Good mods for a newish guy in Career mode?

[Soda Popinski]

Hi everyone,

I picked the game up about 3 weeks ago, and have mostly played stock (added Docking Port Alignment Indicator and Procedural Fairings, as I think they're realistic). So far I've managed to unlock all but one part of the tech tree, and have landed (and returned to orbit) at Duna and have a mission going to Ike. I have a decent grasp of delta-V, aerobreaking, can rendezvous well enough. Am I ready for some tougher mods?

Specifically, I'm looking at Kethane, ISA MapSat, RemoteTech2 and Ferram Aerospace. I think I'm too wussy for Deadly Re-entry and Life Support (maybe later). I want Kethane and and MapSat to give me a reason to keep exploring other planets. I want RemoteTech to give me a reason to put up satellites. I want Ferram Aerospace to make the fairings matter and not let me "cheat" the aerodynamics too much.

I'm mostly interested in the rocketry, and not so much with the airplanes, though I may venture into space-planes later.

Oh, I do plan on restarting Career mode under these new mods.

Any thoughts or advice? Am I ready for the medium league?

Edited November 19, 2013 by Soda Popinski

[Guest]

If you get FAR and you're primarily flying rockets you should also get KIDS because FAR makes it much easier to get rockets into orbit. You might also be interested in ferram4's Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, although that's more of a functionality mod. I would suggest picking up a life support mod; I consider having one installed essential but it's not like it adds any more difficulty, just more things added to the preflight checklist. Deadly Reentry isn't as bad as you think, you just have to be smart about entering atmospheres.

[Scotius]

Kethane and MapSat\SCANsat are definitely worth installing. Kerbal Alarm Clock is a must (at least for me ) TAC Fuel Balancer makes life incredibly easier when your ship carries more than two fuel tanks of any kind. Chatterer is strictly cosmetic, but it adds a lot of atmosphere to te game. KAS is highly recommended, despite still being quirky. Sometimes your station may explode, but it's worth having.

[FlamedSteak]

Universe Replacer, the 8k Kerbin skin with clouds and skybox are stunning.

[Savage117]

I would suggest you get all the mods you mention. Kethan really doesn't make the game any more challenging it just adds more things to do, and puts some resource management into the game.

I would recommend you get SCANsat instead of ISA Mapsat, its less computer resource intensive plus you can scan with multiple satellites at the same time making the process faster, and you don't have to babysit each probe while it maps, Only issue is the aesthetic side of the mod is unfinished so the parts look a little weird right now.

Deadly Re-entry isn't as bad as it sounds, I finally overcame my fear of it, tried it, and found my fear was completely unwarranted Id say the hardest part is thinking ahead and placing heat-shields accordingly, so far I haven’t tried any aerobraking maneuvers to establish orbit with DR yet, that may be a bit harder. If your moderately good at making proper re-entries you don’t even need heat-shields, you just need parts that you don’t care about in front of the ones you do.

Remote Tech 2 will make getting into outer space more difficult and time consuming, and it takes some getting used to. But it does make satellites important and useful. With stock career you will be doing a lot of manned missions within Kerbin SOI just to get the parts you need for the probes. Line of sight and distance are very important factors you will have to pay attention to for this mod.

FAR I think will be the hardest one to get used to, I still have no idea how to use the FAR info screens in the VAB or SPH, I haven't tried to learn about them much though, being lazy . But it will change how you fly, Rockets and planes, very drastically. For instance, if you go straight up and then pitch over to 45 degrees at 10k meters, for your gravity turn, you will very likely break your rocket or it will go out of control. You have to be gentle on the controls and start pitching your rocket almost immediately off the launch pad for efficient and controllable gravity turns. If you have a hard time making planes with stock, then FAR will make it even more difficult unless you have a good understanding of how real aerodynamics work, or you know how to use FAR info screens. Also fairings are pretty much required for anything that doesn’t have a aerodynamic profile, do not launch a station module sideways or strapped between a bunch of boosters without some sort of air diverting mechanism, because you will crash.

That’s the bad news, the good news though is worth it IMO. You can save almost 1k to 1.5K of Delta V with a well constructed rocket and a good ascent profile. Flying planes, once you get used to building them, is fun and intuitive and, if designed right, more efficient. Id say this mod out of the bunch you mentioned will be the one that adds the most difficulty, but that also means it gives you the most satisfaction when you succeed.

P.S. If you use autopilots of any type, they likely wont work well with FAR, MJ crashes my rocket every time I use it for launching rockets, Remote Tech 2 flight computer is very difficult to use for in atmosphere functions, and I haven't tried KOS yet due to knowing nothing about scripting, and not wanting to learn a new complex system right now, lazy again.

P.P.S.

If you get FAR and you're primarily flying rockets you should also get KIDS because FAR makes it much easier to get rockets into orbit. You might also be interested in ferram4's Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, although that's more of a functionality mod. I would suggest picking up a life support mod; I consider having one installed essential but it's not like it adds any more difficulty, just more things added to the preflight checklist. Deadly Reentry isn't as bad as you think, you just have to be smart about entering atmospheres.

What is KIDS? I don't think iv seen anything that fits that acronym. Link?

[Guest]

Kerbal ISP Difficulty Scalar. It makes FAR with stock KSP rockets hard again (because if you're at all sensible, FAR makes rockets easy.)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52882-0-22-Kerbal-Isp-Difficulty-Scaler-v1-2?highlight=kerbal+difficulty

[Soda Popinski]

Sounds good. Thanks everyone.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Far,

Deadly reentry,

And Resized Kerbin

Just kidding.

B9 aerospace, and KW rocketry are good.

[Savage117]

Kerbal ISP Difficulty Scalar. It makes FAR with stock KSP rockets hard again (because if you're at all sensible, FAR makes rockets easy.)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52882-0-22-Kerbal-Isp-Difficulty-Scaler-v1-2?highlight=kerbal+difficulty

Thank you, I have looked at that, but ATM its not compatible with B9 or Modular fuel, which im using, so its not on my list yet. FAR may make rockets easy but it makes planes harder until you get past that learning curve. But in the end i guess it does make everything easier. Thanx again, definitely watching that mod now.

[Taki117]

dont forget MechJeb! (or Kerbal Engineer if you don't want autopilot) this is assuming you dont have them already, oh and protractor, especially if you dont have MechJeb. (MechJeb kinda has protractor built in, and has lots more functionality. It's basically KER, Protractor and that one maneuver node editor that evrybody likes all rolled into one. You dont have to use autopilot, i dont.)