Must have add ons?

[Horman]

Hey there,

while getting comfortable with the game, I just got a look at this huge list of add-ons.

Are there any must-haves or highly recommended ones?

greetings and happy flying

Horman

[SuperWeegee4000]

Well, "must-have" isn't really a great term, because mods aren't "must-have" simply by nature. However, I'd recommend taking a look at AEIS and B9 Aerospace for part mods and Kerbal Engineer for data.

[Guest]

Chatterer is the only one I'd consider "must-have". Seriously, if you don't have it installed you're a terrible person.

Everything else is personal preference, really. Look through the add-on release forum for mods that look interesting.

[SuperWeegee4000]

Chatterer is the only one I'd consider "must-have". Seriously, if you don't have it installed you're a terrible person.

Everything else is personal preference, really. Look through the add-on release forum for mods that look interesting.

Unless you're stock.

In which case.

[Galacticruler]

Nova(slug)Punch, remove the farings and download Procedural Farings.

[Guest]

Unless you're stock.

In which case.

... you wouldn't be asking what mods are "must-have".

Also, OP, I suggest KAS, it's a great mod.

Edited September 5, 2013 by regex

[HeadHunter67]

Unless you're stock.

Chatterer doesn't change "stock". It's not like it requires or adds any new parts or changes your craft. It's just for the ambience.

I've got a stock build that uses Chatterer, RCS Build Aid, Part Catalog, Crew Manifest, NavyFish DPAI, SelectRoot and Subassembly Manager.

[SuperWeegee4000]

Chatterer doesn't change "stock". It's not like it requires or adds any new parts or changes your craft. It's just for the ambience.

I've got a stock build that uses Chatterer, RCS Build Aid, Part Catalog, Crew Manifest, NavyFish DPAI, SelectRoot and Subassembly Manager.

It's not about that. It's about... I don't know... just being vanilla.

[wasmic]

For part mods: KW Rocketry, NovaPunch and AIES are great. If you install these mods, though, I would advise you to delete all KW tanks and most of the AIES tanks. NovaPunch adds a ton of rocket parts, engines, launch escape towers, pods, and other usefull stuff. KW adds mainly some awesome engines. AIES adds some engines and tanks, but, most importantly, awesome probe parts.

The B9 pack adds plane parts, and lots of them.

MechJeb adds an autopilot system, but there is a lot of controversy about this specific addon.

HooliganLabs has made an airship addon, it's cool, but not a must-have.

FireSpitter adds propeller plane and helicopter parts.

FASA adds the Gemini and Mercury real life programs to KSP. It was once a part of NovaPunch.

I've never tried Chatterer, but I've heard that it's good.

[Torminator]

Mine are: B9 Aerospace, for spaceplanes

KAS, for all the cool stuff you can do with a winch.

Kethane, for the added element of resource mining, and paired with Extraplanetary Launchpads and/or Orbital Construction Redux, allows you to establish off-Kerbin bases.

Novapunch and/or KW, because often the stock 2.5M parts just aren't enough for launching heavier things without making some monstrosity that's wider than it is tall.

MechJeb, because yes, you could spend your time carefully adjusting maneuver nodes, deleting them, and making a new one a few millimeters to the left to get your orbit just right, or you can use MechJeb's node planner and editor. Some consider the autopilot cheating. This would be true if it worked well. As is, you're making a tradeoff in vastly increased monopropellant usage, slow maneuvering, strange bugs, and general annoyance. The one thing that is very necessary for me is the "align to node" function, for when you make a node and then aren't sure which way to turn to get to it. Also useful is the informational readouts. It's nice to know your delta-V in the VAB, or how much air your intakes are pulling in, or what your orbital period is, or a countdown timer for a "suicide burn" etc...

PartCatalog, not because of the organization, but because it lets you scroll through the part lists with the scroll wheel. Once you get up around 1000 parts, that becomes essential.

Editor Extensions, because it gives you much better options for symmetry/angle snap, as well as letting you switch between VAB and SPH modes on the fly. In other words, you can get the L/R mirroring of the SPH, or the cylindrical symettry of the VAB no matter where you're building. It also allows you to launch spaceplanes from the launchpad, and rockets from the runway, should that be your thing.

NavyFish's docking alignment indicator: Much better than MechJeb's Autoflail, or even Romfarer's docking cam (although the two work together quite nicely.

In terms of things that aren't must-haves, but are quite nice:

Magic Smoke Industries' Infernal Robotics (fork of Damned Robotics, which has been abandoned more or less), as it adds movable parts and cool things

Ferram Aerospace Research: Aerodynamics overhaul. Will make the game much harder, but also much easier. In other words, you need less fuel to get to orbit, but you'll need to take much more time to design your rocket properly, or it will just do somersaults.

Those are all I can think of for now.

[Horman]

Hey folks,

thanks a lot for your suggestions. I will take a look at those one by one.

What do you think about those mission controller add-ons?

[sorcerymon]

RLA Stockalike is VERY convenient (since nobody has mentioned it yet). Allows for a lot more flexibility in RCS thruster placement.

Edited September 5, 2013 by sorcerymon

[HeadHunter67]

It's not about that. It's about... I don't know... just being vanilla.

That's fine - some people prefer to play that way and it's cool. I just prefer the immersion that Chatterer adds. I feel more like a participant and less like a remote observer.

RLA Stockalike is VERY convenient (since nobody has mentioned it yet). Allows for a lot more flexibility in RCS thruster placement.

Indeed - the 45 degree RCS is wonderful for builds that require ports not at zenith/nadir/port/starboard. I also like the 5-way RCS, as it is more fuel-efficient and produces less unnecessary torque.

[Van Disaster]

Having actually got somewhere with both of them now, Kethane & Extraplanetary Launchpads almost make this a new game ( providing you don't keep resupplying from Kerbin, anyway ). I've tweaked EPL a fair bit myself, mostly to add or replace the models it comes with and nerfing the way some of them work, but working with finite resources and logistics chains is a *huge* addition, changing things all the way down to thinking about how you can reuse satellites rather than just throwing new ones up, etc. I'm going to look at seeing how I can integrate Kerbtown so I can build permanent facilities ( and not least, being able to kill physics on infrastructure would help immensely ) but that's off in the future.

[Apollo13]

Kerbal Alarm Clock. This is essential when time warping, especially over long periods.

[Apollo13]

It's not about that. It's about... I don't know... just being vanilla.

Being vanilla...hmmm.. So, if Squad were to incorporate somebody's mod into the game, then that mod is now part of the vanilla game experience. So, does that make the formerly non-vanilla mod acceptable as vanilla?

[check]

Kerbal Engineer gives you wonderful delta-V, TWR and Mass stats while you're building and displays much more orbital and vehicle information than the stock game (and you can select which info you wish to display or hide). Very handy.

Procedural Fairings is awesome too.

[Stone Blue]

If you use more than a couple mods, no matter WHAT they are, then I HIGHLY suggest KSP Mod Admin to manage them. TONS of great features!

Heck, it even has features you can use even if you dont use ANY mods...Such as the Save Game Backup/Recovery, and Flag Manager, Craft Renaming, and Craft Building Swap, Part renaming and category swapping...

You can even use it to streamline, modify/remove/re-add stock parts from the Squad folder. (You just have to make an archive of your full Squad folder, and save it in a folder outside your KSP install directory, and point KSPMA to it, and it will treat the Squad folder just like a mod. Great for cutting down your unecessary/redundant stock parts)

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/ksp-mod-admin/

Edited September 9, 2013 by Stone Blue

[Horman]

Can someone give me a Link to that AIES mod? Can't find it, neither in the forum nor in the spaceport

[Tydeth]

Can someone give me a Link to that AIES mod? Can't find it, neither in the forum nor in the spaceport

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/35383-0-21-1-AIES-Aerospace-v1-4-2

[Horman]

Thx Tydeth

[check]

I just added the Lazor Docking Cam and I think it's a mod I'm going to keep. Makes docking easier, but in a realistic way.

[DChurchill]

I just added the Lazor Docking Cam and I think it's a mod I'm going to keep. Makes docking easier, but in a realistic way.

Lazor docking cam is an absolute must, IMHO. It's too much fun to use.

[Lheim]

I find I don't install very many part collections.

Instead, I stick to things that give me info read-outs or improve the UI in other ways.

My list?

Kerbal Engineer Redux

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Subassembly Manager

SelectRoot

Improved Maneuver Nodes

Crew Manifest

.. I'm sure there's one or two more. But those are all basic utility addons; extremely handy but I still fly manual.

[Javster]

Unless you're stock.

In which case.

I see why you wouldn't want to have OP mods, but chatterer only adds nice sounds once in a while.