CKAN modlist files for Kerbal Space Program. Inspired by GiantWaffle's 2019 KSP playthrough and mod collection. Unfortunately, his CKAN file reflects several errors (requiring manual ScanSat install, using the abandoned fork of Engine Lighting, missing Trajectories fix, etc). In addition to correcting those errors, I partitioned the list to reflect the differing scopes of the included mods, and embellished with further visual/cosmetic, quality-of-life, and poweruser utilities, while preserving the stockalike disposition.
- Install and run CKAN
- Refresh
- CKAN Settings menu -> compatible ksp versions -> checkmark 1.7, 1.6, 1.5, 1.4, 1.3
- File menu -> install from .ckan -> pick a file
- Hit continue (do not use toggle checkbox to adjust anything)
- Disable Kopernicus replacing your solar panels (at least until they integrate this PR): in
Kerbal Space Program\GameData\Kopernicus\Config\SolarPanels.cfgcomment out line 18 so that it reads// @name = KopernicusSolarPanel - (Optional) In Steam, lock KSP to a version Kopernicus supports. Required for full eyecandy.[1]
- (Optional) Fix a line of incorrect syntax in one of the mission pack files that slightly boosts some rewards.[2]
- Launch KSP from shortcut, from steam, or from CKAN once everything's installed.
Install 00 and 01 at a minimum. Install 02 when you're ready to start building a permanent-ish space station. Consider installing XX alongside 02 for useful station exterior signage, or whenever you want to add labels or hazard signs to your craft. Install pieces from ZZ when you have progressed in skill to the point they might be helpful.
| # | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 00 | Visual & QOL (essentially Stock++) | Basic mods - only visual enhancement & essential quality of life |
| 01 | Community, Contracts, Tech Tree | Community replacements/enhancements of stock mechanics Nothing fundamentally altering balance, difficulty, or playstyle |
| 02 | Stations, Bases, Snacks | New parts for station and base building, and a casual lifesupport system |
| XX | Decorative | Decals, animated screens, and fancy displays |
| ZZ | Utilities & Editors | Poweruser calculators, utilities, editors, etc |
Other than the station and base parts, the major thing this pack adds is a life support system. It's completely configurable. By default, your veteran (orange-suit) Kerbals are immune to all negative effects. After 15 days without food or without power, your Kerbals will enter tourist-mode, making them unable to actually pilot the craft they're in or use any of their profession's abilities. They will not die, unless you change the configuration to use that option. Other alternatives include mutiny (destroy a part of the vessel, then become tourist), or to go M.I.A. (to respawn some period later).
Useful once you're thinking could x part of the game just let me have finer control or perhaps I just want to see the actual numerical value of y" or "how am I supposed to calculate z while I'm desigining my ship?
- Alternate Resource Panel -- better than the stock resource display, can show countdown time to resource exhaustion
- Kerbal Engineer Redux --- displays extra part info on hover in the editor, calculates about a hojillion different properties of planets, ships, orbits, etc and can put any of them onscreen in flight, or into a little window for you. If used, I suggest using the 'career' and 'part/engineer' requirements, which I think is the default - basically you dont get it in-flight without including the part or having an engineer abord
- Real Chute --- configure sizes of chutes on a per-craft per-part basis so you have just the right amount of parachute to slow your stage to whatever you want, and to control altitude parachutes open at and delay before they fully inflate, etc
- Amp Year --- calculate power usage in the editor, so you know how long you can operate in solar darkness, and even shut down certain systems automatically when you get low on power
- Editor Enhancements --- gives fine grained control over part placement, makes rerooting parts easier, etc.
- WASD Camera --- lets you move the editor (VAB/SPH) camera freely, toggle between it and default cam
- Too Many Orbits --- lets you press a button (f8) to hide most of the orbits cluttering your map except for your active ship, so you can actually see what's going on
- Quickstart --- launch directly into your savegame
- Quickgoto --- go directly from scene to scene, instead of having to load the space center and then click into a building
- Slingshotter --- simulate where planets will be on a specific date, so you don't have to blindly fumble a maneuver around until it shows an encounter with a distant planet by chance
- Trajectories --- shows what your trajectory will do taking atmospheric drag into effect, highlights your landing spot clearly.
- Resonant Orbit Calculator --- used to calculate how to place satellites into evenly-spaced locations along a single identical orbit
- Portrait Stats --- makes it easier to see what a kerbal's profession is while you're in flight.
- TweakScale --- lets you freely resize many parts. Their cost, mass, and capacity get scaled 'fairly' but many people still consider this mod a little cheaty.
Toolbar button spam is annoying. Don't miss the Janitor's Closet tip.[3]
- EVAs Auto-Rotate to Camera --- Turn off. Enhanced EVA mod lets you do this with spacebar.
- Extended Burn Time Indicator --- On --- Helpful information is helpful.
- Terrain Scatters --- On --- adds physicsless trees & rocks, but costs fps
- Always show closest approach for target --- easier to rendezvous
- Orbit line fade strength --- 100% --- barely perceptible otherwise
- CommNet line brightness --- 50%
- Part Highlighter Brightness Factor --- 50%
- Part Highlighter in flight --- On
- Pixel light count --- 16 or higher
- Ambient light boost --- 18%/10%/10% --- seeing just a black screen is boring.
- Conic Patches -- Relative --- doubleclick planet/moon to change what line draws WRT
- Master --- whatever you prefer, 50% etc
- Spacecraft --- 10% --- Use 100% until the roar of a rocket is no longer awesome
- Ambience --- 5% --- Low-frequency hum in VAB drives me crazy
- UI --- 100%
- Music --- 0% --- Use 20% until orbital music transition is no longer magical
- Voices --- 100% --- Only used by Gene Kerman in Mission Control?
Main Menu - Input (complete-ish default controls diagram 
)
- Toggle navball --- Disable --- You'll want to type decimals into the new maneuver UI!
- Camera mode/next --- Use Num/ and Num* instead of C and V --- Frees c key for use by Enhanced EVA mod.
- Camera 'view up' etc --- Use the mouse. We need the arrowkeys...
- Wheels steer/drive --- Arrowkeys, so you can wheel (🠄🠆🠅🠇), gyro (WASD), & thruster (HJKL) simultaneously.
- Translation --- I prefer the numpad, since I don't do HJKL directions.
- Translation key mode behavior --- Keys shouldn't change behavior. Keep usage identical in all three modes.
- Full throttle (z) --- You will accidentally hit this instead of cutting throttle during a precision burn, ruining it. Unbind it!
- SAS hold (f) --- not very useful
- Toggle mouselook (idk which key) --- useless
- Basic difficulty settings
- allow reverts
- allow quickloads
- missing crews respawn --- Consider a longer timer, 6hr [1 kerbal day] or more.
- no auto-hire
- no indestructible facilities
- no stock vessels
- no comm network
- decline penalty 0 --- Some contracts are just stupid. You shouldn't take a penalty for deleting them.
- heating/reward/penalty sliders all 100% otherwise
- Advanced difficulty settings - everything off except..
- Kerbal G-force limits on --- Short blackouts from very rough parachutes is interesting, unlikely to cause casualties.
- G-force Tolerance 1.0
- Part Upgrades on
- Building damage 0.05
- DMagic -> Portrait Stats --- Always show (off), use icon (off), remaining settings (on) --- less ugly this way
- Filter extensions --- Hide unpurchased (off), Default to advanced (off),
- Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes --- Remove empty horizontal and vertical space both (on)
- Janitor's Closet --- everything (on) except debug mode, and definitely turn the slider up to like 1.5 seconds or more. The menu disappears too quickly otherwise
- Stage Recovery --- I would set the global modifier to 80% to make this a little less cheaty. Moving the cutoff velocities downward also increases the difficulty of getting a successful recovery of a part. Hide the space center button with the final option to (on).
Upsize the ui and associated text without making icons annoyingly large:
- UI Scale --- 110%
- Toolbar App Icon Scale --- 93%
- E.V.E. --- Click the arrows over until you get to the City Lights Manager tab, then set
_CityOverlayDetailSca...to0.1for better city lights at night. - Distant Object Enhancement --- Enable flares and names, Max out the flare saturation (100%), brightness (150%), and size (100%), show debris flares (15% bright), render distant vessels at max slider distance, do not dim the skybox. Alternatively, edit the .cfg file in the
GameDatadirectory, and set the maximum sky brightness to 225% for a more vivid night sky on Kerbin (and much much more vivid in the map view). - Chatterer --- Chatter frequency 90-180s, then in beeps tab SSTV frequency (no sstv), sstv on science transmitted (on), sstv vol (6%) then in AAE tab bg1 (20%), bg2 (30%), only in IVA (on), breath volume (50%), airlock (100%), wind (10%), then in settings tab instachatter on singlequote, insta-sstv on semicolon.
- ScanSat --- turn Toolbar Menu (off) to get rid of the annoying popup behavior, and definitely have Show Ground Tracks (on), and consider setting its child setting Active Vessel Only (off). Note that you can disable all ScanSat scanning activity from all vessels with a single errant click on the Background Scanning tab, so be careful in that one.
- Craft Manager (VAB) --- kerbalx integration (no), replace load button (yes) --- far superior to the stock craft load dialog
- Alternative Resource Display (flight) --- show rate change values (on), show rates for parts (on), rate style Up/Down+Text is much nicer
[1]⤣ Kopernicus
Kopernicus is only used in these modlists to add improved textures to planets and to add rings to Jool. If Kopernicus is complaining at all during startup (and you have Nyancats), Kopernicus will refuse to load. In this case you will not have the replacement textures of any planets, nor Jool's rings.
However, the warnings not to load your save can be safely ignored since these modlists don't make any physics alterations using Kopernicus (no new planets, no changed masses or rotation speeds, etc).
[2]⤣ AnomalySurveyor
Edit Kerbal Space Program\GameData\ContractPacks\AnomalySurveyor\SCANsat.cfg and replace the first line with @CONTRACT_TYPE[AS_*]:HAS[#tag[SCANsat]]:NEEDS[SCANsat] to eliminate the MM error and get the boosted rewards (compensating for the difficulty boost in the AnomalySurveyor contracts when ScanSat is installed).
[3]⤣ Hiding mod buttons with Janitor's Closet
Alt-rightclick on most toolbar icons and choose 'hide everywhere'. Put items back into certain scenes (builder, map/trackingstation, in-flight) on an individual basis. Some may be unclickable, like KER. Unfortunately, sometimes it seems that janitor's closet dies until the game is restarted.
Useful mods to leave showing in specific scenes:
- VAB --- Tags, Goto, KER, RCS Build Aid, Antenna Helper, WASD Camera, AmpYear, EditorExtensions, Stage Recovery
- Tracking Station --- ScanSat, Goto, Waypoint Manager, KER, Alarm Clock, Antenna Helper, Slingshotter
- Flight --- Button visibility is shared between flight and flight's map view --- Docking Alignment Indicator, AmpYear, Stage Recovery, Slingshotter, Alternate Resource Display, Alarm Clock, KER, Waypoint Manager, Goto, ScanSat, ScienceAlert, Antenna Helper
- Space Center Overview --- Alarm Clock, Goto