"Realism" mod list?

[rottielover]

I've been playing around with a few mods like RemoteTech and Kethane, but am working to increase my challenge. Here is the list that I've come up with to provide a more "realistic" experience and would like to know what I'm missing:

RemoteTech for communications

(IronCross? testing a couple different mods for this) for crew consumables

Deadly Rentry -heat shields and such

Kethane - debatable as far as "realism" I suppose

ISA MapSat - produce maps

Chatterer - add background sounds

KAS - adds winches and a new method for docking , I like this one

Thrust Corrector - fixes engine thrust to account for atmospheric pressure

Fuel Balancer -

Crew Manifest -

Kerbal Alarm Clock-

Steam Gauges - ? Saw this in a Scott Manley video, I have yet to test it myself.

I feel like there are more out there that I should look at, but I'm not sure which are the most popular/supported ones.

Edited July 22, 2013 by rottielover
Updated list

[ZRM]

Surely FAR should be on that list, at the very least. Also if you count more "realistic" parts, look at KW Rocketry or AIES Aerospace.

Edit: Also Procedural Fairings adds visual realism, but last I heard it is incompatible with FAR (Ferram Aerospace Research). And don't forget pWing (procedural wings) - no one makes aircraft wings out of lots of off-the-shelf panels glued together in real life, so why should you?

Edited July 22, 2013 by ZRM

[Captain Sierra]

Modular fuel system should go up too. It lets you change around your fuel types, starting loads, etc.

[ZRM]

Modular fuel system should go up too. It lets you change around your fuel types, starting loads, etc.

That's a very good one. I use it so much I forgot to mention it, if that makes sense.

[TaranisElsu]

Please try out my Life Support mod and let me know what you think: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/40667

You should also consider:

• CrewManifest -- allows you to pick your crew.
  
• Kerbal Alarm Clock -- makes it easier to run several missions at once.
  
• Chatterer -- adds ambience in the form of radio chatter between your vessel and KSC.
  
• Kerbal Attachment System (KAS) -- opens up some new possibilities.
  
• TAC Fuel Balancer -- makes it easier to transfer fuel around (also one of my mods)
  

Edited July 22, 2013 by TaranisElsu
Fleshing out the list

[rottielover]

The only experience I've had with FAR was watching one of Acott manely's videos, and he seemed to be having some difficulties with it. I will try it out though.

I did try out the KW rocketry mod, and as good as it looks, I had a few issues with the way the fairings worked and getting my own payloads into the stock examples.

I'll add modular fuel system to my list, might prove useful when combined with Kethane to get empty fuel tanks to fill up.

Does anyone know or keep tabs on any comparability issues between mods? I'm wondering if there was anything I should look out for?

[regex]

Get the Project Arcturus Thrust Corrector. I'm pretty sure the guy who does Modular Fuel System will be rolling that one into his 0.21 update.

[rottielover]

Please try out my Life Support mod and let me know what you think: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/40667

You should also consider:

• CrewManifest -- allows you to pick your crew.
  
• Kerbal Alarm Clock -- makes it easier to run several missions at once.
  
• Chatterer -- adds ambience in the form of radio chatter between your vessel and KSC.
  
• Kerbal Attachment System (KAS) -- opens up some new possibilities.
  
• TAC Fuel Balancer -- makes it easier to transfer fuel around (also one of my mods)
  

Thanks! I'll give it a try.

I do run those mods you mentioned (except for fuel balancer, I'll download that when I get home). I just didn't list them since they don't directly add a "realism" experiance to the crew as directly as your life support mod. I do love the KAS mod, allowed me to rescue a few things that I forgot to out solar panels on (whoops).

I think my only hang up on your mod for me is lack of canisters. One goal for me is to setup a few "weigh stations" at various strategic points. I'm undecided if these will be manned or unmanned yet (maybe a mix), but the general idea is something along the lines of a fuel and consumables resupply depot.

To give you a further insight: take a look at the crafts that GamesReviewsUK has put out on the spaceport. They put up a really nice space station made from stock parts, it's basically a fuel depot. Along with they designed fuel pods and even a cargo ferry to resupply it.

I would like to modify those to include consumables tanks for O2, food, etc.

Another thought: waste tanks. Ability to store extra waste and deliver it to a processing facility for recycling (useful both for bases and colonies even orbital stations). Example: a waste water converter so you could dock and let the resupply station recycle your wastes and take it along further. (Hope that makes sense).

What about comparability with other mods? I noticed another on the spaceport that adds oxygen tanks etc, is your mod able to interface with those?

[rottielover]

Get the Project Arcturus Thrust Corrector. I'm pretty sure the guy who does Modular Fuel System will be rolling that one into his 0.21 update.

That's a really good realism mod, thanks!! I'll be adding that to my download list for tonight!

Lastly I'm going to get modual manager or whatever it's called... Keeping track of all my mods on a spreadsheet is getting tiresome.

[Flixxbeatz]

Realism you say? Any plugin that disables timewarp will suit you well.

Or just don't use timewarp

[Captain Sierra]

Then that makes the game too slow to ever play effectively. XP

[rottielover]

Agreed, you still have to balance playability. Just because I would like my Kerbals to breath, doesn't mean I want to hear every breath for 365 days while my PC churns.

Obviously time warp should have same impact on the mod (like with Kethane you can time warp a bit to fill your tanks etc).

This has been a great thread so far, please keep the idea's flowing. I have a pretty good idea about some mods I haven't heard of till now and some that I need to go get yet.

One I think I forgot to me too. Was ISA MapSat, I've been using the dev preview version for a little bit. It added a nice bit of realism into the game.

I've updated the title post with the list so far. (Working off my cell phone for the moment.)

Edited July 22, 2013 by rottielover

[Kimberly]

Your list seems to be missing Figaro GPS--it's a fairly simple plug-in that gives you a GPS receiver. The receiver will tell you your current location and you can type in any coordinates and be told which way you need to head plus how far away you are. But for it to work, at least four GPS satellites must be visible to the craft, just like in real life. So unlike Mapsat, which gives you your position "for free", you need a network of GPS satellites before you can make use of the positioning ability.

[rottielover]

Your list seems to be missing Figaro GPS--it's a fairly simple plug-in that gives you a GPS receiver. The receiver will tell you your current location and you can type in any coordinates and be told which way you need to head plus how far away you are. But for it to work, at least four GPS satellites must be visible to the craft, just like in real life. So unlike Mapsat, which gives you your position "for free", you need a network of GPS satellites before you can make use of the positioning ability.

This one sounds very interesting as well. Are there any comparability issues with this plus the others mentioned? (Mapsat, RemoteTech, etc?). Also: does it work to put a GPS constellation around other bodies?

[Kimberly]

This one sounds very interesting as well. Are there any comparability issues with this plus the others mentioned? (Mapsat, RemoteTech, etc?). Also: does it work to put a GPS constellation around other bodies?

It'll work for any body, and as far as I know there are no compatibility problems. You will have to refrain from using the Mapsat "POS" button to see your position, though, or else there's not much point to the GPS network.

[ZRM]

I could also go for the shameless plug option as well - check out my mod KerbCom Avionics (in my signature). Currently it is best suited for balancing the thrusts from each RCS thruster port so that rotation input does not cause translation and vice versa. This is similar to what real spacecraft like the Space Shuttle do to make precision manoeuvres while docking. There are issues with the current version though, like a lack of support for gimbals for main engine thrust balancing, and some inaccuracy on particular designs due to floating point errors, but it works much better than stock RCS control. It also works very well for balancing some VTOL designs that would never work without it. I am currently working on the next version which will fix most of these problems.

BTW, FAR is very good for aircraft, if not so much for rockets. Lots of real world-style designs behave as expected using it.

Edited July 22, 2013 by ZRM

[rottielover]

Cool, I'll add it to my list of things to try out! Anything to make the stock parts work more realistically sounds good in my book!

I'll read up on it tonight

[StainX]

Electic Power Manager: AmpYear

[EmissionGeneration]

Nice Mods, I use most of them, but will definitely have to check out the others. There is also this that I always use:

Flight Telemetry - For a little Science to perform on your own.

[rottielover]

OK I've downloaded another ton of mods and got the mod manager. Time to get to work

[rottielover]

Please try out my Life Support mod and let me know what you think: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/40667

You should also consider:

• CrewManifest -- allows you to pick your crew.
  
• Kerbal Alarm Clock -- makes it easier to run several missions at once.
  
• Chatterer -- adds ambience in the form of radio chatter between your vessel and KSC.
  
• Kerbal Attachment System (KAS) -- opens up some new possibilities.
  
• TAC Fuel Balancer -- makes it easier to transfer fuel around (also one of my mods)
  

So sorry, I could not seem to get your life support mod to work. I tried manual install and I tried install with mod manger. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but I never got anything except a LS button in the top right of the screen. Clicking the button gave me a life support window but there was nothing in it. Right clicking the crew capsule didn't show any life support stats.

Hope that helps.

[Darth Maul]

Although it's not released yet, my mod, The Sith's Solar System Mod, will be quite realistic. Just like in the real world, you'll have to escape Kerbol's SOI, to get to another solar system. We will be posting more about the mod in the coming weeks.

[rottielover]

Interesting, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Side note, after installing and running 44 mods, I'm boiling down the list today (as I'm getting crashes left and right). Final list hopefully forthcoming.

[rottielover]

Not sure that anyone cares, but someone might at some point, so I'll give a couple updates. I thought I would do that by talking a little bit about each mod I'm running and why and cover some of the mods I tried but removed and why.

Kept: ISA MapSat

Removed: F. GPS

Map sat basically ended up "winning" on eye candy. You get some parts to clip onto a ship and you get visual feedback on your progress.

The GPS mod comes with only one part, the receiver, and requires that you just name orbiting objects "GPS". So in practice it ends up working like the real life GPS system, but if your running RemoteTech getting the required 24+ sats into the correct orbits for GPS or use the cool parts from MapSat and RemoteTech? I chose the latter.

Kept : RemoteTech

This mod challenges you like no other. Loose your line of sight ? forgot to input the next manuver to the computer? Yep, you lost your craft! You must setup a communications network and you have to plan ahead for when your unmanned missions go out of comm range for a little bit!

Removed : Deadly Rentry

I liked the idea of this mod, and I liked the cool heat shields, but I ran into what I think was some compatibility issues because removing this mod made my game stop crashing. So I think it might have been conflicting with another mod, but I haven't figured out which one yet. Another reason I removed it, this mod takes things from semi hard to darn near impossible, good luck if you ever want to aerobrake anywhere (although if they would introduce some more heat shield options I might reconsider that, hint: watch the movie 2010 the sequal to 2001 Space Oddessey for some areobraking goodness ideas ). Finally, with over 44 mods installed more than a few had to go, I'd like to load the game in a few min, not hours lol.

I'll continue in the next post.

[Captain Sierra]

There are additional mods to add heat shields to Deadly Reentry. Also, what did you decide on FAR? protip: Scott had (and still has) trouble with it because for FAR to really be realistic, you need to model the control surfaces correctly. Correct me if I am wrong but when do ailerons control pitch? (hint hint Scott . . . )