Modern Mods are amazing

[Belthize]

90% of my Kerbal play time was way back pre 1.0 and up through 1.04, mostly playing things like Flowerchilds Better than Starting Manned.  There were mods like ScanSat, Orbital Science and RemoteTech that were always staples of playthroughs and last time I was around MKS/USI.   I moved on but I'd occasionally come back looking for similar playstyles but always with horrible timing when some new KSP release had just hit and the mod scene was in turmoil.    I recently came back and after a few days of poking settled in on un-kerballed start (UKS), kerbalism science-only, MKS/USI-LS,  and of course scansat, orbital science, remote tech, contract configuration and some others.   It created the sort of coherent tactical + strategic career approach I wanted.  So far I'm loving it.  

But I also decided to have a go at some of the new (at least to me) graphics mods that didn't' really exist back in the day.   Blackracks volumetric clouds,  scatterer, EVE, TUFX etc.  Man what a difference.  Kerbin has trees and weather and actual storms.   I was waiting till dawn to launch a quick flight to knock out some science and satisfy some early flight contracts,  break 2500m kind of things.   I waited till dawn so I could have some supplemental solar power to support all the kerbalism science transmission.   As soon as I took off a thunderstorm rolled in.  It was amazing, thick clouds, rain, lightning, thunder etc.  I quickly got turned around and started following the coast with a plan to land back at base and wait things out.

 

Visibility was crap.  It's actually better in the screenshot than it was in game.  I couldn't really see until about 300m and that was too risky, didn't want to kill off Jeb.  I decided to climb up above the storm to get a better look.  No joy,  solid cloud cover complete with an anvil cloud structure at the center of the storm.

I flew around for a bit, I'd dip back down, try to navigate back to base and periodically climb back above the cloud layer to recharge batteries.   Eventually there was a break in the clouds to the east and by the time I got there and turned back toward base it started to clear and I could easily make out the dirt strip.

Managed to land without killing Jeb, finished the contract and got a bit of science done.   10 years ago I never would have dreamed KSP+mods would become what it has.   As far as I'm concerned this is KSP's golden age, the game has stabilized, KSP2 is no longer a distraction and there are some amazing mods out there,  some old, some new.

 

Thank you for everyone out there that's written, tested or otherwise helped create all the mods past and present,  and I guess thanks to Flowerchild wherever he ended up for turning me on to KSP.   I first heard about KSP on his forum while testing early versions of his Better than Wolves minecraft mod.

 

Edited August 10, 2024 by Belthize