Mod Recomendations??

[Zeniden]

I only play career mode but since .23 came out I have been struggling to go through the science tree. The engines are far to weak in the first 3 tier's of development. Can anyone recommend any propulsion and science mod that will help speed up career mode.

[Woopert]

For propulsion, try KW Rocketry or NovaPunch.

KW Rocketry

NovaPunch

[regex]

Pretty much any mod will add to your options. KW Rocketry or NovaPunch would probably work for you; I've only used KW and it's pretty balanced until you get to the 3m parts... Well, aside from the ridiculous struts.

Obligatory "try again fully stock first".

[BlackBicycle]

I only play career mode but since .23 came out I have been struggling to go through the science tree. The engines are far to weak...

I find your lack of faith disturbing. You do not need any mods.

Personally, I see the current situation with science fun enough, if not too challenging. This is how you do it:

1. Research scientific instruments first and foremost. Plaster your vehicles with those.

2. Launch probes (manned preferable, so that you can get ground samples) all over Kerbin. Check the biome map on the wiki.

3. Research until the gravioli detector. Since then, the whole system is your oyster, because:

You take separate readings (which can be retrieved by your astronaut and stored in the return capsule) from: "In space above X biome", "High in space above X biome"., Set a polar orbit, spend a couple of RL hours, and you will have a scan of most, in not all biomes on Kerbin from low orbit. Boost the orbit, do the same thing from up high.

You can then do the same thing with Mun, then Minmus. Your first gain from the near-Kerbin missions should be way more than enough to get some tech to do the same thing with the moons. How you do it, which techs you choose, is up to you, but that's the beauty of the game : )

Best of luck, see you on Laythe!

[JiWint]

oh cmon ._.

I have completed whole career with stock parts,though I'm not very good at this game.

[Zeniden]

Actually Black I think im gonna start over and do it your way. That makes a whole lot of sense and saves me frustration from game crashes with some mods. Thank you all for the advice!

[BlackBicycle]

Zeni, in fact I myself am starting the new career, to do it my way : ) I only figured this whole way out a couple of days ago, while I was already half-way to Jool with 5 ships docked together and one tug pushing them (talk about tech advances). My tech tree is almost done, so I am through with the "campaign", as they used to call it in the days of the Hubble : )

So I am starting over, with exactly this strategy. Hope we'll share experiences (we might open a thread for that, send me a PM with a thread if you start one). This time my challenge (apart from actually making the flights), will be to figure out whether it is easier to work with Minmus rather than Mun. I'll try to take shots and all that.

In the meantime, here's a shot of my ongoing Jool mission (this run did't go very well, I realized I had to switch off most of the gyros, except for ones in the middle of the structure, in order to keep the thing from flexing itself apart):

[Zeniden]

That is a sexy looking craft you got there. I am decent at making orbit capable craft early on however I was capping out in science way to early and couldn't progress anymore without making top heavy craft that had barely enough thrust to make it to Mun. Thanks for all the info though I can't wait to try it! Add me on Facebook if you have it. [email protected].

[technion]

Whilst mods will always an answer, the concern is that there's something you're likely doing wrong. Let's start with this: have you landed and gathered surface samples, crew reports and EVA reports from several of Kerbin's biomes and low orbit? Then, a mun flyby - before trying to land there. Once you have that, a picture of your current rocket would probably lead us to advising what's wrong.

[BlackBicycle]

@ Technion - see post #4

Zeni,

Unfortunately I am allergic to Facebook (due to a simple fact that they won't let one unsubscribe, that is Big Brother all the way (hope you understand, the explanation is not something we'd want to start a discussion on, not on this forum that is, right?)

Thanks for that remark on my vessel. She is a beauty, isn't she : ?

As of mods, I've always "preached" this, both in game mods and IRL: go stock until you feel like you need more. Then get the thing that is what you want, no more (no less, if possible.) Enjoy the overall setup with the new addition. Then, if and when you feel like you need another piece, add that. Only when you really feel like you want it.

This way you will know all your mods, know exactly what they do and know how you can handle the situation should your calculations fail. Okay, this comes as an experience from the cases when the systems fail. And they do, trust me.

And as a New Year present: if I may turn your attention to a good old trusty MechJeb. You'll never be without it after you've done it with it once. Oh, my, did I just say that?? : )

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/mechjeb/

P.S. wow, a new .23 version. Been using the emergency .23 capable dev version. Wonder what's new, the dev 22 to 23 did give me a few glitches...

[SRV Ron]

Twp good Mods, Nova Punch and KW Rocketry, have a nice selection of engines and fuel systems including adapters with fuel build in. Nova Punch will integrate nicely into the 0.23 tech tree and respond to tweakables.

I'll post some early Career designs soon as I save some screen shots.

[Eric S]

I agree that this is a reason to examine your methodology more than anything else, and I don't mean to sound like I'm insulting you or anything, this game has a learning curve. I've unlocked the whole tech tree before I bothered using any engines larger than the starting engine, but I know the science fairly well.

If you can't get to orbit with the starting parts, either your ship design or your piloting skills are off. If you want to try the craft I use to do this to narrow down the ship design/piloting skill question, it's pretty basic. Mk 1 capsule, parachute on top, 10 FL-T200 tanks under it, and an LV-T30 engine under those. Maybe a Communotron-16 antenna to send crew reports on the way up. You'll come down a bit fast, but the fuel tanks make for a nice crumple zone, sacrificing themselves to save the capsule.

If you can get to orbit but aren't getting at least 100 science points on your first flight, then you may not know the science system as well as you think. I'm not talking the really impressive first missions where you go to multiple planets, I'm talking orbiting kerbin, never going higher than 260 km or so. I've managed over 130 points on that kind of flight without transmission spam. Just the EVA reports over 9 biomes plus one in high orbit should be 80 points, though you'll get fewer biomes if you're in an equatorial orbit instead of a polar one (6 if I remember correctly, so 24 fewer science points). An EVA report on the ladder before launch, an EVA report on the ladder while coasting to your apoapsis (but before you reach 68km altitude), an EVA report where you land, and probably one "flying over" where you landed. Then there's the crew reports. Even without an antenna, you can manage five crew reports, though that takes a trick that might be considered an exploit (I don't count this when I say you should get to 130 points). Then, points for a surface sample wherever you land and for recovering a craft that orbited kerbin.

That many science points should unlock decouplers, batteries, mystery goo containers, and the materials science lab. My second mission actually a suborbital flight, just bringing along as many of those parts as I can, six of each with a 260 km apoapsis being ideal. I used to go to Minmus as my second mission, not necessarily landing, but with 0.23 bringing one shot goo/mat-sci parts, I like being a little more prepared before heading to Minmus or the Mun.

As far as the tree goes, I tend to focus on getting things in the following order: T1, all of T2, beeline for solar panels (through Science Tech, not flight controls), beeline for fuel lines (through General Construction, not Advanced Rocketry). Once I've got all that, I usually focus on the science nodes that grant more science parts. To me, having the negative gravioli detector is far more important than having the 2.5 meter rocket parts, especially now that Minmus has biomes. The negative gravioli detector works on the surface, in "space near" and "high above" and respects biomes at all three of those, so that's 27 experiment results for Minmus and 45 for the Mun.

[SRV Ron]

As promised;

Nova Punch parts early tech career ship. This made Mun flyby for a bunch of tech points.

With braces unlocked, a much more efficient design for Mun and Minmus orbit and return. No fuel line yet. What is on top is a thruster pack nose cone that can be used for emergency deorbiting. It is from Nova Punch along with the Nova Punch modified nose cone parachute.

A probe lander to test later tonight. Note, those lander legs from Career 0.22 are no longer available. I saved the same basic launcher as a sub assembly. If you do so, always check the staging as it can get scrambled.

Close up of the lander probe. Only use probes after you unlock batteries and Ox Stat panels.

Edited December 31, 2013 by SRV Ron

[Zeniden]

No Worries Eric you didn't insult me. I am very very open to constructive criticism. Thank you for your advice it actually has helped a lot. Between you and Black I have done far better already. In just one hour I have been able to land on the Mun again with stock parts. In fact now I am trying to come up with colony designs. I am creating a facebook group to share photos and idea's. Add me on Face book if you like. [email protected]. Once again thanks a LOT for all the idea's!

[Zeniden]

No Worries Eric you didn't insult me. I am very very open to constructive criticism. Thank you for your advice it actually has helped a lot. Between you and Black I have done far better already. In just one hour I have been able to land on the Mun again with stock parts. In fact now I am trying to come up with colony designs. I am creating a facebook group to share photos and idea's. Add me on Face book if you like. [email protected]. Once again thanks a LOT for all the idea's! Ron several of those rockets are very similar in design to mine except for the fortification of your second rocket. I really like that. Looks solid. How is it for staging?

[Sgt. Cookie]

I would suggest Fusebox mod. What it does is give you a small window that tells you your Electrical situation, your battery life, drain, gain, etc. It is insanely useful. Check it out, no parts attached.

[Geschosskopf]

I only play career mode but since .23 came out I have been struggling to go through the science tree. The engines are far to weak in the first 3 tier's of development. Can anyone recommend any propulsion and science mod that will help speed up career mode.

Actually, the starter engines are just fine, it's that the game lacks built-in instrumentation to let you know how to build functional rockets with them. So I'd recommend getting mods that add essential information and instrumentation over mods that add parts, both for building and flying your rockets. For example:

• Kerbal Engineer Redux: shows your mass, delta-V, and TWR on any planet, by stage and in total. Pretty much essential.
  
• Mechjeb: To start with, only gives you build help as Engineer, although as you go along more of its features unlock.
  
• Enhanced NavBall: adds markers for up, down, inwards, and outwards. Makes adjusting your orbit way easier.
  
• RCS Build Aid: lets you position RCS thrusters so to translate perfectly without any unwanted rotation. Also shows CoM with full and empty tanks, allowing you to slide parts around until your CoM never changes during flight.
  
• Navyfish's Docking Indicator: makes docking an absolute breeze (assuming you can rendezvous)
  

As for propulsion mods, others have mentioned KW Rocketry and Nova-Punch. Both are excellent, but be advised that you won't be getting anything that's particularly better than stock parts until way late in the game, when they provide bigger engines and tanks that in stock. Otherwise, the mod engines are just slightly tweaked versions of the stock engines available at the same tech node. So IMHO, these mods don't make career mode any easier.

There is also a caveat about all mods, but especially those that add parts like KWR and N-P. That is, it's highly likely that they'll break your saved game at the next KSP update. Quite often, mods that worked in the previous version of the game won't work in the next version, so you're dead in the water until the modders update their mods. Depending on the modder and his real life, this might happen immediately, within a week or 2, or never. And even if/when the mod gets updated for the new game version, there's a good chance the modder will do more to it than just make it compatible with the new version. They'll throw in major changes to the mod while they're at it, which usually aren't compatible with saves of their previous versions. So, a new version of KSP comes out, you wait however long on mod updates, and then find the mod update breaks your save.

Because of this, I've cut way back on my use of mods. I use all the instrumentation ones above (and a few others like Kerbal Alarm Clock) but keep my parts mods to the bare minimum that I think are essential to enjoy sandbox mode: Kethane, KAS, and SCANsat.

BTW, SCANsat gives you extra science for mapping planets so will speed things up for you slightly.

[Sirine]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62814-Tutorial-Beginner-Science

The best for beginner. Highly recommended.

[celem]

If you are having difficulty with the rocket designs then the only mod I would recommend would be Kerbal Engineer Redux. I could not recommend that one highly enough.

If you are not a mathmatician or engineer(or willing to learn some), then this is a major headache-saver when learning how this actually works.

Otherwise I would be careful with the mods, a reasonable number in these forums actually increase the difficulty curve in some fashion. I didn't start adding the packs like kw/np until i was chasing really really large payloads. If you find yourself doing a lot of orbital assembly for huge craft and find it tedious then the large diameter parts on launchers lets you lift a lot more in single pieces.

The utility mods are good places to start. Kerbal engineer, alarm clock, maybe a manoeuvre node mod. Dont add mechjeb if you think you will let it start flying a lot of your missions, you need to learn how to do this, mechjeb is for automating it when its the zillionth time and you are busy.

[SpaceGremlin]

Hooligan Labs airship mod. Some of the balloons unlock very early in the tech tree, and you can use them to easily access the many biomes near the KSC. You can clean science out of the KSC, launch pad, runway, shores, water, grasslands, and highlands. That provides enough science to unlock parts for easy Mun/Minmus missions.

[SRV Ron]

No Worries Eric you didn't insult me. I am very very open to constructive criticism. Thank you for your advice it actually has helped a lot. Between you and Black I have done far better already. In just one hour I have been able to land on the Mun again with stock parts. In fact now I am trying to come up with colony designs. I am creating a facebook group to share photos and idea's. Add me on Face book if you like. [email protected]. Once again thanks a LOT for all the idea's! Ron several of those rockets are very similar in design to mine except for the fortification of your second rocket. I really like that. Looks solid. How is it for staging?

Bob's Craft has stock parts and the probe payload is all stock. The Novapunch upper stage engine has a generator that the LV-909 lacks. Jeb Two is all Novapunch except for the capsule and Goo containers.

Have your rocket going straight prior to burnout. The staging ring will slide straight back off.

The bracing design results in a very stable launch as it prevents twisting on the radical decouplers that can cause unwanted rotation, pitching, and premature disassembly.

[Dispatcher]

I recommend Kerbal Engineer (and the use of a dV chart) simply to be able to focus on a mission without guessing about the ship mass, fuel needs, TWR; that sort of thing. I also enjoy seeing my apoapsis stats without using map mode; so I stay in game view until I kill my thrust upon reading the proper peak.

As always, anyone not wishing to use these things can simply avoid doing so.

[SRV Ron]

I recommend Kerbal Engineer (and the use of a dV chart) simply to be able to focus on a mission without guessing about the ship mass, fuel needs, TWR; that sort of thing. I also enjoy seeing my apoapsis stats without using map mode; so I stay in game view until I kill my thrust upon reading the proper peak.

As always, anyone not wishing to use these things can simply avoid doing so.

That's half of the fun with KSP. Designing something by trial and error without the benefits of Kerbal Engineering Mod. Of course, that and Mechjeb makes mundane tasks such as assembling ships and stations in orbit, or bases on other worlds, a lot easier.