New to game, new to mods

[Space Hillbilly]

Greetings all! Yes this is my first post, so let me say I love this game so far. This is just the techno geeky thing I like to do as I am a part time astronomer at home. So I have a question and I want to get it right the first time, so I am hoping for some good input from you all.

Recently I tried downloading a skin for Minecraft and ended up with a virus. Adding skins to Minecraft is not exactly easy to do. That being said I am a bit gunshy about adding mods to KSP, but I want too. I know many people on here have successfully done it, and it is second nature to them. However can someone step me through adding a mod (and dont assume I know the little things)? I would greatly appreciate someones direction on this. Let's assume I want to add Deadly Re-entry...

Also are all mods found on the Spaceport? (I ask because I cant find Interstellar)

And lastly can I still play vanilla after adding the mods? or will I need to have 2 copies of the game on my PC, one vanilla and one modded?

Here is a list of mods I want to add...

• B9 Aerospace
  
• KW Rocketry
  
• Interstellar
  
• Ferram Aerospace
  
• Kethane
  

Let me thank you in advance, I really do appreciate it...

PS my PC can play Eve Online at max graphics so I am pretty sure I can handle any mod...

Edited February 5, 2014 by Space Hillbilly

[Awaras]

Some mods are not on Spaceport, but have a forum thread with download links here instead.

When you download a mod, you will usually get a .zip file. Inside this file you will find one or more folders. There is usually a 'source' folder or a file with a .cs extension somewhere in there.

You do not need this file or folder for the mod to work. It is the source file for the plugin used in the mod. This must be included in the download so that other members of the community can have a look at the source and make sure that the plugin does not do anything it is supposed to (like hiding a virus or something like that).

In addition to the source, you will probably find either a folder named after the mod or it's creator OR a folder called GameData.

Basically, if you see the 'GameData' folder, you can just copy it into your KSP folder and you are done. (There is already a GameData folder in there and you will be asked if you want to overwrite it. Just do so, it is all right).

If you see a differently named folder, or some combination of folders and files, than you need to copy all of them INTO the GameData folder in the KSP installation folder.

The mods should load up automatically the next time you run KSP. No further action is needed.

You can have multiple instalations of KSP. Just copy the entire KSP folder somewhere else and that's it, should work with no problems. Placing the KSP folder in certain places (desktop, root of C drive, etc.) can cause problems because the game might not have the permission to access those places fully. Placing the installation folder into (for example) C:\games or something like that eliminates the problem.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Awaras

[Space Hillbilly]

Awesome! Thank you very much.

[Space Hillbilly]

One more question... Do any mods conflict with each other?

[Awaras]

One more question... Do any mods conflict with each other?

Sometimes, but not often. And usually someone notices it and posts about it on the forum.

[Raptor831]

One thing about mods is that there is a hard limit on the amount of RAM that KSP can use currently. It sits at around 3.5 GB, even if you have 32 GB RAM installed. It's a limitation of the Unity engine, which KSP is built on. Mods with a lot of parts (such as B9 Aerospace and KW Rocketry) will consume tons of memory due to the part textures. On their own, it usually doesn't matter much, but when you have a bunch of mods (I have around 45 different ones installed at least in part) you'll need to pay attention. There is a mod called Texture Reduction Mod that will compress and/or resize these for you, which helps. Also there is a setting to run half-res textures in the game settings. Either of these will reduce your RAM footprint and help out.

Welcome to KSP, and happy launching (or crashing)!

[magico13]

All you really need to do to have vanilla and modded installs is keep two copies of the GameData folder and switch between them, but copying the entire KSP directory will also work (and then you launch it with the KSP.exe or the Launcher.exe in the respective folders.) If you have the Steam version of KSP and you want to run it through Steam, you cannot move the folder and still launch it through Steam (although, you can copy the folder and launch it with KSP.exe, thank you for DRM free games! But only the one in the SteamApps/common/Kerbal Space Program folder will be launched by Steam).

I've written a tool which lets you have multiple instances of the GameData folder but only one install folder (especially useful for Steam). It's called DataSwitcher and there's a link in my sig. You would just create a new instance called Stock or Vanilla and import the GameData folder, then create another instance called Modded or whatever you want and import the GameData folder again (to get the stock stuff). Then you'd just install your mods in the DataSwitcher/{Instance Name}/GameData folder and then Activate the instance in the DataSwitcher program. It's still in development, and the new version I've been working on has some improvements that make it a little more usable but isn't ready for release yet.

Alternatively there's a couple other programs available in the Tools and Applications subforum of the Addon Releases section of the forum which make installing mods and having multiple game types easier.

Welcome to KSP!

Edit:

B9 works in 0.23 but only with some extra fixes. I'm linking the thread here because its sometimes hard to find things in the forums and you said you wanted to use b9. The rest of the mods you want should all work in 0.23 without any issue.

B9 Fixes

Edited February 5, 2014 by magico13
B9 comments

[SRV Ron]

As others have said, use mods on a copy of KSP. Add one at a time and test in case of a conflict. When KSP is updated, mods may not work as before. Most modders will post updates to resolve those issues.

BTY, if you want to explore a pure astronomy sim, or Planetarium program, give Space Engine, not Space Engineer, a try.