Mech Jeb vs Flight Engineer: Lag

[zekew11]

I've been playing Kerbal Space Program for some time now; and I've almost always used Mech Jeb. However; my desktop recently went kerbal on me and powered up on stage burnout with too few struts (a power outage cooked the motherboard because of a faulty old surge protector). Now; playing on a laptop, lag has become a concern. I have certainly noticed that ships with mechjeb lag harder than those without, regardless of how many or few mech jeb windows are active. However, I still want all my flight and orbital info. I'm soon doing a fresh install with minimal mods (my current download anything that looks cool approach is sub-optimal: I spend way too much time trying to do crazy things; rather than actually doing things) and if flight engineer is less lag prone; I will replace mech jeb with it.

I'm also debating the following; on the basis of lag and over complicating things:

• Kethane
  
• B9 pack
  
• Airships and KAS (both or none; for base building)
  
• FAR and the neccessitated fairings
  

[MrTaxman]

I love the B9 stuff and I use KAS plenty. I've not seen a need to download Mech Jeb yet - but that may be ignorance speaking.

[Benie]

HL Airships look really fun, but they kind of defeat the need for rockets and spaceplanes. Surely if you had enough air, you could get out of Kerbin's atmosphere.

[EmissionGeneration]

I've never used Flight Engineer so can't comment on that, but Mods I'd suggest would be:

* Kethane

* B9

* KAS

* FAR

* and also RemoteTech: Relay Network

That should keep you occupied until the next Release!

[Spartwo]

I would reccommend

-kethane

-mechjeb

-KSPX

-rubber band inc cattipillar tracks

-aviation lights

[42undead2]

Some other good ones:

-Modular Omniwheels

-MK3 addon pack

-Infinitedice carrier mod, if you want to make boats to land on/take off from, or just have a rescue ship for water.

[Nori]

I really like the flight engineer for the TWR and other stats while building the rocket. They also have very nice informational displays while flying.

However, I like having MechJeb because sometimes I screw up really bad and MechJeb could save me. In general though I refrain from using it.

Kethane mod is epic... I also like the KAS mod. The rest I'm not so sure about.

[Papa_Joe]

I've not used Flight Engineer, but I do use MJ.

MJ also includes a Vehicle window in the VAB during assembly. I use it when building my rockets, as it contains the TWR info as well.

I've not really noticed lag, but I do use a higher end machine now.

I use B9, FAR, MJ and Lazor

I've also just started using Procedural fairings by e-Dog. Awesome mod.

[trvtannenberg]

Simply all.

[Kimberly]

HL Airships look really fun, but they kind of defeat the need for rockets and spaceplanes. Surely if you had enough air, you could get out of Kerbin's atmosphere.

I suggest only using airships on other planets. You can use them to colonize Jool, for example, which is quite reasonable,

[Talisar]

I've never used MechJeb, but I love Flight Engineer. I had to give it up recently due to lag though. I still use it when building rockets, but I now use VOID for flight displays (It has a pretty nice, unobtrusive information HUD option).

[Tobyz28]

Must haves:

Procedural Wings

Procedural Fairings

MechJeb

If you want an added layer of challenge a must have is "Deadly Re-Entry" heat which puts more realistic restrictions on not only entering atmospheres but G force tolerances as well!

Add a good part pack or two (these are somewhat personal preference)...

From there I've dabbled with KAS/Airships / Kethane / Remote-Tech. These are all excellent, and what you prefer really depends on what your after All of them are useful for longer term base setups away from home...

[AndreyATGB]

-KAS is great for any surface-based refueling, docking ports are not fun when translation isn't possible.

-MechJeb has a lot of information and is extremely customizable. I personally deleted all stock windows and made my own that fit my needs. I haven't used flight engineer outside of VAB, but I don't think it has info like air needed for jets to work. It seems better in the VAB though as you can adapt TWR for any planet/moon and it shows individual stages as well. It might have been my ships fault, but flight engineer caused a second or two pause when adding or removing parts, it seemed to calculate dV and such. Also worth noting that MJ is the source of rather frequent FPS drops (like the game skips a frame every 10-30 seconds).

-Haven't tried Kethane, I might though after rebuilding my stuff in 0.21. It seems like a good end-game thing to do once you're familiar with the game.

-FAR is very rewarding but you'll find it difficult with a keyboard, and at the moment it renders ASAS useless in atmospheres.

Edited July 10, 2013 by AndreyATGB