"best" colony mods?

[KerikBalm]

With KSP2 blowing up before clearing the launch tower, I finally want to take a look at KSP colony mods.

What would you recommend?

I'm looking for one that fits well with a mostly stock play style, something with a decent UI, not too complicated (but not tooooo easy in terms of mass of payload required).

Extraplanatary launchpads?

Something else?

My last thought was to just mod in a discoverable launch site somewhere that isn't kerbin

[JadeOfMaar]

@KerikBalm KPBS is the go-to stockalike base parts mod that can do everything, is compatible with several other mods, includes a rover pack, its parts are lightweight and not too big so can be shipped as-is, without needing to build via EL etc.

Planetside is an SSPXr-alike base parts pack. It's rather lacking in parts and features and classifies imo as an "outpost" mod, not a colony mod, but its SSPXr-alike looks are great and includes windmills so you have free energy if you land in atmosphere and are in the outer system where solar panels aren't viable. It includes a rover pack too.

EL, Global Construction or USI Konstruction are off-world construction mods and not colony mods in themselves. They're pretty mandatory when you want to build big once you've landed somewhere. Shipping parts in from Kerbin gets old really fast if you're ambitious or you play on any system scale other than stock.

Kerbal Konstructs was fixed sometime after KSP 1.8 such that off-world KK spawn points don't offset several km into the air... So someone could arrange that if they wanted to. I don't think anyone does this, though. Kinda defeats the point of having planets to travel to if you can just spawn ships and crew there directly from the VAB.

 

Bonus

If you're interested in off-world construction procreation then consider Moar Kerbals. Civilian Population and MKS allow this too but they bring a lot of parts or gameplay mechanics with them. I bet you don't want that.

 

[KerikBalm]

On 5/12/2024 at 4:21 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

@KerikBalm KPBS is the go-to stockalike base parts mod that can do everything, is compatible with several other mods, includes a rover pack, its parts are lightweight and not too big so can be shipped as-is, without needing to build via EL etc.

I have used it before, unless it has changed, it's just a surface outpost mod, with nothing involving construction of new craft. I do like the parts though 

On 5/12/2024 at 4:21 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

Planetside is an SSPXr-alike base parts pack. It's rather lacking in parts and features and classifies imo as an "outpost" mod, not a colony mod, but its SSPXr-alike looks are great and includes windmills so you have free energy if you land in atmosphere and are in the outer system where solar panels aren't viable. It includes a rover pack too.

I think stock parts are sufficient for surface outposts l, so not really what I am looking for. The windmills are interesting, but I plan on modding in my own nuclear reactor.

On 5/12/2024 at 4:21 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

EL, Global Construction or USI Konstruction are off-world construction mods and not colony mods in themselves. They're pretty mandatory when you want to build big once you've landed somewhere. Shipping parts in from Kerbin gets old really fast if you're ambitious or you play on any system scale other than stock.

Yes, these are what I am looking for.

Of the 3, who are the pros and cons?

On 5/12/2024 at 4:21 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

Bonus

If you're interested in off-world construction procreation then consider Moar Kerbals. Civilian Population and MKS allow this too but they bring a lot of parts or gameplay mechanics with them. I bet you don't want that.

 

I may or may not want this mod. Shipping in new kerbals isn't too hard, I can deliver a bunch at once, and don't need to put as much thought into what to send as with ships and other craft 

[JadeOfMaar]

7 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

Of the 3, who are the pros and cons?

I haven't played with all of them so I can't say.

[KspNoobUsernameTaken]

8 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

Yes, these are what I am looking for.

Of the 3, who are the pros and cons?

• Extraplanetary launchpads has the benefit of building anything, anywhere (assuming sufficient resources). Global construction requires you to ship a "starter pack" type object from kerbin for every new  ship you build (no totally independent launch sites)
• USI konstruction doesn't seem to be used much. Even USI itself mostly uses extraplanetary launchpads. 
• EL has by far the most integrations with other mods; kpbs, usi, and a lot more support it. If you want a nice parts pack for EL, try keridian dynamics.

Re: colony mods.

• The main ones I know of are USI (MKS/OKS) & Angel-125's pathfinder mod, with some of his other mods.
• They are compatible with each other too.
• MKS has a special feature: WOLF virtual bases, which reduce lag massively. 
• Pathfinder, from a gameplay perspective, has far better resource storage. Storage can have arbitrary resource combinations, can be switched during flight, can store KIS inventory and resources in varying amounts. Angel-125 omnistorage is the best fuel switcher out there.
  • Also, omniconvertors allow configuration of optimized factories.
• Another benefit of pathfinder is a nice UI for function switching

 

I am actually working on making USI use the backbone functions of Angel-125's mods, but it is a laborious process. Here's a fairly complete integration pack for the two:   

 

Whichever mod you go with, take a look at this mod: https://github.com/gotmachine/PhysicsHold

It will massively reduce lag

On 5/12/2024 at 10:21 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

If you're interested in off-world construction procreation then consider Moar Kerbals. Civilian Population and MKS allow this too but they bring a lot of parts or gameplay mechanics with them. I bet you don't want that.

IIRC, the MKS functionality isn't really complete

[KincaidFrankMF]

On 5/13/2024 at 5:50 PM, KerikBalm said:

Yes, these are what I am looking for.

Another one to add to the list of off-world construction mods is SimpleConstruction. It's essentially a stripped-down version of EL, designed to be easier to use. I haven't used EL, so I can't really compare the two, but SCON works really well  

 

[PicoSpace]

6 hours ago, KincaidFrankMF said:

Another one to add to the list of off-world construction mods is SimpleConstruction. It's essentially a stripped-down version of EL, designed to be easier to use. I haven't used EL, so I can't really compare the two, but SCON works really well  

 

Simple construction is what I use, there are some limits but ultimatly it gets the job done.

I haven't gotten moarkerbals to work for me yet (it uses resources but doesn't pop out a new kerbal) so likely I have a conflict somewhere.

 

DeepFreeze is a good way to "ship" a bunch of kerbals to your new colony if you have lifesupport mods enabled (for making the colony experiance more realistic).

Edited May 25 by PicoSpace

[KincaidFrankMF]

1 hour ago, PicoSpace said:

I haven't gotten moarkerbals to work for me yet (it uses resources but doesn't pop out a new kerbal) so likely I have a conflict somewhere.

Did you allow the mummy kerbal and the daddy kerbal to kuddle for a full day? (I'm not making this up lol) A notification should appear to that effect, then you click a button underneath the first one. If that's not working, a manual install might do the trick?

At least it finally answers the question: where do little kerbals come from?

[KerikBalm]

I'm thinking I may reinstall kpbs just for aesthetics.

Definitely going to instal that physics hold mod

Then, I guess I'll go with simple construction, and moar kerbals.

Then it's just interstellar via the atomic age nuclear lightbulb buffed by KRnD, parallax, and my own kopernicus system mods, and I think I'll have the gist of what I wanted KSP2 to be

[PicoSpace]

1 hour ago, KincaidFrankMF said:

Did you allow the mummy kerbal and the daddy kerbal to kuddle for a full day? (I'm not making this up lol) A notification should appear to that effect, then you click a button underneath the first one. If that's not working, a manual install might do the trick?

At least it finally answers the question: where do little kerbals come from?

I was tryning kloning not kuddle as I was hoping to send just one kerbal...

 

[KincaidFrankMF]

35 minutes ago, PicoSpace said:

I was tryning kloning not kuddle as I was hoping to send just one kerbal...

Ah, hadn't actually tried that myself. Just gave it a go and it's much simpler - just turn the Kloning Kabin on then Klone away. Sounds like a conflict, yes.

Edited May 25 by KincaidFrankMF

[JadeOfMaar]

8 hours ago, PicoSpace said:

I haven't gotten moarkerbals to work for me yet (it uses resources but doesn't pop out a new kerbal) so likely I have a conflict somewhere.

I just tested that mod and experienced a very familiar problem from when I last tried it long ago. It's a very bad logic error in the code. A coder friend said the accident chance is being used wrong, which effectively guarantees 99% (not 100%) failure rate. If I remember right, LinuxGuruGamer was made aware of it and even fixed it but that fix must have been lost somehow.

[KspNoobUsernameTaken]

6 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

I'm thinking I may reinstall kpbs just for aesthetics.

Definitely going to instal that physics hold mod

Then, I guess I'll go with simple construction, and moar kerbals.

Then it's just interstellar via the atomic age nuclear lightbulb buffed by KRnD, parallax, and my own kopernicus system mods, and I think I'll have the gist of what I wanted KSP2 to be

If you want many, many systems, look into Infinite Discoveries (its in the Tools & Applications section of KSP1 Mod Releases)

Lastly, look into life support. I suggest either Snacks or TAC-LS. Some nice parts for long-duration voyages are Angel-125's DSEV & Nertea's Station Parts Expansion Redux. 

What you listed doesn't really give much for base building; you have simple construction & KPBS, but not that much for cool base parts. I'd suggest at least one of the mods I listed in my first reply.

Edited May 26 by KspNoobUsernameTaken

[KerikBalm]

15 hours ago, KspNoobUsernameTaken said:

If you want many, many systems, look into Infinite Discoveries (its in the Tools & Applications section of KSP1 Mod Releases)

Nah, I plan on making my own custom system 

15 hours ago, KspNoobUsernameTaken said:

Lastly, look into life support. I suggest either Snacks or TAC-LS. Some nice parts for long-duration voyages are Angel-125's DSEV & Nertea's Station Parts Expansion Redux. 

I may or may not add life support, undecided 

15 hours ago, KspNoobUsernameTaken said:

What you listed doesn't really give much for base building; you have simple construction & KPBS, but not that much for cool base parts. I'd suggest at least one of the mods I listed in my first reply.

Cool base parts are not a priority for me, on site construction so I don't have to send everything to the new star system with a >100 year delay and 120 km/s of dV just to get it there on that timescale