Tips on mod/plugin selection

[CoriW]

Hello, I've had a problem for awhile with having way too many mods, by that I mean I have so many mods I worry more about maintaining my mods than actually playing the game. I've been considering going back to pure stock but then think about how many mods/plugins I would miss greatly, so I've come here to ask if anyone has any tips on how to limit mod selection? Or do we all have this problem of wanting all the things?

[gl0ryh0und]

Ha I feel your pain, actually I'm on the fence myself. I have some mods I avoid for personal taste reasons, a couple because they are overly complex or buggy. What I try to do is focus on plugins and get really picky about my part mods.. that is where most of the bloat goes.

[CoriW]

Yeah basically I have a set of mods I've been using, and every time I'm go through them to reduce the number of mods, I end up coming up with reasons to convince myself why I should keep each one. >.< It really get's bad when your up at 30+ mods/plugins.

EDIT: Right so I've been going through my mods for the last hour and out of the 32 I started with I managed to let go of 10 of them... But the only problem is somehow during that process I found 7 new mods I want to try. xD

EDIT: Maybe I should just pick my 10 most used mods/plugins? Because apparently if I just try to pick my favorite ones I quickly vary between which ones are my favorites.

EDIT: On the other hand I have some mods that are newer that I haven't had a chance to use at all yet... So that way would eliminate mods that I might otherwise use a lot. Darn.

Edited December 16, 2013 by CoriW

[gl0ryh0und]

Yeah basically I have a set of mods I've been using, and every time I'm go through them to reduce the number of mods, I end up coming up with reasons to convince myself why I should keep each one. >.< It really get's bad when your up at 30+ mods/plugins.

EDIT: Right so I've been going through my mods for the last hour and out of the 32 I started with I managed to let go of 10 of them... But the only problem is somehow during that process I found 7 new mods I want to try. xD

EDIT: Maybe I should just pick my 10 most used mods/plugins? Because apparently if I just try to pick my favorite ones I quickly vary between which ones are my favorites.

EDIT: On the other hand I have some mods that are newer that I haven't had a chance to use at all yet... So that way would eliminate mods that I might otherwise use a lot. Darn.

I took a different bent, I went through and decided.. what kind of game do I want to play? do I really need the bigger parts? do I really need the really cool complicated stuff? So what I basically did is peel away the fluff and build up a list of mods that represented the type of game I wanted to play.

Some Mod packs add excessive amounts of parts to try and accomplish a unified look for their mod, that's fine, but not my idea of an efficient use of the limited resources the game has.

Some try to reinvent the wheel with everything they do, or make things over complex

I've given up on procedural anything, really have difficulty making parts stick to them just the way I want.. I find them wonky and more difficult to work with than static parts, couldn't be bothered.

FAR, this mod is really cool. I tried it for a while, but it doesn't fit with the game experience I want.

KAS, this mod makes me drool and depresses me at the same time, too buggy yet.

Interstellar, another drool worthy mod. ZZZ I think is one of the really good artists in this community and his work is something to behold in game. Way too complex to bother with unfortunately. Or rather suffers from Feature bloat.

B9 just too much stuff, a fine example of bloat but so damn beautiful. The best IVA work and all those lovely lovely cargo bays and wing parts.. <sigh> too bloaty it was out.

Damned robotics is my next experiment, It looks complex but so cool.. I hope its' not so complex as to be a bore tho.

My go to mods are

Engineer Redux

Docking port align

Kethane

Fustek

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

THSS

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Chatter

Service compartments by Nothke

Fatman nuclear engine parts

I'm also developing my own parts mod, but in its' current state it would probably just be an embarrassment to share. My modelling is not release worthy.