Stock or mods?

[Tw1]

I tend to use Stock parts as the key parts of each craft, unless there aren't any that can do the job. I prefer mods like KAS, that add extra functionality, or telemetry ones.

[Sid]

I like building 'old school' rockets, so mods are a great help with that. FASA Gemini is my favourite, a really nice piece of work.

[bracknellexile]

My crafts are mostly stock, I use a few mod parts (KSPX, the odd bit from B9), but there are two mods that have brought in new parts I probably couldn't live without these days - MapSat and Procedural Fairings (love, LOVE this mod!). So yeah, mostly stock but there's definitely a place for the odd mod part or two that "fit" with my personal aesthetic*.

It's one of the things I love about KSP, the fact that there are so many mods out there that you can always play the game the way you want to and no-one's right or wrong in what they do or don't use.

* I use a few plugins too (subassembly, engineer, crew manifest) but that's a different matter.

[lammatt]

My crafts are mostly stock, I use a few mod parts (KSPX, the odd bit from B9), but there are two mods that have brought in new parts I probably couldn't live without these days - MapSat and Procedural Fairings (love, LOVE this mod!). So yeah, mostly stock but there's definitely a place for the odd mod part or two that "fit" with my personal aesthetic*.

It's one of the things I love about KSP, the fact that there are so many mods out there that you can always play the game the way you want to and no-one's right or wrong in what they do or don't use.

* I use a few plugins too (subassembly, engineer, crew manifest) but that's a different matter.

ya... procedural fairings are so cool...

but i'll love it even more if they have a 4-piece option to choose from...i bet it'll look so much better when it is dumped.

[Sof]

Essentially, try to avoid "cheat" mods like those with overpowered engines or mechjeb.

After that, just have a look around the spaceport to see what takes your fancy. I recommend ISA mapsat, Protractor and Kerbal Engineer.

Procedural fairings are pretty cool too.

Other mods like Kethane and various colony base mods can give you an incentive to go on missions.

[Wjolcz]

why hate mods? i just don't use them

[ComradeGoat]

No structural mods here. Just protractor and engineer redux.

[allmappedout]

Just as an aside, why is the poll so inflammatory? 'stock with skill'? 'Mods for life'?

Are you really trying to cause an argument? It appears that people haven't really jumped at the bait, which is good to see. Mods bring something new to the game, which may eventually be in the game. That's pretty much the end of the discussion.

[bsalis]

I have tried out all sorts of mods. Nowadays though, all I seem to use is MechJeb. Keeps things simple and makes version releases less painful.

[Xorth Tanovar]

why hate mods? i just don't use them

This.

I can't say I "hate" mods, I've just made the informed choice that I would like to move with stock parts as much as possible and build up my skill with them. Experimentation has lead to some strange-looking methods of fixing construction instabilities and flight/control related issues; in time I envision that the game will feature components that mods currently bring to the game. I admit that I'm entertaining myself this way, and may have to re-learn with each Alpha update, but it keeps the dust off the braincells .

That said, I do like the ISA MapSat pack, it adds one extremely useful tool that I can not only use for in-game nav, but I enjoy crunching the raw data with external utilities as stated in other threads. In my mind, it simulates that which JPL engineers/scientists do for their living but on a scale I can handle.

[Comrade Jenkens]

I use engineer and hyperedit for designing and testing purposes. For my actual missions I play stock.

[ASnogarD]

Personally I dont like some of the part mods , but as they dont effect my game I am fine with others using them.

Parts I take exception to are basically the ones you put together to make a replica of a ship from real life or some show.

Why ? Because all the actually designing part is taken away, you just slap the pieces together and have a cool looking craft with no real effort... but that is my opinion, I personally rather create a craft with generic pieces and try create something cool rather than slap pre-modelled pieces together.

I dont mind the more stock like parts some mods offer, the parts look like stock but expand the potential of what can be created.

Its a bit like getting a blank canvas and having the paint and brushes to create a masterpiece, or having a canvas with the outlines of someone else's masterpiece and just paint between the lines by the numbers.

BUT as I said, it doesnt effect me what others use or dont use in this game so its all good.

[KOCOUR]

I used to play stock, but after few mun missions (some succesful and some catastrophic), i started thinking about Mechjeb. Then after one painfully long and complicated manual orbital randevouse, (there was no docking implementit in game yet) i Finaly decided that stock sucs and downloaded mech jeb. since then, i tried out lots of mods, most of them useless, and as time passed i settled in few really good mods:

Remotetech and kethane to give the gameplay some purpose.

Mechjeb for.... well cant anymore imagine this game without it.

B9 and aviation lights, because stock parts are ugly and lack colored lights.

Katerpillar, firespitter and hooligan for fun.

FAR and Deadly reentry for... well also fun.

I have some bugs wich i thing are caused by mods not working wll together, but nothing realy serious.

[KasperVld]

I use very few mods. Currently I'm using KSPX, pWings and pFairings - that's it I think.

[BeechCraft118]

I like mods, but more the plugins. The only parts mod I use currently is KSPX. The rest of my mods are plugins like mechjeb.

[m1919]

I use stock and modded parts. Both have their uses depending on what I want to do. I find it just as much a challenge to build successful launch vehicles using either. Modded parts do help some when building replicas or close analogs of real world designs, mostly because you can sometimes cut your part count down a lot and that's critical for a smooth running launch with KSP's processor heavy physics.

[Albert VDS]

I use mods only if they don't change the balance of the game.

For example: I wouldn't use over powered engines.

[leax256]

Yes, well, you could always test the ship and time how long you can burn for, then do some simple math based on data from a maneuver node. But then, both methods use math, so I suppose math is technically a mod...

Math, the ultimate mod.

[Guest]

I use stock and mod parts as I see fit. Whatever works best for the design is what gets used.

[ddavis425]

I use stock parts but tools like Kerbal Engineer and Alarm Clock, so I'm not really sure what answer to put

[MonkeyFuzz]

I'll play with a handful of mods installed. Deadly Reentry forces a bit of skill to be used when returning home. MapSat gives my probes something to do once they make orbit, and Kethane gives my kerbalnauts something to do on all these new worlds (though mostly it's been ferrying fuel from the Mun back to Kerbin orbit).

[Feldynn]

I'm not going to vote because essentially none of the 3 options are appropriate to me.

But for the sake of Science, I use all stock parts right now. I have absolutely no hate for mods at all though, I simply choose not to use them at the moment for a number of reasons, and I certainly don't play with skill.. in fact I'd say that I use only stock parts with a healthy degree of ineptitude . I have tried Procedural Fairings and will likely use that again at some point and there are some other parts / packs that I've seen on the Spaceport which I may get around to using eventually too.

[macegee]

I hate to use mods, but I have to use some of them. For example, I need VAB/SPH vehicle stats (delta-v, mass, etc), or surface/orbital info. These should've been in game for a long time, but there isn't. So I have to use mods for that even if I hate using them.

Same thing with Rom's docking mode (docking info, stats) and subassembly. This stuff should be stock, but it isn't. Makes me sad, but what else can we do.

[Flixxbeatz]

Second option, though 100% stock on my [NS] save file. I have another copy of KSP with some part add-ons in it, used for kerbalizing rockets and other stuff.

21 purists in the house so far. No seriously. What's with the hate with part add-ons and plugins if you can just use stock by yourself and don't mind them and the people who use them?

Edited July 15, 2013 by Flixxbeatz
Just give me one. Just a little bit's enough. Just a second we're not broken just bent, and we can learn to love again.

[leopardenthusiast]

I use exactly two part mods - KSPX, almost entirely because of the 1.25m pancake tank, and Procedural Fairings, because I need fairings for FAR and they fit in with stock and KSPX reasonably well.