What is the best mod you don't use, and why?

[Superfluous J]

I was going through the list of popular mods, and came across one of my all-time favorites, Chatterer. I realized, I never use it. Why? Because when recording videos I need to be in control of the sounds sometimes, and some chatter at the exact wrong time could hamper my editing. I hate editing, and want to hamper it as little as possible. And so, I don't use Chatterer.

Then I wondered if others had similarly silly reasons to avoid similarly awesome mods.

[RealKerbal3x]

I'm not sure the reason for it is 'silly', but I don't use Restock.

I've played around with it in the past and its models and textures are fantastic. However, I don't use it mainly because I dislike its 'we're obviously better than stock' philosophy, but also because it doesn't really touch the DLCs and therefore creates artistic inconsistencies - the very thing it's meant to fix.

Plus, I like the stock revamps that have been done recently and, as I generally like keeping my installations as stock as possible, I tend to stick with those

[Superfluous J]

20 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

I'm not sure the reason for it is 'silly', but I don't use Restock

That is not a silly reason at all. At least,I hope it's not because I agree with you

I do use Restock myself but I avoided Better Than Starting Manned entirely because I didn't agree that its name was the truth.

[RealKerbal3x]

1 minute ago, Superfluous J said:

That is not a silly reason at all. At least,I hope it's not because I agree with you

I do use Restock myself but I avoided Better Than Starting Manned entirely because I didn't agree that its name was the truth.

Yeah, I'm generally not much of a fan of mods that proclaim that what they do is somehow objectively better than how the stock game does it. Your game, your choice - it's up to the user to decide. 

[KawaiiLucy]

Not playing a mod because of it's name ... no words but: don't judge a book by its cover, but by its content?

[The Aziz]

Uhh, Snacks. 

You'd think (and so did I) "it's the simplest life support mod out there, it should be so easy!" But I can't do even that. Somehow, the estimates of snacks needed for missions were always wrong and too low, and my Kerbals were unconscious in the critical moments of return every time.

[Scarecrow]

There's one that a lot of people seem to use, but I've never even tried it, and I can't remember what it's called, but it basically does everything for you.  A bit like an auto Jeb.  I've always felt that KSP has a lot it can teach you about space and Newtonian physics etc., and that by using an auto tool, it would remove some of that learning process, and thus some of the enjoyment from playing KSP

[thekerbaldude123]

For some reason, I never use Kerbal Engineer Redux, or any programs that calculate Delta V, or TWR. I usually just pull up a calculator and start chucking away at calculations. I don't know why I make it hard for myself, but it adds some  fun and challenge to designing a rocket.

[RealKerbal3x]

20 minutes ago, Scarecrow said:

There's one that a lot of people seem to use, but I've never even tried it, and I can't remember what it's called, but it basically does everything for you.  A bit like an auto Jeb.  I've always felt that KSP has a lot it can teach you about space and Newtonian physics etc., and that by using an auto tool, it would remove some of that learning process, and thus some of the enjoyment from playing KSP

MechJeb? Yeah, that one's a bit controversial. I've never used it.

17 minutes ago, thekerbaldude123 said:

For some reason, I never use Kerbal Engineer Redux, or any programs that calculate Delta V, or TWR. I usually just pull up a calculator and start chucking away at calculations. I don't know why I make it hard for myself, but it adds some  fun and challenge to designing a rocket.

The stock game has been able to show dV, TWR and a bunch of other data for a while, so I haven't used a mod like KER in some time.

[Fierce Wolf]

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

MechJeb

This. I don't want the game to play by itself

[Clamp-o-Tron]

Realism Overhaul is one of the best mods ever. Bar none. I don't use it because I prefer to retain stock balance (albeit on JNSQ scale with a ton of difficulty mods), but it seems like an all-around cohesive and balanced experience unlike my current install that is an amalgamation of dozens of separate mods that were never intended to play together.

[MR L A]

3 hours ago, Fierce Wolf said:

This. I don't want the game to play by itself

Really? Even after 2000 hours of gameplay you don't want the ability to launch your standard-rocket-standard-payload vehicle without having to guide it through the atmosphere for the millionth time? For me, MJ allows me to play the fun parts of the game and not get bored of the repetative stuff.

That, plus designing something around MJ and tweaking the settings is a whole new learning curve and actually teaches you a fair few things that you may not have realised before. Plus MJ cannot be trusted... so you essentially baby sit anyway and double check everything it attempts. All MJ really does is save you from making a few dozen clicks here and there.

With that said, I was staunchly against using MJ until I was confident in my own ability to get anywhere in the system or dock. And lets be honest, mastering those things really doesn't take long. 

To answer OP though... Scatterer. My computer is far to slow to use it.

[Chequers]

I have a strange aversion to using any mods, in any game, regardless of how good they are. And I'm not sure why, though I'm sure it's a silly reason.

I have nothing against mods themselves - or anyone using them. I just never have, nor can bring myself to do it. Whether it's a graphical overhaul in a dated game like Morrowind. Or a UI mod that makes objectively 'better' changes. Even if it changes nothing about the core gameplay, or is simply an ease-of-life addition.

I have a very early memory of my brother and I having an identical LEGO model - and once completed, he added a load of extra parts to his because he thought it looked better - and I was repulsed by it. 

I blame that. 

Any psychologists here?

Edited December 7, 2020 by Chequers

[Altaille]

I would say Kerbalism. It looks amazing, but its complexity is scaring me a bit. Incomplete compatibility with Nertea's nuclear reactors and other mods in general is also worrying me.

[Trann]

5 hours ago, MR L A said:

Really? Even after 2000 hours of gameplay you don't want the ability to launch your standard-rocket-standard-payload vehicle without having to guide it through the atmosphere for the millionth time? For me, MJ allows me to play the fun parts of the game and not get bored of the repetative stuff.

I like GravityTurn for this: handles atmo and lets me get into space where I want to play.  Rendezvous and docking is still fun for me so I don't want to automate it.

I think MechJeb would be the meta-tool that's great but I don't use.  KSP Interstellar is probably the in-game mod that's probably great but not for me: I get impatient with waiting for alignments and burns within the existing system already.  

[Superfluous J]

10 hours ago, Scarecrow said:

I can't remember what it's called, but it basically does everything for you.

Mechjeb is a very good and well-made mod that I also do not use. Though "I want to play the game myself" isn't a very silly reason in my book

5 hours ago, MR L A said:

Really? Even after 2000 hours of gameplay you don't want the ability to launch your standard-rocket-standard-payload vehicle without having to guide it through the atmosphere for the millionth time?

Yeah, really. I'm not one of those players who make a standard rocket with a standard payload, though. Pretty much everything I launch, it's the first time I've ever launched that exact thing and I built it in the VAB minutes before.

Sometimes I'll use GravityTurn, but even when I have it installed, I frequently don't bother. It's generally quicker to launch it myself than let GT take a couple tries to get it right, and it's not like I'm going to ever launch the ship again.

If I *was* going to do a "standard launcher standard payload" type career I'd just save myself the CPU cycles and go the route of Kerbal Space Transport System.

 

[jimmymcgoochie]

I’m torn between Extraplanetary Launchpads and KSPIE- EL because I once spent many hours manually dismantling an old base on Minmus using KIS/KAS and storing it in a big ship to take back to Kerbin, involving several illogical explosions and at least one Kerbal that got hurled off into space for no apparent reason, whereas EL would have allowed me to create something useful by recycling the parts; and KSPIE because it’s tremendously complex and I don’t tend to use planet packs with other solar systems to need it. And if I had to pick a third, the new Far Future Tech which looks ridiculously good but again is overkill for stock or even JNSQ scale solar systems.

[Corona688]

Kerbal Alarm Clock.  I just haven't gotten around to installing it.  And the new warp-to-node feature partly obsoletes it.

Chatterer got old when I started to recognize each radio clip individually.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Corona688

[Beriev]

I've played since 0.19, and I love the old school sense of playing with stock parts almost entirely, without either DLC or parts mods. I do concede though, that I've inevitably added EPL and/or a late game engines mod (like KSP-IE) to just about all of my careers, as I feel they add a dimension that lengthens the game that is just not possible with stock.

[theJesuit]

On 12/8/2020 at 9:47 AM, MR L A said:

Really? Even after 2000 hours of gameplay you don't want the ability to launch your standard-rocket-standard-payload vehicle without having to guide it through the atmosphere for the millionth time?

I use kOS for this.

For the point of this exercise the mod i don't use one would be CRP.  I go to pangs to rejig mods to not need it including releasing my own mods.

Peace.

[Bej Kerman]

On 12/7/2020 at 11:25 AM, RealKerbal3x said:

However, I don't use it mainly because I dislike its 'we're obviously better than stock' philosophy

I think they have a good reason to think that. The stock work has been spotty, slow and there are gaps in the pars selection that have yet to be fixed.

[RealKerbal3x]

1 minute ago, Bej Kerman said:

I think they have a good reason to think that. The stock work has been spotty, slow and there are gaps in the pars selection that have yet to be fixed.

I agree, the stock revamp process has been moving fairly slowly. But in terms of the actual art, I disagree with the way they proclaim that their work is obviously superior to whatever the developers can do. I think that should be left to the user's opinion.

[Guest]

Another vote for Chatterer here, although simply because the mere thought of it repulses me. I'm not a huge fan of the kerbal voices at all so to purposefully make myself listen to them all the time would be too much to bear.

Honourable mentions for RO (I think that sets solar system as it is in real life including the scale). Seems anti-fun and I actually enjoy the fantasy element of the kerbal universe (except the voices). Ditto kerbalism, snacks, mks, etc that turn the game into a chore. 

[Tsar_bomba]

I sometimes install large mods like kspie that add engines, just to be like “I want to build a stock ship to take this oversized payload to orbit”. I never want to do that when I don’t have mods, but...

[Empiro]

More of a set of mods, but it's RSS/RO/RP1 for me. I've been playing KSP for a long while, and I really want to take things to the next level of realism. However I've been kept away because of the complicated set up, the fact that the mish mash of mods don't really support the latest KSP, the bugs and conflicts, and the general jankiness (how they handle the axial tilt for example -- yes I know it's a KSP limitation, but still).