I took a look on the website and was overwhelmed by the number of different parts and packs and tools and everything, so I figured I would defer to the judgement of my esteemed rocket duder colleagues here to decide what I should get.

One thing I know I want is the BFE-5000 (the biiiig engine from the QL).

I would tell you to get the Nova/Silisko pack. However the forums are down right now. Later ill get some links for you.

There is another thing to look out for but its dependent on how you feel. Mechjeb is a auto pilot system. It is very usefull and can be used as an aid to your flights or as a pure form of control. However its a bit cheating. However the game is very hard to do most stuff that you will learn from Mechjeb and pilot some more ambitious craft.

Mechjeb is great, I've had so much more fun since I started using it. At a certain point, you'll have practiced flying in a straight line, and you'll want to try more advanced flights. Having the autopilot functions like prograde- and retrograde-hold allows you to spend more time on perfecting your rocket and less time on keeping the ball steady.

I'm having trouble finding any mods, there are not very many and the few that look decent require forum accounts, and once there still lock access ore redirect to broken links on file sharing sites. Wish there was a proper mod community for this game and not what it looks like now.

Almost all links to download pages are broken, and just take you to the forum's main page.

KW rocketry has a bunch of different engines and fuel tanks, it's good if you can't quite find the right size engine for your ship. Also had more classic looking parts like you would see on the real life mercury rockets.

The Truss pack is good if you're like me and prefer more rugged looking ships, also has a bunch of different tanks and engines

Novapunch pack a huge variety of parts and some good cosmetic additions such as shells that you can put parts inside of to streamline them.

These are just the mods i grabbed, they seemed like the more popular packs.

The Soyuz doesn't really work well, I think with the latest game version you'll need to tweak settings, cause the default thrust on the engines for this rocket are 30... which when built together has the rocket traveling at something close to 30 meters per second (very very very slow, doesn't leave orbit or get even close).

Soyuz ship and munar kerbabl lander

1.75m Gemini Spacecraft

I decided to update my Mods and only have the most recent version's.

Here are the mods I use,

Silisko's station parts with docking. Only that. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/12237-Silisko-Industries-Addon-Development-Thread-2

Crewable empty Pods. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15016-0-16-Crew-able-empty-pods-0-3

Mechjeb Addon and plugins. Id suggest play the game without this for a while and when you hit a skill wall. Come to it as it takes over control of your ship for you. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/12384-PLUGIN-PART-0-16-Anatid-Robotics-MuMech-MechJeb-Autopilot-v1-9

This took my fancy for crazyness more so the usefull Crewtank. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/9243-v0-16-Damned-Aerospace-Version-1-5-2-Crewtank

And Damned Robotics. So I can have hinges, rotation disks, claws and extenders. Can use them for hundreds of things. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/9675-v0-16-Damned-Robotics-Version-1-2

Cool, those seem pretty neat. One thing though, has anyone gotten the BFE-5000 to launch correctly? I tried using it, but it's too damned big for the launchpad, so it clips into the terrain/support tower and flips up into the air the moment the physics engine kicks in. Is there a way to set up a different launch site, even just a flat, featureless plane to launch from?

@BBAlpert: Yes....build it in the Space plane hangar. Except use the WASD keys to point it upwards like a rocket then build from there.

I asked in another thread, but figured I might as well move the request here:

About Nova Punch, does anyone have the file for that?

Some "licensing" forum rule is stopping one of the makers from linking it in his thread. Kind of odd, given the fact that all of this is completely open source and he gave credit to the other people involved, but I guess rules are rules.

I'd much appreciate it if a duder could send me a link to download it or something until they sort things out over there.

@Robo said:

I asked in another thread, but figured I might as well move the request here:

About Nova Punch, does anyone have the file for that?

Some "licensing" forum rule is stopping one of the makers from linking it in his thread. Kind of odd, given the fact that all of this is completely open source and he gave credit to the other people involved, but I guess rules are rules.

I'd much appreciate it if a duder could send me a link to download it or something until they sort things out over there.

I was having trouble finding the most up to date the other day, so I downloaded an older version.

Now that even has been taken down. Does kind of suck.

@Mikemcn said:

KW rocketry has a bunch of different engines and fuel tanks, it's good if you can't quite find the right size engine for your ship. Also had more classic looking parts like you would see on the real life mercury rockets.

The Truss pack is good if you're like me and prefer more rugged looking ships, also has a bunch of different tanks and engines

Novapunch pack a huge variety of parts and some good cosmetic additions such as shells that you can put parts inside of to streamline them.

These are just the mods i grabbed, they seemed like the more popular packs.

where do you put all those files that the truss pack has?

@Jams said:

@Mikemcn said:

KW rocketry has a bunch of different engines and fuel tanks, it's good if you can't quite find the right size engine for your ship. Also had more classic looking parts like you would see on the real life mercury rockets.

The Truss pack is good if you're like me and prefer more rugged looking ships, also has a bunch of different tanks and engines

Novapunch pack a huge variety of parts and some good cosmetic additions such as shells that you can put parts inside of to streamline them.

These are just the mods i grabbed, they seemed like the more popular packs.

where do you put all those files that the truss pack has?

just extract them into the parts folder.