With the latest updates, the galaxies that I have created do not work, it is obvious that between versions the mods may have conflicts but I have not found something updated that explains how to create them
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It's a good question, and something that I'm interested in too. I do think that the new galaxy shapes added in the last round of major patches were a great addition, though it would certainly be nice to be able to do more.
Basically, there seem to be two ways to modify galaxy generation: One is to tweak the parameters for the built-in randomized galaxy generator with a mod, and one is to fully specify almost all the galaxy parameters ("static_galaxy_scenario") with a mod.
But... as far as I can tell, there isn't really anything in the way of built-in (i.e., that the developers agree to keep up to date with new game updates) galaxy editors.
Herein lies the problem: Both of these mechanisms have some design limitations that, at least in my cursory investigation (it's quite possible I've missed something - and if so I'd be interested to understand more) appear to leave them as quite brittle/fragile. Overriding the randomized galaxy generator parameters (and built-in special system initializers etc.) only gets you so far in terms of special-purpose placement of systems and is likely to break with new patches, especially if the customizations are to any of the special solar system initializers and those get updated with a patch. Fully specifying the entire galaxy layout seems likely to *completely* break with even any minor updates that change practically any assumptions about how new features might need to appear in a newly generated galaxy, etc. (as the static galaxy generator would need to be updated to know how to add those new features, etc.). So any tools/mods to use that method appeared (to me, anyway) to be practically certain to break substantially each update and therefore need heavy ongoing maintenance work to keep functional.
Now it's certainly better than nothing to have those options available. And if the game weren't the "moving target" that it is (not that that necessarily is a bad thing as it means that game is still receiving new feature/content enhancements), those would probably be more palatable options for use. Certainly being able to fully specify the galaxy configuration gives a lot of flexibility.
But for more limited customizations (like - create a galaxy where stars are placed based on an image file (or something else that has readily-available tools to work with) and hyperlanes linkages between are either drawn from the image file or algorithmically generated using some selectable menu of heuristics, with some capability to edit that manually after, and ways to place starting locations for empires), that don't really *need* the fully general static galaxy setup, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of options that aren't likely to fall over terribly each time the game is modified.
And that's a shame, because without a more durable (with respect to patches/updates) way to express various high-level manual placement type galaxy customizations, it's pushing a rather large perpetual maintenance burden on anyone who would be a tool/mod author for that purpose. I suspect that's at least part of why there aren't all that much in the way of currently functional galaxy editor type tools for Stellaris, at least that I have found for current versions.
Of course, designing a more "middle ground" option takes work and adds complexity, and there's no guarantee anyone in the community would use it until someone steps up and does so. And Stellaris is also pretty heavy in longstanding technical debt as it is for bugs that have been around for a very long time, not to mention developing new expansions to keep funding future game development as another competing priority, etc.. All that's to say that it's not clear to me whether it would be a better use of developer time to invest in more durable scenario editor type support versus, say, doing a serious & sustained quality push for closing out pre-existing bugs/QoL issues/technical debt, versus building the next expansion, etc.. (Not that I have any say over the priorities for any of this, as an outsider, mind you.)
Basically, there seem to be two ways to modify galaxy generation: One is to tweak the parameters for the built-in randomized galaxy generator with a mod, and one is to fully specify almost all the galaxy parameters ("static_galaxy_scenario") with a mod.
But... as far as I can tell, there isn't really anything in the way of built-in (i.e., that the developers agree to keep up to date with new game updates) galaxy editors.
Herein lies the problem: Both of these mechanisms have some design limitations that, at least in my cursory investigation (it's quite possible I've missed something - and if so I'd be interested to understand more) appear to leave them as quite brittle/fragile. Overriding the randomized galaxy generator parameters (and built-in special system initializers etc.) only gets you so far in terms of special-purpose placement of systems and is likely to break with new patches, especially if the customizations are to any of the special solar system initializers and those get updated with a patch. Fully specifying the entire galaxy layout seems likely to *completely* break with even any minor updates that change practically any assumptions about how new features might need to appear in a newly generated galaxy, etc. (as the static galaxy generator would need to be updated to know how to add those new features, etc.). So any tools/mods to use that method appeared (to me, anyway) to be practically certain to break substantially each update and therefore need heavy ongoing maintenance work to keep functional.
Now it's certainly better than nothing to have those options available. And if the game weren't the "moving target" that it is (not that that necessarily is a bad thing as it means that game is still receiving new feature/content enhancements), those would probably be more palatable options for use. Certainly being able to fully specify the galaxy configuration gives a lot of flexibility.
But for more limited customizations (like - create a galaxy where stars are placed based on an image file (or something else that has readily-available tools to work with) and hyperlanes linkages between are either drawn from the image file or algorithmically generated using some selectable menu of heuristics, with some capability to edit that manually after, and ways to place starting locations for empires), that don't really *need* the fully general static galaxy setup, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of options that aren't likely to fall over terribly each time the game is modified.
And that's a shame, because without a more durable (with respect to patches/updates) way to express various high-level manual placement type galaxy customizations, it's pushing a rather large perpetual maintenance burden on anyone who would be a tool/mod author for that purpose. I suspect that's at least part of why there aren't all that much in the way of currently functional galaxy editor type tools for Stellaris, at least that I have found for current versions.
Of course, designing a more "middle ground" option takes work and adds complexity, and there's no guarantee anyone in the community would use it until someone steps up and does so. And Stellaris is also pretty heavy in longstanding technical debt as it is for bugs that have been around for a very long time, not to mention developing new expansions to keep funding future game development as another competing priority, etc.. All that's to say that it's not clear to me whether it would be a better use of developer time to invest in more durable scenario editor type support versus, say, doing a serious & sustained quality push for closing out pre-existing bugs/QoL issues/technical debt, versus building the next expansion, etc.. (Not that I have any say over the priorities for any of this, as an outsider, mind you.)