Do mods affect the difficulty of KSP? Discuss!

[Yarrula]

There have been a lot of posts recently discussing whether it is too easy to earn Science or Funds through contracts. Given the popularity of mods such as MechJeb and Engineer, I suspect most players are using one or the other. If the Devs balanced the game with just the stock interface in mind, would information mods like these drop the difficulty via reduced trial and error?

For example, if you know your rocket is going to have enough dV to go to the Mun, it stands to reason that your profit margin would be a lot greater than someone who guessed and over-engineered a margin of safety, resulting is too much fuel/weight being brought along. Obviously, the more skilled the player, the better that guess will be.

I don't use mods anymore, because I can't be bothered to update them and I like the guesswork engineering portion of the game. With that, I have not felt any financial strain. Sometimes, I fail launches, but I have been reverting those to the VAB and trying again after some tweaks. I do like the ability to make huge, ridiculous stations/contraptions, which wouldn't be possible without the budgetary surplus that comes along with the contract missions.

Personally, I'm enjoying the heck out of the contracts. It feels a bit like abuse when I leave a probe in orbit to pick off the "transmit science from X" contracts, but it hasn't stopped me from doing it. That's a valid reason to have stations now, which I like a lot.

Given that there are nearly as many ways to play KSP as there are players, is trying to balance the game for any particular style a futile waste of time? Someone will always be unhappy.

What do you think? Do mods play a role in a player's ability to amass a stash of cash? Or does the revert option skew every mission towards profitability regardless? Should every launch ride the razor edge of profit or does the joy of lobbing mailsail-based boosters into orbit on a whim gloss over the ease of making bank? Let me know!

[Kamuchi]

I like playing with mods as they add alot more versatility? to the game.

Ofcourse some could be seen as cheat lol

I use MJ so it saves me time as I usually f`it up one way or another, but can do it manually.

Efficiency with launches, yes and no, adding mod parts now with contracts just makes it more expensive and if you use, say RT2, you can`t just shoot probes around the solar system.

maybe it`s just me, but I`m not a fan of efficiency and throw on all sort of junk on my ships for fun, overkill or a complete lulz moment.

Did a orbital rescue from contracts and built the most stupid thing for a lol instead of a simple pod [will be posted in a couple of minutes as I just finished the edit]

It all comes down to what each and every one sees as fun in KSP

[Pecan]

There's nothing stopping someone playing stock career from building and testing vehicles in a parallel sandbox save before continuing in career. In reality, in as much as it corresponds to KSP, many simulations are run on prototypes before anyone even tries to build them so why make all your mistakes the expensive way? Similarly for KER/MJ/VOID informational mods - what's the difference between using those to tell you your deltaV, or whatever, and using a spreadsheet?

[Franklin]

The three top used mods: MechJeb, Kethane, and Interstellar can be summed up as: Autopilot, Free Fuel, and Teleporting

So yeah, we can dress around mods with 'they add yet-to-be-added dynamic options with new gameplay elements and blah blah' but ultimately a lot of them were built to make the game easier, without just directly making the game easier.

Thankfully though, they all do it in a very integrating way. New parts, everything balanced as well as the modders could presume, tech tree costs, etc. They're very well done mods.

HyperEdit on the other hand is just a tool, with no real gameplay integration, and while it's a great mod too, it was designed with pure function over form. Unlike the Big 3.

But yeah, who cares ultimately. Play ya game, enjoy ya self.

[Kamuchi]

On the Kethane mention, there is a jump portal mod out there that requires you to put a beacon at a location first, but afterwards you can use a jumpdrive.

Actually thinking of ditching Kethane completely and use a jump network to bring in fuel to distance planets as it feels less cheaty and a tad more scifi

[Yarrula]

There's nothing stopping someone playing stock career from building and testing vehicles in a parallel sandbox save before continuing in career. In reality, in as much as it corresponds to KSP, many simulations are run on prototypes before anyone even tries to build them so why make all your mistakes the expensive way? Similarly for KER/MJ/VOID informational mods - what's the difference between using those to tell you your deltaV, or whatever, and using a spreadsheet?

No difference in the end result between a mod and spreadsheet, really. It's the difference between detailed planning that tells you your dV and just winging it. Neither one is wrong, per se, but there is a definite financial advantage to the planning option. My question is when someone plans things perfectly, then flies it perfectly, is it really a balance problem in the game when they end up with large surplus cash reserves? That should be the expected outcome that goes along with making no significant mistakes.

[Blind Dead McJones]

Depends on what mods you have and how you use them. Some mods are utility mods that can help you accomplish a lot of different tasks.

One of my favorites is Kerbal Engineer Redux, which can figure out a craft's delta-V, TWR, and a whole bunch of other very helpful information. Kerbal Alarm Clock prevents you from warping past maneuver nodes, SOI changes, and whatever else you set it for. It can also help you find transfer windows. It's amazingly helpful for when you wanna run several missions at once. SCANSat lets you make maps of a planet for elevation, biomes, and even anomalies, and can help you make more precise landings by watching your orbital path on the map. Mechjeb does a lot of the stuff KER does and also has autopilot.

Some mods are there specifically to make the game more difficult. Deadly Reentry adds reentry heat which can destroy parts of a craft or even possibly the entire craft, which is normally something that you don't have to worry about. Ferram Aerospace Research requires you to add fairings for probes and other non-aerodynamic stuff, which actually requires a separate mod if I remember correctly. TAC Life Support makes you have to keep track of how much food, water, and oxygen you have or your Kerbals can die. Remote Tech makes you set up a communication network with satellites to connect to KSC, and without it you can't control probes if they don't have a direct line of sight to KSC.

Some people like the difficulty mods because they are supposed to make the game more realistic by adding in other concerns that stock KSP doesn't have. Some people just wanna play with rockets. It all depends on preference.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Blind Dead McJones
fixed paragraph breaks

[Doge]

It really depends on how you use your mods. For example, I only have Kethane installed, and I just use it to build useless bases and gas stations. However, mods like Mechjeb are just there to make the game easier.