Is it possible to have 2 installations of KSP while having other mods on them?

[stupid dumb idiot]

Lets just say if i were to copy the entire KSP folder and delete the mods inside of it and rename and add "BDARMORY" infront of it and installed different mods would it bork anything up or would steam play on the unmodded when i add a couple of words infront of the orignal and remove "BDARMORY" from the copied would it play off the second one?

[Lisias]

Yes. And it's allowed by the license, so you won't need to be "cautious" about.

The license says you can't run more than one at once, but there's no technical measure preventing it.

Just be cautious not to run or delete the wrong KSP installment by accident. Believe me, it's frustrating...

=== == = POST EDIT = == ===

If you are on MacOS, read about CoW and Compression.

If you are on Linux, I suggest using BTFS and using CoW and Compression.

If you are on Windows, you can tell NTFS to automatically (and transparently) Compression everything inside a directory. I suggest activating it on GamaData.

Edited June 5 by Lisias
Post edit

[Poppa Wheelie]

You can have as many instances as you want.  And you don't need to be changing names back and forth in order to run the instance you want.  I recommend you use CKAN to manage your instances and mod installations. 

Or, you can also have Steam recognize more than one instance.  See this short discussion for how to have Steam do it:

 

[Jacke]

2 hours ago, Lisias said:

Just be cautious not to run or delete the wrong KSP installment by accident. Believe me, it's frustrating...

It's why I make several directories copying the KSP install.  Starting with a pristine copy of a release I'm using without any mods, so I can always create more copies.  Access them with CKAN.

[Lisias]

42 minutes ago, Jacke said:

It's why I make several directories copying the KSP install.  Starting with a pristine copy of a release I'm using without any mods, so I can always create more copies.  Access them with CKAN.

I won!!!

lisias@macmini62 ~/Workspaces/KSP/runtime
> ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  21 lisias staff  672 Jan 26  2022 1.1.3
drwxr-xr-x  23 lisias staff  736 May 16 12:37 1.10.1
drwxr-xr-x  23 lisias staff  736 Apr 22  2022 1.10.1.DDS
drwxr-xr-x   4 lisias staff  128 Apr  4  2022 1.10.1.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 May 16 01:36 1.11.2
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Jan 27  2023 1.11.2.DDS
drwxr-xr-x  18 lisias staff  576 Jul 15  2023 1.11.2.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  25 lisias staff  800 May  6 00:05 1.12.2
drwxr-xr-x  41 lisias staff 1312 Oct 24  2021 1.12.2.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  28 lisias staff  896 Feb 13 12:41 1.12.3
drwxr-xr-x  29 lisias staff  928 Sep 16  2022 1.12.3.<snip>.ptbr
drwxr-xr-x  22 lisias staff  704 Jun 23  2022 1.12.3.<snip>
drwxr-xr-x  12 lisias staff  384 Jun 23  2022 1.12.3.<snip>.blp
drwxr-xr-x  26 lisias staff  832 Jul 24  2022 1.12.3.<snip>
drwxr-xr-x  27 lisias staff  864 Jul 17  2022 1.12.3.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  21 lisias staff  672 Jun 29  2022 1.12.3.saves
drwxr-xr-x  25 lisias staff  800 May  5 23:58 1.12.4
drwxr-xr-x  26 lisias staff  832 Jan 14  2023 1.12.4.<snip>
drwxr-xr-x   5 lisias staff  160 Jan 13  2023 1.12.4.pt-br
drwxr-xr-x  25 lisias staff  800 Jun  1 12:43 1.12.5
drwxr-xr-x  23 lisias staff  736 May 23 17:22 1.12.5.KSPCF
drwxr-xr-x  25 lisias staff  800 May 26 15:48 1.12.5.acp
drwxr-xr-x  13 lisias staff  416 Sep  8  2023 1.12.5.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  22 lisias staff  704 Mar 19 07:39 1.12.5.dbg
drwxr-xr-x   5 lisias staff  160 Jan 13  2023 1.12.5.pt-br
drwxr-xr-x  25 lisias staff  800 Jan 18  2023 1.12.5.<snip>
drwxr-xr-x  20 lisias staff  640 Aug 11  2022 1.2.2
drwxr-xr-x   7 lisias staff  224 Jan 26  2022 1.2.2.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  23 lisias staff  736 Mar 31 21:07 1.3.1
drwxr-xr-x  21 lisias staff  672 Apr 28  2022 1.3.1.DDS
drwxr-xr-x  40 lisias staff 1280 Jan 28  2023 1.3.1.bkp
drwxr-xr-x   2 lisias staff   64 Oct 30  2022 1.3.1_bkp
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Apr 30 03:17 1.4.1
drwxr-xr-x  16 lisias staff  512 Mar 16 00:49 1.4.1.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  21 lisias staff  672 Mar 19 06:54 1.4.1.dbg
drwxr-xr-x  26 lisias staff  832 Jun  5 13:32 1.4.3
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Nov 14  2021 1.4.3-35
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Apr 28  2022 1.4.3.DDS
drwxr-xr-x  22 lisias staff  704 Jul 19  2022 1.4.3.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  27 lisias staff  864 Apr 22  2023 1.4.5
drwxr-xr-x  28 lisias staff  896 Nov 28  2021 1.4.5.DDS
drwxr-xr-x  12 lisias staff  384 Jan 27  2023 1.4.5.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  22 lisias staff  704 Apr 22  2023 1.5.1
drwxr-xr-x  23 lisias staff  736 Dec 16  2021 1.5.1.DDS
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Jan 27  2023 1.6.1
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Jan 16  2022 1.6.1.DDS
drwxr-xr-x  13 lisias staff  416 Jul 17  2022 1.6.1.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  25 lisias staff  800 May 16 00:51 1.7.3
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Apr 28  2022 1.7.3.DDS
drwxr-xr-x   9 lisias staff  288 Jul 17  2022 1.7.3.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  23 lisias staff  736 May 18 22:57 1.8.1
drwxr-xr-x  24 lisias staff  768 Apr 28  2022 1.8.1.DDS
drwxr-xr-x  21 lisias staff  672 Sep 28  2021 1.8.1.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  23 lisias staff  736 May 19 05:27 1.9.1
drwxr-xr-x  22 lisias staff  704 May 16 17:10 1.9.1.DDS
drwxr-xr-x   3 lisias staff   96 Apr  4  2022 1.9.1.bkp
drwxr-xr-x  27 lisias staff  864 Jul 12  2023 Company.173
drwxr-xr-x  13 lisias staff  416 Apr 19  2019 Demo
drwxr-xr-x   5 lisias staff  160 Dec 17  2019 __update
drwxr-xr-x 126 lisias staff 4032 May  6 17:38 _pool
drwxr-xr-x  27 lisias staff  864 Nov  5  2022 pdlauncher

and

lisias@macmini62 ~/Applications/Games/KSP
> ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 lisias staff   96 Jul 21  2023  CKAN.app
drwxr-xr-x 30 lisias staff  960 Jul 23  2019  Career
drwxr-xr-x 29 lisias staff  928 Nov 22  2019  Challenge.KAX
drwxr-xr-x 25 lisias staff  800 Feb 23  2019  Challenge.KAX.1.4.1
drwxr-xr-x 24 lisias staff  768 Nov  7  2019  Challenge.RACE
drwxr-xr-x  2 lisias staff   64 Oct 31  2019  Challenge.RACE.1.8.1
drwxr-xr-x 23 lisias staff  736 Jun  2  2019  Challenge.Walker
dr-xr-xr-x 26 lisias staff  832 Aug 10  2021  Company
drwxr-xr-x 29 lisias staff  928 Nov  7  2019  Company.170
drwxr-xr-x 26 lisias staff  832 Aug  8  2021  Company.BKP
dr-x---r-x 29 lisias staff  928 Jun  6  2018  Company_old
drwxr-xr-x 24 lisias staff  768 Jul 23  2019  Company_previous
drwxr-xr-x 30 lisias staff  960 Sep  1  2019  Exodus
drwxr-xr-x 31 lisias staff  992 Sep 23  2023 'Exodus backup'
drwxr-xr-x 33 lisias staff 1056 Feb 14  2019  Exodus_previous
drwxr-xr-x 33 lisias staff 1056 Feb 14  2019 'Exodus_previous copy'
drwxr-xr-x 31 lisias staff  992 Jul 23  2019 'Kerbal Space Program 1.4.1'
drwxr-xr-x 33 lisias staff 1056 Jul 23  2019 'Kerbal Space Program.1.4.5'
drwxr-xr-x 24 lisias staff  768 Sep  1  2019  SpaceAge
drwxr-xr-x 26 lisias staff  832 Oct 11  2023 "Wernher's-Dream"
drwxr-xr-x  6 lisias staff  192 Dec 11  2019  __BACKUPS
-rwxr-xr-x  1 lisias staff  307 Nov 24  2018  t.sh

The top listing is my development installments. The bottom one, my "production" installs.

-----

@stupid dumb idiot, as said by @Poppa Wheelie, you don't need to rename things all the time. In my case, I just open the directory I wanna run using Finder (I'm on MacOS) and double click the KSP icon.

Edited June 5 by Lisias
snipping user names

[Fizzlebop Smith]

I usually keep 3 installs. 

2 are mod installs catering to different playstyle

[stupid dumb idiot]

I made the game version to my mod most recent version i didnt install any mods yet but the folder named bdarmory is the normal copy the one named ksp is the one that i coppied, the coppied just loads and changes the cursor to the ksp one but doesnt have any display other than just a black screen and when i close it unity sees it as a crash and the normal one works just fine

sorry about the pictures being everywhere by the way

and cutting off the text

[Lisias]

25 minutes ago, stupid dumb idiot said:

i close it unity sees it as a crash and the normal one works just fine

sorry about the pictures being everywhere by the way

and cutting off the text

You copied some files on the wrong place. I suggest to delete the faulty one.

There's a trick on Windows that works fine:

• Select the KSP directory you want to duplicate.
• Hit CTRL-C (Copy into the Clipboard)
• Hit CTRL-V (Paste from Clipboard)
  • This will create a new directory called <original name> copy with a copy of every file/directory from the original
• Rename the "copy" one to whatever you want.

This will garantedly duplicate the original directory ipsi literis, without mistakes!

Cheers!

[stupid dumb idiot]

Will i have to launch it from the game inside the "copy"?

And where will i put the copy?

[stupid dumb idiot]

Sorry for being late but i also forgot to say they will be on different verisons

Edited June 5 by stupid dumb idiot

[stupid dumb idiot]

Figured out the issue i accidently deleted the squad folder that was not a mod 
man im so dumb for not realizing that

[Jacke]

10 hours ago, stupid dumb idiot said:

Sorry for being late but i also forgot to say they will be on different verisons

Different versions can all be done with CKAN.  I create my copied installs and then add them in CKAN, allowing me to then mod and launch them.  My pristine unmodded copies I don't add.