Mod advice.

[NoZerone]

I just recently got into KSP, and I have watched a ton of videos on youtube. Today I was finally able to play with out my computer crashing (got a new PCU), and now I'm looking to get some mods. I'm wondering if y'all can give me some advice/ideas on what mods to get.

I already downloaded

B9 Aerospace

Mechjeb

KW rocketry

One thing I'm really interested in doing, is building like this guy does here

. Was hoping someone knew what mod he was using to be able to do that, or if there is an option already in KSP that allows you to do that.

[Yemo]

Looks like "procedural dynamics" for the wings.

For rockets, there is also "procedural parts". If you generally prefer procedural construction, you may want to take a look at my SETI-BalanceMod (link in signature).

The first post also contains a mod list, which might provide you with inspiration regardless of of the SETI mod.

[Commander Jebidiah]

You may also want to download Active Texture Management, doesn'doesn't aed parts just makes it possible to have more mods by compressing textures meaning less RAM usage

[rynak]

Without some more detail on what you're interested in, people will just post their favorite mods.

Anyways, here are some mods that mainly are about usability - stuff that should be stock:

- VOID: Displays orbital information in a HUD, without you having to go to the map

- Landing Height: Makes the stock altimeter display true distance to the ground

- In flight waypoints (shows you the contract waypoints in flight, instead of just on the map) (only relevant in career mode)

- KerbalJointReinforcement: Stops your vessels from wobbling like a stack of pancakes

- Navball Docking Port Alignment indicator: What the name says... when setting a docking port as the target, shows you its position and orientation on the navball

- ScienceAlert: If you don't want those experiments to be pure guesswork (But irrelevant if you only play sandbox mode)

- Trajectories: When descending from orbit into the atmosphere, shows you the actual trajectory on the map (including atmospheric drag effects)

- Stock bugfix mods (see pinned thread in the mod release forum)

- Trim Indicators (this might be a bit hard to find - try google. Shows you the position of your trim, so that it isn't trial and error)

- MapShowNavball: Automatically shows you the navball when switching to the map (this might be stock now, i'm not sure)

- NoMoreGrind: Let's you reduce the ridiculous prices for facility upgrades (only relevant in career mode)

- ImprovedChaseCam: Relevant if you design planes - makes the chase camera view behave more useful. Optionally also switches to chase cam at launch.

Dependencies (a lot of mods depend on those):

ModuleManager, Toolbar, Firespitter

Edited January 25, 2015 by rynak

[Sarayakat]

I would add Kerbal Alarm Clock to rynaks list. It allows you to do do more than one thing at a time by storing alarms for SOI change, burns, intercepts and more. I couldn't play without it.

[Astrofox]

Procedural fairings, you can't survive FAR without them.

[*Aqua*]

One thing I'm really interested in doing, is building like this guy does here

. Was hoping someone knew what mod he was using to be able to do that, or if there is an option already in KSP that allows you to do that.

He used Infernal Robotics for the moving platform in the cargo hold. Notice, there's someone who is developing new parts for that mod which look really pretty.

For the wings he used Procedural Wings. There's also a competitor in the making by the guy who did B9.

You'll probably need Active Texture Management as you must be quite close to the memory limit. If you're game crashes on loading this is the mod for you!

[NoZerone]

I really appreciate all the tips/advice. Thanks =D

[NoZerone]

I downloaded these mods, and a few others that were listed on the post these were in. Enjoying the game a lot more now, and have made some (imo) awesome planes.

Now though, I'm looking for some more realism. A friend told me that the engines in the game aren't very realistic, as in the thrust of the engines are weaker than they would be in the real world. Was also told there is a mod to fix that, but my friend couldn't remember the name.

While looking around, trying to find this mod I came across something that seemed interesting. What is this FAR, and NEAR thing that I'm seeing here and there that makes the physics more realistic.

I read that FAR is more of a challenge? Well, I quickly got over the challenge of building my first plane in stock. I didn't build any small plane either, but a fairly large one. Have only been playing KSP for about a week now, and the game seems pretty easy to get around. Would like something that is more realistic, and maybe more challenging.

[technicalfool]

I downloaded these mods, and a few others that were listed on the post these were in. Enjoying the game a lot more now, and have made some (imo) awesome planes.

Now though, I'm looking for some more realism. A friend told me that the engines in the game aren't very realistic, as in the thrust of the engines are weaker than they would be in the real world. Was also told there is a mod to fix that, but my friend couldn't remember the name.

While looking around, trying to find this mod I came across something that seemed interesting. What is this FAR, and NEAR thing that I'm seeing here and there that makes the physics more realistic.

I read that FAR is more of a challenge? Well, I quickly got over the challenge of building my first plane in stock. I didn't build any small plane either, but a fairly large one. Have only been playing KSP for about a week now, and the game seems pretty easy to get around. Would like something that is more realistic, and maybe more challenging.

I wouldn't call it more of a challenge, so long as you take account of FAR's tendency to tear wings off at the slightest provocation. NEAR is basically a nerfed FAR (go ahead and ask Ferram about it). If you're looking for uber-masochism mode, I'd suggest using RSS (Real Solar System) and DRE (Deadly Re-Entry). That will scale everything up to proper-planet size, give you a bunch more launch pads to launch from, and, well, turn Kerbin into Earth, Duna into Mars, Eve into Venus, etc. You can also get texture packs for RSS, though I wouldn't recommend running more than the 4K textures in 32 bit KSP.

Also if you're running with RSS, you will more than likely want a "big parts" pack so that you can get into orbit without murdering your CPU through excessive part count. I've found the SpaceY Lifters mod to be a pretty lightweight large-part pack that can fit alongside FAR, RSS, Mechjeb2, DRE and the 4K texture pack in a 32 bit install without busting the RAM budget or relying on texture-reduction mods.