Better than Ever

[Belthize]

I haven't played in about 3 years and I haven't played seriously since way back with the Better Than Manned mod by flowerchild.  Every so often I'd come back and look for a decent overhaul of the science tree from a progression perspective and ultimately end up in Kerbal release version vs mod version hell.  Something would require something that was or wasn't updated with some recent release of kerbal.   I'd poke at it for a while and ultimately wander off.

I came back and poked around today but the landscape has changed so much in the past 3 -7 years.    I really liked BTM because it gave purpose to building and unlocking tech unlike the stock game which was sort of gimmicky and repetitive.   I also really like the idea behind things like MKS to give purpose to advancing and build remote bases (though last time I played MKS and stock were intersecting in new ways).

So is there a mod or tightly knit series of mods (e.g. a modpack) that are stable and revisit the campaign form of the game that turns it into a difficult process of shepherding money, doing missions and advancing science in a meaningful way beyond driving around the space station in a space car with lots of weather instruments attached.

Edit:  Looks like Probes Before Crew is close to what I'm looking for.  I think I ran into that last time I was around though it was very much in its infancy then.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Belthize

[610yesnolovely]

Unkerballed Start (UKS) is also good and supports 1.12.3 - it's what I use. Use it with Contract Configurator, Strategia and Career Evolution contract pack (plus others) and that gets a more probe then manned science progress.