Great plans need great preparation.

[Agost]

Hullo! I'm Sc... no, wait. I'm Agost but I almost fell in love with the (great) Scott Manley's Interstellar Quest series, so I'm going to play a heavily modded version of KSP... when I'll have the game.

Yes, you may think "why should you plan this ahead if you still haven't the game?". Good question. I'm simply waiting for the next sale to get it, then I'm going to install the mods immediately and test the stability in sandbox just before starting the full career mode. Since it's a beefy modlist, I'd like to be prepared before starting in order to avoid issues.

So, I'm asking you guys to give me advices on which mods to install and how to tweak them to adjust their settings ( like the ones for DRE ). Since the 64bit windows version is still very buggy and unsupported by modders, I'm going to play with the 32bit one, so I'll have to account for RAM limitations. Hope it's the right section where to ask this kind of long questions.

Here there are the mods I'd like to install:

- FAR ( the most important one imho )

- Deadly Reentry

- Interstellar Mod ( obviously )

- Active Texture Manager

- B9 Aerospace Pack

- Kerbal Alarm Clock

- Kerbal Engineer

- KW Rocketry

- Infernal Robotics

- TAC Life support and Fuel balancer

- Better Atmospheres

- Crowd sourced science logs

- Vanguard EVA parachutes

- Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

- Kerbal Attachment System

- Distant Object Enhancement

- Docking port alignment indicator

- RealChutes

- Trajectories

Not-sure list:

- ISP scaler ( the stock behaviour for ISP is quite strange, I'd run this only to make thrust scale with ISP and not fuel consumption )

- Remote Tech? ( this could make things TOO difficult )

- DebRefund paired with RealChutes?

- Enhanced Navball? ( does the game still needs it after the latest version? )

- Something like MKS/OKS?

- SCANSat? ( pick landing points and look for biomes )

Do you know any dependencies/incompatibilities about these mods?

Feel free to give any other suggestion ( both about the modlist and my english, since it's not my primary language ). I'd really like to have a realistic career, but not so realistic that could get boring and frustrating ( no real sized bodies).

I'll run KSP on an i7 920 ( currently at stock clock since I've formatted recently, probably @3.6 GHz when playing KSP ), 6 GB of ram, a GTX 670 and... a hard drive, which makes me wonder how long loading times will be. My good old i7 should manage KSP well when overclocked, I think.

I think I'm going to buy a joystick, too. The thrustmaster hotas X looks promising, does anyone have it? Do you advice something else? Will a xbox 360 controller be enough at least for the first weeks for both rockets and spaceplanes?

Thank you in advance. Fly Safe

Edited November 5, 2014 by Agost

[Red Iron Crown]

Not-sure list:

- ISP scaler ( the stock behaviour for ISP is quite strange, I'd run this only to make thrust scale with ISP and not fuel consumption )

That is an option with that mod, as I understand it.

- Enhanced Navball? ( does the game still needs it after the latest version? )

Depends. Stock now has the additional markers, but lacks Enhanced Navball's ability to resize and reposition the navball.

- A mod that calculates landing points accounting for atmosphere and celestial body rotation... can't remember the name!

Trajectories.

I stopped using Kerbal Joint Reinforcement after 0.23.5, though some players still use it. Its graceful application of gravity upon initial vessel load is still useful.

A controller or joystick is a luxury, not a necessity. I have only ever used keyboard and mouse for KSP, and I'm sure there are many others who do the same. That said, a better controller is an improvement, one I'm considering when I build a new PC. Your PC specs are more than adequate for KSP. Load times are primarily affected by the number of mods installed (especially part packs), so your proposed mod list will slow things down a bit. Loading in KSP is CPU-bound, switching from a hard disk to SSD makes very little difference (though there are big benefits for other computer use).

[Agost]

Depends. Stock now has the additional markers, but lacks Enhanced Navball's ability to resize and reposition the navball.

So I probably won't add the enhanced one

Trajectories.

Exactly!

I stopped using Kerbal Joint Reinforcement after 0.23.5, though some players still use it. Its graceful application of gravity upon initial vessel load is still useful.

Didn't remember about that functionality. Added.

A controller or joystick is a luxury, not a necessity. I have only ever used keyboard and mouse for KSP, and I'm sure there are many others who do the same. That said, a better controller is an improvement, one I'm considering when I build a new PC. Your PC specs are more than adequate for KSP. Load times are primarily affected by the number of mods installed (especially part packs), so your proposed mod list will slow things down a bit. Loading in KSP is CPU-bound, switching from a hard disk to SSD makes very little difference (though there are big benefits for other computer use).

It was very difficult to land a capsule on the Mun in the demo with the keyboard... probably the 360 controller ( which I already have ) could be at least better than WASD keys. I'd like to have a joystick because I love spaceplanes.

Hope KSP will get unity5 as soon as it's released. Multithreaded KSP would be fantastic

SCANSat added to the not-sure list

Edited November 5, 2014 by Agost

[Alshain]

Based on your mod list it looks like you plan to build planes. You might consider NavUtilities to help you find the runway and it even has a built in PAPI system. If you like flying IVA it comes with RPM support (which I think is still included in B9)

Also because your using EVE/BA you might as well complete the package and use PlanetShine too.

DebRefund still hasn't been updated as far as I am aware and it's buggy in 0.25. However StageRecovery is a good alternative.

Joysticks are really opinion, but given this is more of a space game than a flight game, I prefer the keyboard. In fact I prefer a 1 handed keyboard for KSP.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Alshain

[Aethon]

Couple things to think about.

I'd advise you to play stock for a while, until you're comfortable with the game. When you do finally get it, you are going to be overwhelmed by the stock parts and their functionality. Adding all those mods is going to make this much worse. Do yourself a favor and learn stock first.

Interstellar quest is a great series ( yesterdays episode 90[?] marks a year since the first one ) but I don't think that mod list is compatible with the current version of the game. Scott has mentioned that he's still playing in .24(?) and won't be able to update his version because of incompatibility issues.

Hope this helps.

Good luck. You're in for a heck of a ride.

[Starman4308]

As mentioned: play stock or near-stock first. It's hard enough to get your bearings without throwing so much at yourself right off the bat. Some of them (Kerbal Alarm Clock, Kerbal Engineer, Trajectories, etc) are just plain useful, both others, particularly Deadly Reentry and FAR, are just complicating things too much. You can also trim down your RAM usage by using fewer part packs.

I haven't needed anything beyond a keyboard, and I suspect you wouldn't need anything more than one of those basic Logitech joysticks if you wanted nice spaceplane handling. Do be aware that because Unity uses the raw joystick input instead of the calibrated joystick input, there may be issues.

[Alshain]

Oh, this is your first time playing? Ignore what I said then, remove all the part mods and difficulty mods from the list including interstellar. Play stock with just informational and graphics mods. Your current list whittled down:

- Kerbal Alarm Clock

- Kerbal Engineer

- Better Atmospheres

- Crowd sourced science logs

- Distant Object Enhancement

- Docking port alignment indicator

- Trajectories

Others:

- NavUtilities

- FinePrint (may be stock by the time you get the game)

- PlanetShine

- Custom Biomes (may be stock by the time you get the game)

The reason for this is you need to learn the basics. Learn to walk before you run. Wade in before you swim.. yeah you get it. Interstellar, DRE, Life Support, these are all very exciting but they were made to add a challenge for those getting bored with stock, you haven't even started stock yet so that doesn't apply to you... yet. I almost would say install NEAR or FAR right away too, this is an opinion but we know an aero engine is in the works for stock and it's probably better to get accustomed to it sooner than later.

[Agost]

I already have about 25 hours of play on the demo, which I think is far more difficult than the current stock version ( strange SAS, limited parts etc ). Managed to land many times on the Mun and even obtaining free return trajectories with low dV requirements

Moreover, I've already watched all the interstellar quest series and many other scott manley's KSP videos ( even those about orbital mechanics )

I'd try sandbox before starting career, just to make sure everything works fine. I'm checking mod compatibility with current version and looks like almost all are officially compatible with 0.25, except for crowd founded science logs and distant object enhancement, both of which shouldn't cause any problem since they don't change much in game code

[Oafman]

If you're brand new to KSP, then having all those mods will give you a vast selection of parts. While this may not sound like a bad thing, it will be hard to become familiar with all of them at once, and therefore hard to know the best suited part for a particular requirement.

I think there's a lot to be said for starting with Stock, or Stock plus a few mods, and getting to know which parts do which jobs in which ways. Then build gradually, learning about new parts as you add them.

The other point with all those mods is RAM. Your machine is good, but the limit is with the game (4GB RAM). ATM helps a lot, but many of us also remove certain parts which we feel we don't need, or are duplicates of others. Without knowing the stock and mod parts, you won't know at first which ones you need and which you can do without.

You're also adding in many of the difficulty mods (FAR, DRE, TACLS etc), so you're immediately on hard mode. I have a lot of time for your ambition, but you can expect to find the game quite unforgiving with all this stuff added.

But heh, maybe you like a challenge. Good luck to you. I actually quite like your approach, hard though it will be.

And the list of mods you've chosen is excellent. KSP is twice the game when you add in many of the amazing mods which this community creates.

I would recommend Remotetech, I think it's great. It does add a challenge, but certainly not an insurmountable one; just enough to keep you thinking about it. Scansat is very cool too.

One more I recommend is the Near Future packs, or at least some parts of them. Manley doesn't seem that keen on them, I remember him moaning about the way they integrate with the tech tree, or something along those lines. But they are excellent, especially the propulsion and power aspects, and add a whole bunch of new ways to move stuff around. NF does not require as much thought and commitment as KSP Interstellar, but I think it's nice to have plenty of options for propulsion that are not LFO.

[LethalDose]

FAR, DRE, and TAC-LS are mods you can start with and you'll be okay. They're relatively intuitive (FAR makes planes fly like planes, DRE you kind of expect, and same with TAC). I honestly think it's better to start with them installed so you don't have to re-learn them later, especially FAR.

Kerbal engineer and alarm clock are tools that should be in stock. Use them.

I would recommend not using any parts mods (KW, KSPI, etc) until you have more experience with the game (25 hours really isn't that much). I think when you can comfortably fly to and land on both the Mun and Minmus, it may be time to start adding parts mods. The exception would be procedural fairings (or only KW fairings), due to FAR. Also, given the drama around RealChutes, I'd recommend just avoiding that one.

[CriticalChewie]

Hello!

Given your past playtime with the demo, I see no reason not to go with what you intend, which I'm not sure is actually that much harder than stock(*). It does require to get to know more parts and their quirks but that's also where the fun is

That said, I'm currently running an "Interstellar Quest"-type game, and I can confirm that all your "required" and "maybe" mods work well together with the following few exceptions:

- Infernal Robotics works in principle but I've had so many stuck hinges making shuttles unlandable that I've given up on it. YMMV

- I'm not using Better Atmospheres after having some issues with it in .24, and I don't think it has been updated since v5 for 0.23.5, maybe it still works though?

- DebRefund: never tried, no idea. I use Kerbal Construction Time (awesome, makes the game feel much more strategic) and it includes a stage recovery thing that works quite well and is also compatible with RealChutes.

You will definitely want ActiveTextureManagement, I personally like to add GreenSkull's configs in the "GFX optimized" variant (google "greenskull atm 1.1" to find them I think, if they can be found anywhere more obvious or if something newer exists, I hope someone can point to that). You may also want to use the "-force-opengl" option which can drop memory use dramatically (my game is ~3.2 GB on startup with directX, 1.9GB with OpenGL); there may be an impact in performance depending on your GPU/drivers, though I understand it's ok for most.

As for RemoteTech, I've used it on and off, but I think I actually very much like the challenge of designing and deploying efficient relay networks (even though I was apparently doing it wrong until recently, didn't know about aiming dishes at planets/moons); it's a bit of a game within the game though so you may feel it distracts from the main stuff.

Other than that, I'd recommend a few more "utility" type mods: PreciseNode, NavHud (awesome, that), maybe Action Groups Extended, EditorExtensions and SelectRoot. For flavor, I enjoy Final Frontier and Fine Print gives me lots of variety in contracts. Finally, I use MechJeb (solely for readouts, no automation) rather than KER as I've found the latter to be occasionally very wrong in delta-v calculations (especially with exotic staging and/or multiple payloads).

Well that was a bit of a rant but I hope it helps!

Cheers

Edit:

(*) Well, I thought on this and while FAR is not a complete game changer for rockets and TACLS is mostly just an extra thing to put on board, DRE can really be a killer, so it really will be harder than stock

Also regarding the RealChutes issues, there is that bug that staging does not deploy chutes and you need an action group. Other than that it works for me.

Edited November 5, 2014 by CriticalChewie
I thought of a couple of things

[Agost]

given the drama around RealChutes, I'd recommend just avoiding that one.

What drama? I wanted to get RealChutes for the gradual deploy, to avoid breaking things

[Starman4308]

What drama? I wanted to get RealChutes for the gradual deploy, to avoid breaking things

StupidChris gave up on RealChute for a while after an unauthorized x64 fork coincided with personal difficulties. He's coming back to supporting it in a couple weeks, and RealChute is pretty good (so long as you delete the stock parachute config in the RealChute/Module Manager folder), but there was quite a bit of x64-related drama about it.

[Agost]

KSP on sale @ humble store!

Do the devs get the same amount of cash they'd get from Steam if I buy it on the humble store?

However, I've tested my first ever spaceplane on stock KSP. It was very unbalanced but I managed to get into orbit and land on hills without crashing; it wanted to nosedive a lot since its CoM shifted too much forward as fuel burned. A joystick would be VERY useful... I may try with a 360 controller asap

Edited November 8, 2014 by Agost

[superm18]

Dont hesitate to delete parts you won't need! I play with 112 mods and deleting parts, is the one best thing to reduce ram usage.

You could install producual fuel tanks and then delete all tanks from every mod and the stock ones and that's just the beginning :-) hope it helps you

[LethalDose]

Dont hesitate to delete parts you won't need! I play with 112 mods and deleting parts, is the one best thing to reduce ram usage.

You could install producual fuel tanks and then delete all tanks from every mod and the stock ones and that's just the beginning :-) hope it helps you

If someone hasn't played the game extensively, they don't know what parts to delete. Also, deleting critical parts, e.g. tanks and parachutes, puts a lot of faith in those mods. You really can't remove them if you have any missions in progress because all your ships will have those parts and be deleted without the mod.

So if there are any bugs or incompatibilities, it will wreck your game. Also, if some of the mod authors have a history of, say, "rage-quitting" their mods, that's going to lead to the same problems.

[Agost]

The only parts I'm going to remove are the HX parts from B9, since they would be quite impossible to bring in orbit using FAR.

I'm going to install tweakscale however, it can be useful to reduce part count and it's almost mandatory for infernal robotics AFAIK

[Agost]

Currently testing all the mods, I'm adding too many D: