Best mods?

[KonekoTaiArufa]

I started playing KSP about a week ago. I've played 10+ Hours so far, landed on Minmus & Moon. But I have a question, I've never played with mods. Which are the best mods to install? New on the Forums so don't bash if I've submitted in the wrong category, or if there is already a post like this, or any other sort of reasons that you serious people have to bash about.

[DaZombieKilla99]

If you want more parts for planes and some new cool looking fuel tanks and engines, try out the B9 Aerospace Pack. Also comes with new larger wings and such.

[espm400]

Personally, I tend to use a lot of mods and which ones you should get are totally up to you. Just a few examples of some of the higher quality ones I use, and what they do:

Realism: If you're not yet fully comfortable with the game, I would suggest laying off these for a while, but they're worth looking into nonetheless.

Farram Aerospace Research (FAR): Adds a drag model and actual functional lift to aircraft. Allows for better spaceplane creation/flight, among other things.

Deadly Re-entry (DRE): Does what it says. Adds re-entry heat (requires heat shields) and your ship and crew are much more susceptible to g-forces.

IonCross Crew Support: Adds oxygen requirement and CO2 buildup in crew capsules. You'll need to add O2 tanks and CO2 scrubbers for your crew to survive any major duration.

RemoteTech: Requires a communitcation network be established for your unmanned craft. Also incorporates a command delay based on the distance your coms have to travel (i.e. 0.5 sec delay from any command input to a craft orbiting Minmus).

Part Packs: Addon parts to increase your ship building options (either aesthetically or functionally speaking)

KW Rocketry: One of my 'must haves.' Greatly increases the number of options you have in fuel tanks and engines. Also gives you a lot of fairings and other aerodyamic parts.

B9 Aerospace Pack (B9): If you get FAR, this one is also a must. Greatly increases the amount of wings and other aerodynamic parts. Great for building spaceplanes, among other things.

Bobcat's American and/or Soviet Packs: Two separate mods; the Soviet pack concentrates on the Soyuz series of rockets, but also includes the Buran and Kliper orbital spacecraft. The American pack contains the more recently conceived ARES I & V launch vehicles as well as the Orion craft.

Bobcat's H.O.M.E.: Pack to assist with the colonization of other worlds. Contains a variety of modules to help in this manner.

KOSMOS Space Station Parts: A variety of Soviet space station parts (also some very awesome solar panels)

FusTek Station Parts Expansion: Another good variety of station parts.

Procedural Wings (pWings): Just a couple small but very useful parts. Think of a wing that you can adjust to pretty much any (flat) shape that you want. Very helpful when making replicas.

ISA MapSat: A couple small parts and a plugin that allows you to map your planets and moons from orbit.

Kethane: This is a pretty big one. Adds the resource 'Kethane' to all celestial bodies in your game. You must scan planets to find it, drill to extract it, and then convert it to whatever fuel you want. Really good once you start to get bored, as it add some decent goals and what-not.

Plugin Addons: I would recommend waiting for a while before downloading these. Although some are completely harmless (Crew Manifest), if you start relying on certain ones (MechJeb) before you've got the game down, it can really hamper your experience.

Crew Manifest: Plugin that allows you to empty/fill your crafts on the launchpad/runway. Also transfer crew between pods while on a mission.

Protractor: Plugin that allows you to see the phase angles of the planets for ease of launching interplanetary missions.

MechJeb: Sort of an all-encompassing mod. The reason I say wait a while before getting this is that this mod can takeoff, land, dock, setup maneuver nodes, etc. for you. Personally I use it for the multitude of information it provides (I used the auto-dock once. Found it was prohibitively heavy on the RCS).

Mission Controller: If you're looking for a bit more structure in your gameplay (in lieu of a career mode), this mod gives you a bunch of missions to complete, adds a basic monetary system, and basically just focuses the sandbox a bit.

Now, I'm obviously not saying you should get all of these, I'm just pointing out some of the good ones that I have either used in the past, or are currently using now. It's all down to taste. There are some good mods that are absent from this list, like Flight Engineer (or whatever it's called). I've omitted them only because I've never used it, therefore cannot comment.

[rottielover]

Above list is awesome.

I would add :

KSPX - A bunch of parts that will become stock (the dev of this mod was hired by squad).

KAS - Kerbal Attachment System, it adds a couple of winches, attachments like electromagnets and grappling hooks. I personally love this mod and hope that it stays around. You can use it as safety cables for your EVA crew, make real skycranes, pickup your space trash etc.

Haystack - once you get to the point where you have a bunch of stuff orbiting a planet this mod gives you a little interface so you can more easily select what you want.

Kerbal Alarm Clock- gives you a way to remind yourself to go back to other missions once you get a few going at the same time. Never miss a launch window again!

Lasor Docking Cam - makes docking so much easier

ST Escape Pod - not just for the pod this pack adds a special parachute, a special decoupler, and two lights. I'm especially fond of the red rotating beacon light and use it on all kinds of creations.

Chatterer- Adds sounds to the game like probes beeping and nonsensical "radio chatter". It's awesome.

[espm400]

Thanks. Also, I completely agree with KAS, Lazor Docking Cam (although the whole Lazor system is great) and Chatterer (my gamedata folder is a mess, glossed right over those). I saw that escape pod, maybe I'll have to give it a go.

[Keome]

Mechjeb: A handy and configurable tool that includes information windows, autopilots and other features. Use the ones you want, don't use the features you don't want to use. Ignore the haters who say Mechjeb is cheating. Don't rely on it too much until you learn though, because the autopilots make things really easy. The information windows are really useful when building rockets though, since they give the total mass, TWR and delta-v to help you plan things out.

KSPX: A few extra parts that are useful.

Kethane: Adds a mineable resource that gives some purpose to what you do.

NovaPunch Parts Pack: Lots of parts including 3.5 and 5 meter stuff for really big rockets, plus a wider selection of engines that are all fairly balanced to be in line with the stock engines. Personally, I removed parts from it I don't use like the fairings and the extra fuel tanks that are basically the same as stock but with different textures.

KW rocketry is also popular, but I don't use it. My system hates having lots of parts, and NovaPunch gives me what I need.

Quantum Fuel Transfer System: Think of it as fuel hoses. Makes transferring fuel easier, and works with the kethane mod as well. Takes a little practice to learn how to set it up and you need to put the transfer nodes where your kerbals can reach them via EVA.

Chatterer: I find it funny and it drives the roommate crazy, too. Double win for me!!!

[magnemoe]

Above list is awesome.

KAS - Kerbal Attachment System, it adds a couple of winches, attachments like electromagnets and grappling hooks. I personally love this mod and hope that it stays around. You can use it as safety cables for your EVA crew, make real skycranes, pickup your space trash etc.

You forgot the most important feature in KAS, you can use the cables to dock things. This is very nice for rovers and landers as its an serious pain to dock things on the ground. Simply dock the lander to the rover and transfer fuel, monopropelant and power.

How can it be better, yes you have an connector port an kerbal can carry and place everywhere then plug in an cable so you can use it on craft without docking ports.

Tap fuel from an upper stage with no docking ports. Power up an satellite you forgot to open the solar panels on.

Someone even made an extension of this mod who let you place lots of small stock stuff like probe bodies, engines and tanks. You can take solar panels from an satellite and add to your ship, even build an rocket to take you back from Mun from the parts after the crash

[Van Disaster]

FAR. Almost a new game ( when you're in atmosphere, anyway ). I always load up KW rocketry, TAC fuel balancer, TT wheels, KAS ( the attachment system ), the alarm clock, crew manifest, Kethane, and take bits from B9 and Taverius' aerospace packs. There's other little things I like also, like MechJeb, procedural wings, lazer struts ( really fantastic for orbital construction to stop wobbles ), the HOME parts which I tend to use for surface bases, FUSTEK parts I use for space stations, bits of Firesplitter packs which tend to find their way onto spaceplanes.

I may try replacing KW with one of the other rocketry parts and the procedural fairings, but I rather like the KW style.