I'm Turning to the Dark Side!

[Kaa253]

Welcome to the Dark Side!

I am running around 70 mods. (Linux 64 bit KSP recommended for that much dark side. My KSP uses around 6 Gb RAM when loaded with texture reduction turned on).

I started with MechJeb (it only makes things as easy as you want it to), then Kethane, Firespitter, KW and B9.

Next big mod change for me came when I went to FAR and DRE along with Procedural Fairings and Magic Smoke Industries Infernal Robotics. FAR and DRE make some aspects of the game hard.

I have not yet gone to RSS.

Cheers, Darth Kaa

[Bishop149]

As far as I'm concerned the two mods you have installed are doing little more than adding functionality to the game that should be there by default.

When / If KSP ever sees a "final release" version I'd be VERY surprised if Squad didn't just nick these two and make them part of the game proper.

If you want to stick with merely "add things that should be there anyway" type mods I'd recommend Universe Replacer. . . it pretties everything up no end and just makes KSP a more pleasant place to be.

If you want to delve deeper I like KAS. . . . mainly for the fact that you can do the following three things all of which are VERY useful.

- As long as there is a Kerb. around you can quickly and easily transfer fuel on the ground without faffing around with trying to align docking ports . . . . God the time I spent trying to design rovers / bases / planes etc all with docking ports EXACTLY the same height off the ground. Not sad to see the end of that.

- You can build struts on EVA. . . . finally no more horrendously wobbly docking port connections!

- You have become hugely unlucky and random shadows from your ship have blocked all your solar panels and you now have no electric charge left! Abort mission? Wait and hope the shadow might shift if you leave it long enough? Nope as long as there's a Kerb. around you can pop on EVA and move the bloody solar panel into the light..

[pslytely psycho]

Born on the dark side.

Love mods, Skyrim, GTA IV, KSP, Medieval II, etc.....

The only thing that limits me is the 32 bit limit.

Yes, you may very well be doomed.....After you install texture replacer, you will never be able to go back to a cloudless Kerbin....

[EdFred]

Spreadsheet FTW.

Possibly my nerdiest post ever.

If KER is 'cheating' then a spreadsheet is 'cheating.' After all KER is just a built in spreadsheet - at least for the VAB.

[peadar1987]

It's okay to play with mods

It's okay to play without mods

It's not okay to be snobby about how other people play the game!

I am currently running:

-Blizzy's achievement's plugin (Just a bit of fun, doesn't affect gameplay, except to give you a small amount of science points)

-Chatterer (Great for immersion, adds audio effects, Kerbal voices, beeps etc.)

-Deadly Reentry (This and Ferram Aerospace are my favourite mods)

-Ferram Aerospace (Gives more realistic aerodynamics)

-Procedural Fairings (Prettier rockets and better performance with Ferram Aerospace)

-Custom Biomes (Adds biomes to all bodies. Means there is a lot more science out there, but does add depth)

-Crowdsourced Science Logs (Adds much more science flavour text, keeps things interesting)

-Distant Object Enhancement (A nice little visual effect. Dims stars when you're looking at something bright, and shows up planets as points of light)

-Kerbal Engineer Redux (Invaluable information about your craft before and during flight)

-Kerbal Alarm Clock (Almost indispensible. Makes time warping so much less stressful, and allows me to multitask)

-KerbPaint (I haven't actually used this yet, but it looks good fun. Who doesn't like pretty rockets?!)

-Hot Rockets (Visual Effects enhancer) (Again, just to make things pretty)

-Final Frontier (Another favourite, although I only recently installed it. Keeps track of your individual Kerbals' achievements, missions, and time spent in space)

-Precise Node (makes working with manoeuvre nodes a lot less fiddly)

-Real Chutes (Stops my ships from breaking apart when the chutes open immediately, and gives more options for drogues etc.)

-Remote Tech 2 (Gives a flight computer, but in return makes probes fiendishly difficult)

-SCANSat (Fun times mapping planets)

-Treeloader (Lets me play different games with different tech trees)

I have in the past also played around with firespitter and Mission Controller, among others.

Each and every one of those mods has increased my enjoyment of the game. If that's doing it wrong, then I'm a terrible KSP player!

[Special Agent Sigvan]

So I've been playing this game for awhile now. I cut my teeth on the demo and eventually bought the full game. Throughout this time I've always played stock. I wanted to "learn" the game and mechanics before adding anything extra to the game. Now, I did utilize some on-line "helps", the parachute calculator and the interplanetary guide for example. Lately I'd been finding myself getting frustrated by having to "guess" so much on making my rockets. It was getting frustrating playing for a couple of hours only yo realize the mission you've been on the whole time was always going to fail because I didn't have enough fuel (ie dV) to make it home again. So earlier this week I relented and installed not 1, but 2 mods for the game. Still trying to rationalize my decision as not having a direct impact on the game play. I installed Engineer Redux, and Kerbal Alarm Clock. I kept telling myself that they weren't changing the game, just giving me information I should have already had.

I have already noticed a big difference running these mods. First and most noticeable, I'm finally starting to build small. I've always been afraid of not having enough fuel, enough thrust to finish a mission, so I've tended to build big. With Engineer giving me the TWR and dV of my rockets as I build them, coupled with the excellent dV charts I've started to strip down my builds.

Engineer has also helped me make my landing more efficient. I always wasted a lot of fuel coming down by slowing down too early. By placing a maneuver node on the surface set to basically zero out my velocity to show me the needed dV and estimated burn time, coupled with Engineer's terrain altitude and time to impact, I can better plan my landing burns to be later and use less fuel than before. By needing less fuel to land, I can build smaller landers. Smaller landers can be launched using smaller rockets. Or, smaller landers can be sent to farther places with my current rockets.

I can stop at just 2 right?

So, am I Doomed?

Are there cookies?

Good, now install as many weapon mods as you can and Mechjeb and others.

Joiiiinn da dak ssssiddde (Cookies come standard.)

[Seret]

If KER is 'cheating' then a spreadsheet is 'cheating.' After all KER is just a built in spreadsheet - at least for the VAB.

I'm completely ok with people calling how I play the game "cheating", because anyone who thinks that is clearly of below average intelligence, bad at telling jokes, and probably a bit smelly.

[Red Iron Crown]

I did the spreadsheet thing for a while, it works but is incredibly tedious. Especially if you want to know the dV remaining at different points during the mission.

[jwenting]

I don't quite see how mods are the dark side, as quite a few just add things that are missing from the game... Ah well, figure of speech.

Given the constant attacking by some on the forums of anyone who dares to use any mod that doesn't make things harder, I can fully understand how people get to think that using mods is bad...

Of course the best thing to do with such attacks is to ignore them and maybe make a list of those involved in them so you can know whose opinion to instantly set aside next time they utter anything at all.

[EdFred]

I'm completely ok with people calling how I play the game "cheating", because anyone who thinks that is clearly of below average intelligence, bad at telling jokes, and probably a bit smelly.

Hey, I showered............this week, I think. I also don't think there is any cheating in KSP - unless it's going against the rules set forth over in the challenge section.

[Seret]

I did the spreadsheet thing for a while, it works but is incredibly tedious. Especially if you want to know the dV remaining at different points during the mission.

Depends how you set your spreadsheet up. Mine's pretty basic, just thrust, ISP, dry and wet mass (generating min and max TWR, ÃŽâ€v, and burn time). A ship is a single line on the sheet, so you can break a mission down as if it was several ships, each on a new line.

Granted plenty of folks would indeed consider that tedious. I find it handy if I'm farting around at work and don't have KSP available. It even looks like I'm doing something work-related. Don't tell the boss...

[Red Iron Crown]

Depends how you set your spreadsheet up. Mine's pretty basic, just thrust, ISP, dry and wet mass (generating min and max TWR, ÃŽâ€v, and burn time). A ship is a single line on the sheet, so you can break a mission down as if it was several ships, each on a new line.

Granted plenty of folks would indeed consider that tedious. I find it handy if I'm farting around at work and don't have KSP available. It even looks like I'm doing something work-related. Don't tell the boss...

Mine was a bit more complex, a separate sheet for each stage where you could enter the parts and have the masses calculated automatically, but aside from that it was pretty similar. KER outclasses it in just about every way (other than using it at work ).