Hi, pleasantly surprised newbie here!

[velve]

Hi there folks

Short story time here, was down the bar the night before hanging with my mates. So we get on to the topic of simulation games "Me" being one of the biggest fans of this niche ramble on about my favourites out of my stack of sims reaching about two metres in height "bit of an over-exaggeration", so anyway thinking I know it all, my one mate says "have you played Kerbals?" Thinking back I remember Seeing KSP, with its Kerbals wanting to go into space etc, but never thought much of it.I thought it might just be another "Flash onliney type game" with not much content and fun for about an hour. "No its actually pretty decent" he says.

Oh boy, yesterday I look over the game, giving it a hawk eye and thinking I'll give that a go. What an amazing breath of fresh air it is! I could see from some comments that this game is quite technical thats why I went ahead and bought it, but wow just wow. I am loving it.

So theres my "stumbleupon" I'm not really into space and NASA etc. but if there is one thing that is slowly changing that its KSP! I have varied interests so I catch on pretty fast.

I guess im just here to introduce myself and explain that I am a happy camper, joining the KSP ranks! Hope to hear from you guys and perhaps if someone can think off the bat of some mods for a newbie, perhaps one or two to get started with? I'm not into fantasy mods, strictly realism/gameplay enhancing. Sure I have searched around but I have no idea or reference as to whats good, and mods seem to be an integral structure of the KSP fanbase.

[Vanamonde]

Hello velve and welcome to the forum. Yes, whatever your previous background and interests, you will soon find yourself doing delta-V math and throwing around names like Hohman and Oberth, because that's how your cute little green guys get to interesting places.

Oh, and I can't recommend any mods because I prefer to play stock. But someone will come along soon and suggest some, I'm sure.

Edited June 15, 2014 by Vanamonde

[Claw]

Heya, and welcome!

I remember finding KSP and feeling exactly the same way. I still have a copy of the original SimCity and up.

I am also mostly a stock player. I would highly recommend playing it clean, for at least a little while before you pop any mods in there.

However, if you are only looking to install a mod or two then here are my suggestions. They don't really effect gameplay, but they make it a little easier to design, build, fly, and run a space program.

The first mod I would recommend is something that displays a craft's stats. The exact one will depend on how much "help" you want, but I'll list two common ones so you can decide. They list things like deltaV (a measure of how much maneuvering you can do) and thrust-to-weight ratio, among a huge list of other stats.

1A) MechJeb 2.0 - MJ for short. I use this one because I prefer the look of the interface. MJ also includes an autopilot. For this reason, some people think it's cheatery. I rarely use the autopilot, so whatever. However, I would say if you use this addon, avoid the temptation to let it do all the flying if you get stuck. Although the autopilot feature does make a nice teaching tool on occasion. It is not, however, always the best at flying.

1B) Kerbal Engineer Redux (KER) - Provides just about all of the same stats as MJ, but no autopilot. If you are afraid of being tempted by MJ's autopilot, than this mod is very similar. Without the autopilot, KER carries less "cheater-pants" baggage.

2) Kerbal Alarm - This is handy because you can use it to set reminders to pay attention to specific craft. It is really helpful when running several missions at the same time. For example, if you are playing with a craft and have an interplanetary capture coming up another craft, you can use the alarm to remind you so that you don't miss your orbital capture. (Or so you don't time warp past it, which is really annoying.)

Those mods don't change stock in any way, except to add a couple parts for MJ and/or KER. Alarm is just a little button in the corner of the screen. I use MJ and Alarm to make design and flight management easier.

Other common/popular mods that aren't sci-fi-esque (which I haven't used):

- Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR) - overhaul of the stock aerodynamics. Forces you to create more aerodynamic rockets, aircraft, and spaceplanes.

- Procedural Fairings (PF) - Creates nice fairing coverings for your rockets. Pretty much necessary if you use FAR.

- Tactical Life Support (TAC LS, or just TAC) - Forces you to bring food/water/air along with for your kerbals. No more decades long orbits in just a space suit...

- Kerbal Attachment System (KAS) - provides options for attaching/removing things in flight with kerbals on EVA. Also adds some parts like winches.

There are a huge amount of mods. So what mod to use really depends on what you are interested in doing with KSP. That is why I recommend playing it without mods for a bit before you pick some. Find out what interests you. Visuals? Airplane parts? Physics improvements? There are sooooo many including clouds, cities, helicopters. It's actually sort of unbelievable.

The other advantage to playing stock first is that you can extend replayability for a long time by adding mods in later, after you figure out all the basics and tricks.

Anyway, I think this post has gotten way to long. Hopefully I didn't get ninja'd.

Edited June 15, 2014 by Claw

[velve]

Nice to meet you guys

Thanks a million Claw. I fully agree with you, I am currently busy with my vanilla play-through. Since I am aiming mostly at physics mods I would not know how they influence the game unless I know how the stock game plays. I am hanging out in the forums between mission launches so I can learn some things first too.

As for the rest of your suggestions they sound amazing. now that you mentioned mods that make building easier/more functional I think those would be paramount. I will definitely look into them. As for the Autopilot....there is no way, I love piloting my crafts, no amount of temptation would change that....I need my fix, and a good challenge delivers that. Again, love the sound of those mods.

[Claw]

Those are all great things to do at the beginning. I learned a ton by lurking the forums.

...As for the Autopilot....there is no way, I love piloting my crafts, no amount of temptation would change that....

That's cool.

I chose MJ purely because of looks and the way the windows are organized. It wasn't until later that I figured out it has an autopilot. I agree with you on the pilotage thing. I do let MJ launch from time to time (about the only thing I trust it to do), but I've only let it land once just to see. Oh, and I let it try to dock once and watched in horror as my space station lab module crash through the power section. Never again, haha.

Use what works for you, and don't listen to other people's baggage. It's YOUR game!

[ArmchairGravy]

Welcome, velve! I, too, am an avid simulation player. I've dumped more hours into KSP than I thought possible. Stock up on caffeine as you're going to be missing sleep!

[velve]

Welcome, velve! I, too, am an avid simulation player. I've dumped more hours into KSP than I thought possible. Stock up on caffeine as you're going to be missing sleep!

Ah man this is so true, luckily my college break has just begun! Couldn't have come at a better time.

I missed a lot of sleep last night but guess what, I finally managed my first orbit! Such a simple thing but nonetheless gave me quite a tough time haha. Slowly working my way through the tech tree struggling for research, fortunately all my failed orbits managed to land me on some interesting biomes on kerbal. So they werent exactly wasted

[-root]

So they werent exactly wasted

Thats kinda the trick to the entire game I think. Learn something from every launch, even if it fails horribly. Welcome to the forums and the game.