skill/modules/ksp.md

ksp

Kerbal Space Program 1.x: GameData layout, ModuleManager, CKAN, KSP.log dependency triage.

Identity

KSP 1.12.x (Unity, Mono). Mods are folders of parts/configs/DLLs. ModuleManager is required by most mods. CKAN is a common manager (reads .ckan files).

Mod folder and format

Contents of a zip's GameData/ go into the game's GameData/. Never nest GameData/GameData/. Plugins are DLLs inside mod folders. Some shared libraries are prefixed 000_ / 001_ to force load order: leave those names alone. Frameworks often needed: ModuleManager, B9PartSwitch, CommunityResourcePack, Harmony, ClickThroughBlocker, ToolbarController.

Sources

SpaceDock > GitHub Releases > CurseForge > the KSP forum thread. CKAN metadata lists the correct dependencies.

Compatibility

Check each mod's supported KSP version. Recent big mods (Kopernicus, Parallax, Scatterer, EVE) have strict dependency sets: verify exact versions on their pages.

Load order

ModuleManager patch passes: :BEFORE[], :FOR[], :AFTER[], :LAST[], :NEEDS[]. No manual list.

Logs

KSP.log in the game root; also Player.log under AppData/LocalLow/Squad/Kerbal Space Program. Use the log-debugging module.

Dependency chain notes (user-reported; verify on each mod's page)

EVE (Environmental Visual Enhancements) comes as a free v3 and a paid v5 volumetric-clouds edition. Both can be "the latest you can get"; the paid one has hard dependencies that cannot be copied over, and some volumetric-aware mods need a specific EVE version. Kopernicus-family mods (for example Outer Planets Mod) have many interdependencies, and a mod that bundles several others may need an exact, not-latest version of one of them. Load the dependency-chain module before deploying.

Common failures

• Kopernicus fails to load -> missing ModularFlightIntegrator, KSPTextureLoader or (recent builds) BurstPQS -> install them; Parallax then loads.
• ProceduralParts missing ROUtils; Firefly missing FireflyAPI (should ship with Firefly: reinstall and verify the DLL on disk).
• unnamed node. Skipping -> a custom patch has a brace block with no node name.
• Nested GameData/GameData -> mods silently not loading. (Verify exact dependency sources for the user's versions with web_search before telling them what to install.)