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Bought KSP on Steam and want to mod it? Do this first!


jimmymcgoochie

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First and foremost:

Don't put mods in the Steam copy of KSP. 

I made the same mistake at first and ended up in the same place many people continue to end up today- KSP suddenly breaks and there's no good reason for it. As it turns out, Steam likes to meddle with KSP's files and while this is usually fine with stock KSP, if you add mods into the equation then there's a good chance something will get corrupted causing a huge list of exceptions in the logs, errors on the screen and a KSP that either doesn't load at all, crashes immediately or runs but is clearly broken. It used to be much worse when the game was getting updates as each update brought with it a significant risk of corrupting the mods (not to mention major updates breaking mods entirely) but that's less of a problem now.

The solution to this problem is very simple: just make a copy of KSP and put the mods in that instead.

1.       Right click KSP in Steam library > browse local files.

2.       Copy KSP/saves/<your save name> and paste that on the desktop.

3.       If you used CKAN to install your mods (and you should!), click File > export modpack and save that to your desktop too. Screenshot your GameData folder with mods installed (even if you use CKAN) so you can check that you’ve reinstalled them all later.

4.       Uninstall all mods from KSP.

5.       Right click KSP in Steam library > properties, disable Steam cloud.

6.       Completely uninstall KSP through Steam.

7.       Reinstall KSP through Steam, right click > Properties > local files > verify integrity of game files. If you want to play a version other than the current release (1.12.5), pick that version in the Betas tab and verify the files once Steam has installed that version.

8.       Run KSP and make sure it loads properly without mods.

9.       Browse local files again, then go up one level (to Steam/steamapps/common) and copy the Kerbal Space Program directory, then paste it where you want to keep it- make sure it’s outside Steam’s folders so it can’t meddle with it in future.

10.   Rename the KSP folder so you know what version it is and what mods you’re using in it (e.g. 1.12.5 JNSQ, 1.7.3 Grand Tour etc.), then add this new copy to CKAN and use the modpack created in step 3 to reinstall all your mods; or reinstall them by hand if you don’t use CKAN. Double-check that all files and folders you had in GameData before uninstalling/reinstalling everything are there again, if not then you’re probably missing some mods.

11.   Move your saves from your desktop into your new KSP copy’s saves folder, run KSP, load save. A warning about vessels having missing parts is usually because a mod is missing or wasn’t installed correctly.

You can make as many copies of KSP as you want, have several copies on different versions of KSP and with different sets of mods in each- CKAN makes this much easier to keep track of, but it’s still possible to do it all yourself. And remember to back up your saves before you uninstall anything!

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