RO & RP 1 Installation for 1.10.1 - KSP-RO/RP-1 GitHub Wiki

YOU SHOULD REALLY BE PLAYING ON 1.12.3!! 1.12.3 Install Guide

Welcome to the installation instructions for RSS, RO, and RP-1 on KSP 1.10.1.

This guide will walk you through creating a fresh KSP 1.10.1 install (downgrading if necessary) and applying the RO/RP-1 suite of mods.

Note: This is a guide for KSP 1.10.1. If you have a later version of KSP, we'll walk you through downgrading. But if you wish to install on an earlier version, you will need a different guide.

RSS/RO/RP-1 is complex and fragile, but installation has never been easier. For this reason, we offer this Express Guide. It's very short, so please carefully read and follow every word of this detailed guide. If you're looking for a guide for an advanced, customized install, or you do not want career support, see here.

Not following this guide to the letter will break things and make you very frustrated. Following this guide is also a requirement to ask for support.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer: Known Issues

1. Preparing a New Install

2. Main Installation

3. First Launch of KSP

4. Next Steps

Disclaimer: Known Issues

Note: These are the issues you will encounter if you follow this guide exactly. They are mostly harmless.

  • EVE doesn't load clouds over Earth as displayed in the main menu. This is normal and expected.
  • If your game freezes right before loading the main menu, give it time. If it persists more than a few minutes just close it and launch again.
  • If you have a Linux installation, you have to start the game from the local game directory, or the game will pick up the wrong physics files (resulting in procedural wings overheating at launchpad and other issues)
  • The Persistent Thrust mod can cause some engines to not produce any thrust. Avoid it.
  • KER can cause random crashes in the flight scene. This is usually accompanied by RCS exceeded loop count logspam.

§1: Preparing for Installation

  1. Install a new copy of KSP 1.10.1. Do not try to install on top of your old modded KSP.

    • Even if you have KSP 1.12, you can still install KSP 1.10.1. Here's how:
      • If you have KSP via Steam, you will need to make a backup of your current install (KSP's entire folder can be copied anywhere to make a backup). Once you have done that, uninstall KSP completely via Steam (so all modded files are removed), and then reinstall. As KSP reinstalls, find it in your Steam Library and get to its Properties page (right click on the KSP listing). Go to the Betas tab, and click on the dropdown. In the dropdown, select KSP 1.10.1.
      • If you have KSP via the Kerbal Store, log into your store account, and go to your KSP purchase. Scroll down to More Downloads and click on Legacy Versions, then download the correct installer and run it. This will give you your new 1.10.1 install. Note that it useful to keep a local copy of the installer so that you can run it again to quickly and easily get a new, clean copy of KSP.
    • NOTE: Whether you needed to downgrade or not, if this is a Steam controlled copy rename or move the game directory (in Steam/steamapps/common/) so that Steam cannot find your modded installation and attempt to overwrite or change it. Make sure to not use special symbols (like +) inside the name of the directory as these can cause various hard-to-diagnose issues.

  2. Install CKAN and point it at your new KSP 1.10.1 installation.

    • If you don't know how to install or use CKAN, read CKAN 101.
    • NOTE: CKAN will not overwrite a mod folder that you installed/modified manually. Unless you already know what you're doing, make sure that your GameData folder ONLY contains the Squad folder. (RO/RP-1 does not yet support the DLCs, so while it is safe to leave the SquadExpansions folder there, you may also remove it at this time.)

§2: Main Installation

  1. Via CKAN, select search for and select Realistic Progression One (RP-1) Express Install.
  • If there is no checkbox to select, go into Settings in the top left corner and click "Compatible KSP versions". Check the boxes for 1.8 and 1.9 versions. Do not check any other boxes.
  1. Press green "Apply changes" button to switch to the Changeset tab.
  2. Click Apply again to confirm.
  3. You will be presented with a set of Recommended mods. These are the mods we recommend installing with RO/RP-1 and thus they default to being selected. You may, however, choose to deselect any you don't wish to install, though you are encouraged to leave them at the default values. When done, click Continue.
  4. You will be presented with a choice of graphics level. Choose based on your computer's power level and memory. Medium should work for all but the slowest computers, or those with less than 8GB of memory. If you have 16GB of memory or more and a reasonably fast CPU and GPU, select High. Click Continue again and all your mods will download and install. NOTE this will take some time, especially for the High-Res choice which involves multiple GB of downloads.

§3: First Launch of KSP

  1. When CKAN is done installing, launch KSP.
  2. Your first launch of KSP will take a very long time, and will appear to hang a few times, especially when the progress bar says Loading Expansions. This is normal; a first launch involves creating cached versions of the new planets and various other first time tasks, along with ModuleManager creating a cached copy of all config changes.
  3. Once you make it to the main menu, go ahead and set up your settings the way you like. Lastly, create a test sandbox save and poke around to make sure that everything is working. If it is, quit out of KSP so the caches are preserved. Install complete!

§4: Next Steps

Congrats, you're done. Here's what you should do next:

  1. Proceed to New Career Setup if you are playing RP-1.
  2. Consider some thoughtful musings about your new installation.
  3. Finally, scroll back up and locate the wiki sidebar. The "Getting Started" section contains a wealth of information for help and instruction.
  4. If it's your first time playing RP-1, read the tutorial and the FAQ.