recommended mods for KSP 1 newcomers?

[:D]

I came to KSP with KSP 2 shortly after launch. I put 1.1k hours into that i'll-fated game and just got KSP 1. What kind of QOL, graphics, and maybe content mods would you recommend for someone like me?

[QuietGoomba]

Parallax, OPMVolumetricClouds, and Kcalbeloh (WARNING, GET THE MODULE MANAGER OR ELSE THIS WONT WORK) make sure your computer is good

[Yuki]

-ReStock: Re-skins the standard parts to follow a unified art style (KSP 1 doesnt...)
-ztheme: Better GUI
-Near Future x : Near Future Solar, Exploration (...), its a whole line of mods that expands upon the techtree in a reasonable way. They also integrate well with each other.

And of course the dependencies to those. So! For starters: CKAN - a mod manager which will take care of this.

[Manwith Noname]

None.

Play the game vanilla and when you think "I wish...." just google those words with KSP in there and build your own collection of mods that fit you.

[MagicManSlim]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

None.

Play the game vanilla and when you think "I wish...." just google those words with KSP in there and build your own collection of mods that fit you.

This exactly how the mod process is. You wish you could do a specific thing, then you go look for a mod to accomplish that.

I have done the thing where you immediately install mods without playing vanilla, and I think it causes problems on a mental level.

[sooshon]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

None.

Play the game vanilla and when you think "I wish...." just google those words with KSP in there and build your own collection of mods that fit you.

this is terrible advice because there are a ton of very high quality visual-only mods that don't alter the gameplay and if you install them after 100-200 hours you'll just regret playing with the stock graphics to that point

I recommend to join the KSP discord and you can read all the helpful pinned comments in the modding section that address this exact question

[Manwith Noname]

Originally posted by sooshon:

...there are a ton of very high quality visual-only mods that don't alter the gameplay and if you install them after 100-200 hours...

Nah, there are a handful of mods to make the game more visually appealing and who said you had to play for 200 hours to decide you want to install them?

New players should play the game vanilla and not with mods someone else thinks are necessary because they might find adding those things ruins their experience. They need a baseline to form their own opinion and assess performance for themselves.

Terrible advice would be telling people to do stuff you think is appropriate after thousands of hours of playing like they don't need to learn the basics first.

[SWEETPEACHES69]

Download CKAN it makes installing mods easy. A few mods i cannot play without are
Safe chute, Astronomers visual pack, Kerbal Engineer redux, poodles skybox, Vens Parts pack and Vanilla parts re done, ScanSat, and Trajectories.

[SNJ]

How can no one mention Mechjeb, it's essential IMO. Maybe it's fine to start playing wihtout it but once you start using it, you will never want to play without.

[Yuki]

Because for a starter its overwhelming, they wouldnt even know which of the hundreds of functions to use.
And then it promotes bad habits.
Even MechJeb cant do anything against bad designs, but it can make some of them work somehow. (It works best with good ones though mind you).

But the moment you proceeded far enough that you play grav ping pong among Jool's moons or do 20 dockings a day- yes. Mechjeb. So yes, its a neat mod but not necessarily a recommendation "for starters", which was asked for here.

[Magoobleheimer]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

New players should play the game vanilla and not with mods someone else thinks are necessary because they might find adding those things ruins their experience. They need a baseline to form their own opinion and assess performance for themselves.

Manwith Noname as be around here for a long time and seems to always have wise words to share. I would agree with what he has to say.

Cheers,

[Lemur]

Visual mods (EVE, TUFX, and if ur pc can handle PARALLAX). Some quality of life mods might be good. Optionally OPM and MPE which adds the remainder of the solar system in a kerbal-ly way.

[Sambo]

Originally posted by SNJ:

How can no one mention Mechjeb, it's essential IMO. Maybe it's fine to start playing wihtout it but once you start using it, you will never want to play without.

i use hyperedit as well

[tsloth]

i dont really have much new to add but very much agree with the people saying to play the game normally first

[A Shy Player]

Originally posted by tsloth:

i dont really have much new to add but very much agree with the people saying to play the game normally first

Start telling them to play with the Real Solar System mod only (without the Real Fules/other mods needed to escape earth's orbit).

I spent many hours making every single variation of a ship with ridiculous delta-v and stagings and barely made it halfway to the atlantic before I found out the reason why I could no longer get into orbit.

[MagicManSlim]

Originally posted by Yuki:

And then it promotes bad habits.

I get what you're saying, but this is incredibly pretentious. Not everyone wants to spend 800 hours learning this game.