ModList
(Nearly?) All of the mods below are available on CKAN for verison 1.9.1. 1.10.1 is still a bit too new for mods to support.
- Part Trimming For parts packs I tend to trim down the parts myself where possible because Procedural Parts covers most of my needs for fuel tanks and generally it's awkward having 300+ kinds of fuel tank that mostly only differ in aesthetics?
As far as historically accurate rockets at kerbal sizes go, these two mod part packs are the best. Tantares for Russian parts (Soyuz, VA, Vostok, Almaz, etc) and Bluedog for American parts.
However they are both large mods and will significantly increase the load time. I tend to trim down the parts I use in my install but it's your personal choice. I'd highly recommend using 'The Janitors Closet' mod to trim out (perma-block) parts you no longer want or need.
Bluedog has the best Gemini, Apollo and launch vehicle parts imo. But I'm more fammiliar with American/NASA launch systems than Roscosmos.
After a few parts packs you'll end up with many basically duplicate parts for RCS, Fuel tanks, adaptors, etc.
Basically adds parts that you can define the dimensions of. I use it to replace a lot of fuel tanks in my career game that I've trimmed out of mods to reduce loading times. It can also make small probes much more feasible by allowing you to have a 0.625m*100cm RCS tank for just a little bit of monoprop.
Much much much easier to use fairings, it projects a shell around the enclosed objects up the stack then you can just drag a fairing part to the side attachment node and it autoshapes the fairing to the minimum volume required.
Honestly TweakScale and Procedural Parts are just Gravy & Chips; if you can't make the part you need with procedural parts, use TweakScale to grab an existing part and change the size dynamically. Need a 0.625m LV-T45? TweakScale it down to size and the thrust/mass/etc will scale appropriately. Not everything can be tweakscaled but most things can.
MOLE is a part pack primarily for building stations, but it includes a nice set of parts expansion to the Mk1 command pod to bridge the gap between the Mk1 and the larger apollo style command pod available later. It's also got a slimmed down Titan parts set as it mostly changes the Mk1 into a hybrid/early Gemini and Big-G style pod.
The orbital labratory that MOLE introduces is very fun and a nice reason to bother with stations in low kerbin orbit. It also pairs nicely with Nemehiah Engineering Orbital Sciences (NEOS) which introduces parts and experiments that need to be left in space for a period of time to complete, which integrates nicely with the MOLE labs' use of time as a part of the science; experiments can take days to finish.
If you're going in on station building, the Delivery mod is a nice addition, Bluedog and Tantares already include a lot of autonamous cargo vehicles (and MOLE has two itself) -- but having more variety in cargo transfer vehicles is always a nice choice. I have a set of patches for Delivery (https://github.com/LambdaSix/CygnusDelivery_Tweaks/) available on my github.
Knes is a parts mod mostly focusing on French & European launchers (Ariane 5, Diamant, Herakles, etc) but it also contains some very nice small early parts (Viking command capsule) and some very good engines. Though some of them are a little overpowered on their ISP or thrust compared to stock.
I haven't listed them below, but the Near Future packs by Nertea are something very worth considering for late game use as they fill out a slightly more Sci-Fi future area that KSP lacks slightly.
I've listed it as a good to have in that I'm so used to playing it I can't imagine not doing so but it does remove the feature/bug in KSP that timewarping will instantly kill any rotation velocity on a ship, with P.R it will just keep on spinning, but it means that the radial-in satellite you set up will continue to be aligned properly throughout it's orbit rather than drifting around the navball.
- Luciole (0.625m rocket system for probes/tiny satellites, early game)
- PicoPort Tiny 0.625m docking ports
- PicoPort Shielded More 0.625m docking ports but with shields!
- RLA Reborn A dozen odd parts to augment gaps in the stock line up
- Delivery
- Procedural Parts
- Procedural Fairings
- KNES
- CyroTanks LH2/O tanks and boil-off
- CryoEngines Engines that use LH2/O for fuel (High ISP) (alternative to straight nuclear engines)
- Station Parts Expansion Redux A bunch of station parts in various sizes, also retextures some stock parts.
- MOLE (Mark One Labratory Experiments)
- Sum Dum Heavy Industries - Service Module System
- StageRecovery Slap parachutes or leave fuel in dropped stages to recover them
- ScanSat Scan planets for science and utility
- CactEye Orbital Telescope Orbital telescopes!
- Science Relay Transfer science between ships via the CommNet
- Nemehiah Engineering Orbital Science
- RealChute Way better parachutes than stock, they can be armed and set to deploy at specific alt/pressures
- Sensible Pumps Just makes discarded stages engines stop working when decoupled.
- Science! Continued Lets you know when you can collect science and also has a science database of where/when you can run experiments
- Alternate Resource Panel A slightly nicer resource panel that can replace the stock one
- Gravity Turn Does automated gravity turns (And is a good tool to learn from)
- Auto-Quick-Save-System (AQSS) Autosaves on a timer, when launching, when switching vessels, with unique names, just get it
- Better Load Save Game Renewed Much better load game screen, screenshots & sorted by timestamp
- BetterBurnTime Provides a lot of contextual information on the navball (time to apo, impact, rendevouz, ms to geosync, etc)
- Speed Unit Annex Lets you have Rovers use km/h, planes use knots/mach/etc, and also shows some additional in on the navball top line
- DockingCam Camera for docking ports, also has a lot of useful info (per axis distance, per-axis speed)
- DPAI (Docking Port Alignment Indicator) Good companion to DockingCam, gives you a fairly intuitive window that aids with aligning docking approaches
- Docking Port Descriptions Lists in the part description if the docking part is gendered (and which) and if it's shielded.
- Extended Information about Scientific Experiments Shows where you can run an experiment, if it's rerunnable, transmittable, resettable, etc.
- Maneuver Node Evolved Gives you snap-to functions on maneuvers, very unobtrustive and adds good stuff like "Manvr at periapsis" rather than trying to eyeball it
- TooManyOrbits Hitting F8 removes all orbital lines and ships except your own and any target you have set. Good for manging the mess that LKO becomes
- Tracking Station Evolved Much improved tracking station, lets you sort by MET, Body, Class, etc
- WASDEditorCamera Lets you move around the VAB with WASD, a bit awkward but good for getting close into parts for fine tuning
- EVAEnhancements Enhancements to EVA controls (pitch, roll), can change thruster power, precision controls, etc
- EVA Handrails Small part parts just adding simple handrails you can attach to surfaces, glorious.
- EVAFuel Continued Makes it so that when Kerbals leave a pod for EVA, they will take a bit of Monopropellant from the capsule for their EVA Fuel, any spare hwen they return is converted back to monoprop
- KIS (Kerbal Inventory System) Carry things around and deliver individual parts, goes well with:
- KAS (Kerbal Attachment System) Which lets you attach the things you brought with KIS to surfaces, build a ship in space part by part!
- OSE Workshop Continued And this lets you build individual parts from resources out in the field, forgot to bring an antenna? Print one!
- Universal Storage II Just, it's good ok, get it. All the tidy and compact storage. Merges well with KIS/KAS for more interesting resupply EVA missions
- Kerbal Engineer Redux All the data! both in VAB/SPH and in flight, tells you everything you could need.
- RCS Build Aid Gives you the ability in the VAB to get your RCS in place to not cause unwanted torque and see how it will behave under a few conditions
- Editor Extensions Redux Much better angle snap (specific degrees), autostrut, auto-rigid, fine tuning parts and lots of info.
- MechJeb (imo mostly for interplanetary stuff) Basically an autopilot for ships, extremely useful when you just want the damn Cygnus docked already and you've done it a hundred times before
- The Janitor's Closet Lets you filter and perma-prune parts from the VAB/SPH & Game. Stop jet engines and wings from showing up the VAB.
- Filter Extensions More filters for the parts menu. = Kerbal Alarm Clock Set alarms for everything, maneuver nodes, SOI changes, closest approach, interplanetary transfers, crew rotations, etc.
- Community Tech Tree (especially for any part mods) Expand out the tech tree a smidge and adds nodes for mods to put their parts into
- Contract Packs! The default contracts are a bit meh, there are some very good contract packs.
- Persistant Rotation Make things rotate properly in space (!??!)
- Restock Retexture a lot of stock parts to look nicer and offer more variants
- ReStock+ Extra parts in the restock style, a small parts pack.
- Sci-Fi Visual Enhancements Make everything look better (clouds, dust effects, it looks pretty and runs on everything)
- PlanetShine Make space have some ambient lighting as would be reflected from planets. Makes it not pitch black on the darkside.
- RealPlume Pretty engine plumes, worth it
- SmokeScreen Big smokey engine clouds on lift-off, lovely.