since I recently (finally) started using CKAN. ;p

Where Extrasolar is concerned, it does misbehave with its visuals. I found an issue where its EVE configs will break those of another planet mod and I had to hack it somewhere. My case was special as I had GPP involved. So maybe the conflict is triggered by Extrasolar meeting a system replacer.

Galaxies Unbound is very much WIP, though it releases in sections. Consider each section (each star system) of GU as a full release and stable enough to add to your main game. @StarCrusher96 takes absolute care to make his mod, and there is no other planet mod that promises both size and quality like his.

Edited August 2, 2020 by JadeOfMaar

[etmoonshade]

3 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Somebody never noticed GPP_Secondary. It's an optional mod that makes GPP: into a remote star system; not delete the stock planets. Knowing that, the recommendation is very good in your case. (Just be sure to delete its KSC++ stuff. You won't need it, and it has some recently reported issues that need fixing under Secondary mode).

Oh, I absolutely noticed that, and grabbed it. What I didn't notice until I ran it is that the CKAN installation renames Kerbals, retextures Kerbals and the navball, has a bundled mod to model temperatures for spacesuits, and removes all the loading screens except for those included with GPP.

As for the rest - those are great tips. I just have a bad habit of deciding to play KSP again immediately after an update and never think to go to a previous version until after I'm well into grabbing mods.

[JadeOfMaar]

It's easy to get caught off guard by what GPP changes. The alternate universe concept (Kerbin never existed. Kerbalkind was born somewhere else and called itself something else, "Gaeleans") is the core of GPP and is something that no other system replacer has done. All other loading screens get removed because they feature planets and moons that no longer exist.

7 minutes ago, etmoonshade said:

I just have a bad habit of deciding to play KSP again immediately after an update

From what I've seen on Twitch streams, far too many players have that habit.

[etmoonshade]

1 minute ago, JadeOfMaar said:

It's easy to get caught off guard by what GPP changes. The alternate universe concept (Kerbin never existed. Kerbalkind was born somewhere else and called itself something else, "Gaeleans") is the core of GPP and is something that no other system replacer has done. All other loading screens get removed because they feature planets and moons that no longer exist.

Yeah, considering that I asked for the same "requirements" that I posted in my OP here, I was really not expecting it to be pretty much the exact opposite of what I asked for. I won't knock the concept in general, but it's definitely not what I was looking for and finding out that it changes a lot of stuff (after the fact) required digging into the install Wiki. It really wasn't obvious from the OP.

[ssd21345]

Blinding Light Levels wont work with 1.9 or above kopericus atm

and dont forget minor planets expansion, which is essentially OPM but for more outer.

You have Real Exoplanets, which the name tells what it's.. Exoplanets, no moons. Automatically scale down to stock scale if RSS isn't installed.

kerbal galaxy still exist btw, but I suspect it wont work with 1.9 or above kopercius for same reason as Blinding Light Levels: wormhole cfg need to be changed

To Boldly Go is also an interesting mod.

If you like Galaxy Unbound, you might like The World Beyond.

Other World Reboot development stopped tho...

@GrandProtectorDark have archives of most of the planet mods... Maybe ask him for recommendation? And he has a black hole mods anyway.

Edited August 2, 2020 by ssd21345

[Shawn Kerman]

7 hours ago, ssd21345 said:

Blinding Light Levels wont work with 1.9 or above kopericus atm

and dont forget minor planets expansion, which is essentially OPM but for more outer.

You have Real Exoplanets, which the name tells what it's.. Exoplanets, no moons. Automatically scale down to stock scale if RSS isn't installed.

kerbal galaxy still exist btw, but I suspect it wont work with 1.9 or above kopercius for same reason as Blinding Light Levels: wormhole cfg need to be changed

To Boldly Go is also an interesting mod.

If you like Galaxy Unbound, you might like The World Beyond.

Other World Reboot development stopped tho...

@GrandProtectorDark have archives of most of the planet mods... Maybe ask him for recommendation? And he has a black hole mods anyway.

1. I have a copy of all working light levels for 1.9 and 1.10 if you'd like that.

2. KG3 has a issue with the textures which I'm trying to fix due to the dev being away/inactive. KEX has a new thread which I will post soon, it has updated wormholes for 1.9.

3. TWB is massive and I don't recommend playing with EVE or scatterer unless you have a beefy pc (like me)

4. I'm pretty sure OWR still works in newish versions, you'd have to check

5.  GPD and  I hold the most archives for planet mods ( I have 1400 bodies loaded in ksp 1.10 so they all work :D). I can't determine who has more but  I can always rummage though my collection  to find something you might like anytime.

Edited August 2, 2020 by Shawn Kerman

[etmoonshade]

10 hours ago, ssd21345 said:

Blinding Light Levels wont work with 1.9 or above kopericus atm

and dont forget minor planets expansion, which is essentially OPM but for more outer.

You have Real Exoplanets, which the name tells what it's.. Exoplanets, no moons. Automatically scale down to stock scale if RSS isn't installed.

kerbal galaxy still exist btw, but I suspect it wont work with 1.9 or above kopercius for same reason as Blinding Light Levels: wormhole cfg need to be changed

To Boldly Go is also an interesting mod.

If you like Galaxy Unbound, you might like The World Beyond.

Other World Reboot development stopped tho...

@GrandProtectorDark have archives of most of the planet mods... Maybe ask him for recommendation? And he has a black hole mods anyway.

Right, Blinding Light Levels and Low Light Levels. I knew I'd seen those somewhere.

Thanks for the recommendations - I'll take a look at them and see what's up.

 

3 hours ago, Shawn Kerman said:

1. I have a copy of all working light levels for 1.9 and 1.10 if you'd like that.

2. KG3 has a issue with the textures which I'm trying to fix due to the dev being away/inactive. KEX has a new thread which I will post soon, it has updated wormholes for 1.9.

3. TWB is massive and I don't recommend playing with EVE or scatterer unless you have a beefy pc (like me)

4. I'm pretty sure OWR still works in newish versions, you'd have to check

5.  GPD and  I hold the most archives for planet mods ( I have 1400 bodies loaded in ksp 1.10 so they all work :D). I can't determine who has more but  I can always rummage though my collection  to find something you might like anytime.

#5 is disgusting in a very impressive way. I love it.

I appreciate the offer, but I probably don't need to go as far as raiding archives of 0.23 era mods.

I'm overall less worried about having a lot of planets than having sufficient planets. I'm trying to balance out my game to run thin on the science points, in such a way that it keeps me using the earlier rocket stuff for longer, and requiring visiting another star (or exhausting the Kerbol system) to start getting the chunky science like the KSPI-E fusion stuff, warp drive, etc.

I'm not sure if I'll succeed, but that's what I'm shooting for.

[DeadJohn]

Outer Planets Mod OPM and Grannus Expansion Pack GEP have already been mentioned, and work well together.

For any playthrough, and especially when using planet packs, I strongly recommend sticking to a single KSP version. I think Kopernicus is stable with 1.9.1 (I haven't personally tested it) so that's a good starting place. Don't play directly from the Steam install folder, make a copy instead, so there's no risk of a forced update breaking your game.

Note that the GEP dwarf star is very far away. If you don't use a mod for FTL or off-world construction, each new mission from Kerbin needs a century of timewarp. I like FTL Drive Continued for extreme distances. You still have to get your 1st flight there the hard way with conventional propulsion, but then you can teleport subsequent missions to meet that 1st flight. Gravity wells and ship mass are constraints that still keep some challenge while avoiding the timewarp boredom.

 

[ssd21345]

I just use interstellar warp drive stand-alone

alternative to ftl drive: ESLD Jump Beacons

 

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by ssd21345