[1.11.1] - Better Early Tree

[GonDragon]

Better Early Tree

Download: Github - SpaceDock

This mod tries to bring the concept of an uncrewed start, but it also tries to maintain the stock-like vibe of the tree. At the very begining, the nodes arrange parts in function of what the player will want to do next, to make a seamless, funny and grindless transition from Early game, to mid game. This tech tree is also designed to be used alongside both DLCs, and ReStock+... It may used without those, however, it may lead to some "gaps" in parts niches.

As I wanted the tree to be the most similar to stock as posible, I tried to minimize the amount of rearangements. This also lead to make most of the moded part packs compatible with this tree out of the box. However, these are the major changes.

Spoiler

 

Start

The first node is very basic. Enough things to make a simple sounding rocket to gain some science and keep going. Aditionaly, the Stayputnik now has an extra node on top, to atach a parachute or a nosecone. For me is important to have a clean and simple first launch on a career mode, because it gives you the oportunity to check if the graphics/performance are ok, and to see if you need to calibrate any other mod.

 

Basic Rocketry

It gives you a few extra rocket parts, enough to make good suborbital jumps.

 

Stability -> Basic Aviation

Stability was move one tier down, and renamed "Basic Aviation". Now, it provides basic parts to make a very simple flying drone.

 

Engineer 101 -> Basic Vehicles

It provides you with enough parts to make a simple autonomous rover. Now, if you feel a little stuck on science, you can drive all around KSC reading a thermometer.

 

General Rocketry

It doesn't changes so much. Provides enough rocket power to reach orbit.

 

Basic Construction

Provides some basics part for... well, construction.

 

Flight Control

Now it also gives you an early access to RCS.

 

Manned Technologies

A pretty underwhelming node, but it does its job. Gives you access to parts that let you do exactly the same thing you were doing, but with kerbals instead of probes.

 

Survivability

It give you parts to enhance the survivability ratio of your probes and kerbals. Also, as the node "Enhanced Survivability" from CTT were deleted, all the parts from other mods that fall under that node, were moved to this one.

 

Subsonic Flight and Robotic Stock Parts

Many parts from the robotic DLC and the stock rotor to flight with "vintage" planes, were moved to fill better niches on the CTT nodes.

 

 

Requeriments

• Module Manager
• Community Tech Tree

 

Recommended Mods

• ReStock and ReStock+

 

Suported Mods (with patches)

• kOS
• Near Future Exploration
• Pebkac Industries: Launch Escape System
• Universal Storage II
• Corvus

Suggested Mods (compatible out of the box)

• Near Future Complete Pack (And other Nertea mods)
• Rational Resources
• Kerbal Reusability Expansion
• ScanSat
• DMagical Science

 

Acknowledgment and License

All the code of the mods is released under an MIT license, and all the multimedia assets on it follows an Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. For more details on the license, check the GitHub repo.

Two of the icons used in this mod came from the Community Tech Tree, were made by Nertea and are distributed under a (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. One of them is modified to fit better.

Edited May 21, 2021 by GonDragon
update

[linuxgurugamer]

Congrats.  Will look at this for inspiration.  I like being able to recommend choices to other people.

(also, first).  :-)

 

Edited January 30, 2021 by linuxgurugamer

[ItsSnowyy]

Good tree

[KawaiiLucy]

Some feedback from trying this in a hard career mode:

As a player who deeply despises driving around the KSC, it is brutal in the beginning. You get barely enough science to unlock SAS, and from there it eases the progression a bit better. Although I was using Interkosmos' experiments, I had only one of them available until unlocking basic science, therefore not impacting science gain in a very noticeable way. One thing I would consider though, is moving the mystery goo down into the "manned technologies" node, as you unlock a huge amount of science parts in that node, a bit too many in my opinion, although if not using Interkosmos and DMagic science this change would be kind of irrelevant (but seriously, who plays without those mods!).

I have to admit that I only built rockets, branching out and roving around or flying would've maybe granted me a few more points here and there, but the time spent on those kinds of missions is dramatically higher than from simple sounding rockets. I believe it took me around 5 sounding rockets, 4 unmanned, 1 manned, before my first orbit, which was manned. From there one unmanned orbit of the mun (without patched conics) and then a manned Mun Landing. From that point on I had basically reasearched all 45 science nodes, and the most important 90 science nodes (propulsion, fuel tanks, exploration, miniaturization and electrics). Totalling a playtime of 3 hours.

A true refreshing experience for early career though, it makes you use parts you wouldn't have before, notably the .625m booster, and the Stayputnik core. being forced into the SAS-less Onion capsule also comes with its challenge. A good point is that you also get a LES along your first capsule, while not forcibly used, is a more sensitive placement in the tree than stock and ctt currently implement. It definitely gave me some flashbacks of RO/RP-1, while being more fun to play, but also easing in manned launches by first doing uncrewed ones. Overall it makes up for a very original and challenging start!

N.B I thought the flea booster would be irrelevant, but the missing science still made me do at least one flight with it.

[GonDragon]

There are some fairly interesting points there.

16 hours ago, KawaiiLucy said:

[...] One thing I would consider though, is moving the mystery goo down into the "manned technologies" node, as you unlock a huge amount of science parts in that node, a bit too many in my opinion, although if not using Interkosmos and DMagic science this change would be kind of irrelevant (but seriously, who plays without those mods!). [...]

Indeed, I think that's a really good idea. The small playtest I did it was without "nerfing" the science, so I didn't noted the difficult there. At some point in the future, I want to make my own fork of "Science Revisited", with some modifications, and one of these are make some science parts "manned", making that these parts can only produce full science if operated by a scientist (even maybe with a bonus acording to the scientist level). So, moving the goo to "manned technologies" would make perfect sense.

Thanks for the Feedback!

[theonegalen]

Nice to see this.

[Apricot]

Corvus command pod is unlocked in Flight Control. This is imbalanced.

[Blasty McBlastblast]

This mod is amazing, and is definitely going into my "must have" mod list. 

Such a simple rearrangement brings common sense to the early game, without unnecessarily changing science or part balance! Bravo @GonDragon

[GonDragon]

On 3/26/2021 at 6:23 PM, Apricot said:

Corvus command pod is unlocked in Flight Control. This is imbalanced.

That's on the Corvus mod. It's where that mod selected its parts to be unlocked. However, I like Gemini-like pods, so I added a small patch to move those parts around to fit better with this tree.

 

Now, changing the subject; I kinda put on the freezer my KSP related projects to invest time in non-KSP related projects... However, with KSP 1.12 some new cool parts arrived. And also some part model revamp, I think? So, I will be looking at those in the weekend, or in the next week.

[Donchielo]

Hi just one question though. 

Why don't you move the Mk1 cockpit in stability? i mean it s almost impossible to build plane overwhise. $

thanks for your mod!

[Probus]

I was playing around with this little mod.  Thanks for making it!  May I suggest a little tweak?  You might want to swap solar panels and batteries around.  If you would like more feedback,  just let us know and we will help you playtest and get it perfected.  Again Thanks a Bunch!

[GonDragon]

Hey! I wanted to do a little update today, but the game refuses to cooperate and it's not even opening right now... On the other hand, I thought that 1.12 was already out, but it seems that it wasn't released yet, so... I guess I'll keep modding stellaris, then?

On 5/26/2021 at 11:45 AM, Donchielo said:

Hi just one question though. 

Why don't you move the Mk1 cockpit in stability? i mean it s almost impossible to build plane overwhise. $

thanks for your mod!

Hey! The idea of Stability (renamed "Basic Aviation") on this tree, it's not to make piloted vehicles, but to make flying drones with the staysputnik. Still, probably I should move the cockpit a little early on the tree,.. so, on the next Update, I will move it to "Flight Control".

 

3 hours ago, Probus said:

I was playing around with this little mod.  Thanks for making it!  May I suggest a little tweak?  You might want to swap solar panels and batteries around.  If you would like more feedback,  just let us know and we will help you playtest and get it perfected.  Again Thanks a Bunch!

Thanks, I always appreciate the feedback! I was thinking on doing another playtest when KSP 1.12 comes out, so I will probably move some things around then.

[dukeseventyone]

I realized this is not the mod that was causing my issue - errant post

Edited June 22, 2021 by dukeseventyone
Realized situation does not apply to this mod

[Neebel]

First of, this is an amazing mod, just started a new save with it. Thanks for making this!

Quick question, do you have some info for us about the next update? 

[GonDragon]

On 7/30/2021 at 2:55 PM, Neebel said:

First of, this is an amazing mod, just started a new save with it. Thanks for making this!

Quick question, do you have some info for us about the next update? 

Yeah! I've been thinking on checking the latest version of KSP this weekend or the next one. So, expect a very very small update soon after that 

[GonDragon]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, GonDragon said:

Yeah! I've been thinking on checking the latest version of KSP this weekend or the next one. So, expect a very very small update soon after that 

So that was a shameless lie, didn't it?

Sorry for that  But I started playing RimWorld that day... and a few days later I started making a mod for it... and another game I play had an update... Plus that I have lot of work this time of the year... so one thing lead to another and... here we are, yet without an update.

 

This mod should work on the latest version, but probably some parts are not where they should... No ETA for an update, but I will try to check this after fixing some issues with my mod for the other game.

 

Sorry again! Fly safe.

[tg626]

So I loaded this up with a new save, but without Community Tech Tree and it appears to be doing what I expected.

Will I run into problems? I don't have much in the way of part mods, kOS, hullcam, FASA launch clamps, and that's about all. 

This so far looks like exactly what I wanted, something more sensible in the early tiers of stock and that's all. (Although it's still perplexing that Kerbals could build even the tier 1 KSC but have no idea what a wheel is, or the ability to go outside. LOL)

[GonDragon]

On 9/23/2021 at 11:38 PM, tg626 said:

So I loaded this up with a new save, but without Community Tech Tree and it appears to be doing what I expected.

Will I run into problems? I don't have much in the way of part mods, kOS, hullcam, FASA launch clamps, and that's about all. 

This so far looks like exactly what I wanted, something more sensible in the early tiers of stock and that's all. (Although it's still perplexing that Kerbals could build even the tier 1 KSC but have no idea what a wheel is, or the ability to go outside. LOL)

Without CTT, some parts would be unavailable. Not many of them, mostly rotors and propellers from the DLC. I'd recommend to use CTT and "Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes", so you can get all the techs, even if you don't make use of most of the CTT tree.

[tg626]

I did exactly that in the interim, as I finally reasoned that it was needed because you had used some of CTT nodes. 

So far I love it, the remaining "wut!?" moments in the tree are baked into the game (thing like kerbals can't seem to use any of the numerous doors to go outside, etc. )

Edited September 30, 2021 by tg626

[linuxgurugamer]

I'll be trying this out in my new career game, looking forward to seeing how it goes

[Arch3rAc3]

Does this works with KSP 1.12?

Edited December 9, 2022 by Arch3rAc3