Not sure if this should go in mod subforum but I think the mods I'm gonna list are pretty neat and add something that would add to the gameplay in a fitting way without totally overhauling the game. I think these things should be in the game in some form or another.
Additional Map Modes adds a ton of map modes to the game that are extremely useful for looking up information on the fly. Among my favorites are estimated fleet strength, relative technology advancement, and mineral/energy income. Some of these are a bit overpowered as they are presented in the mod (primarily the fleet strength one) but the sheer range of map modes is very useful.
This mod adjusts the UI to make all the components in the ontliner very small. This, along with these others, interface mods on that page, are literally the best things. Knowing there are people who wouldn't be able to use this for various reasons, I feel like this should be made into a thing you can toggle. Seriously, it makes the interface so good.
Shanty Towns is a pretty good way to beat the system when it comes to unproductive AI. It installs shanty buildings on tiles with pops that have no buildings to work. They provide minimal resources and give a slight happiness penalty, but they can upgrade into basic versions of said buildings and it's a great way to trick lagging AIs into paying attention to their pops. Even if Sector AI sucks, as a lot of people say, this could encourage the AI to get a move on.
Certain aspects of Stellar Expansion aught to be at least considered for the base game, in my opinion. Several aspects of it are overpowered in my opinion, but I think it addresses some holes in the game that should be looked at and filled with some interesting content. The ethics exclusive buildings in particular are something worth considering.
The guy who makes Stellar Expansion also makes several mods that can be added on alongside it, among which my favorite is Geoengineering which lets you terriform colonized planets with a special building. The catch is the terriformer frequently spawns habitibility-reducing debuffs on the planet, which I would say is a fair cost for turning my core worlds Gaia at the endgame.
Gods and Guardians adds a bit more versitility to observation outposts in that they let you establish direct contact with natives and either trick them into gathering resources for you or watching over and directly guiding their advancement to the cosmos without enlightening them. Both are overpowered in this mod but this is still a very nice idea. More ways to interact with primitives would be awesome.
Evolving Worlds is a wonderful mod which makes it so that worlds will occasionally get modifiers that allow you to more directly specialize your planets for resource benefits. It unfortunately doesn't account for any modifiers the planet already has or what has been built there, but again it's a very nice idea that should be looked at.
A few other mods I think should be part of the base game include Unique Resources, which makes unique symbol variants for strategic resources, A mod to bring back the Heinlein map graphics which would be nice for people with rigs powerful enough for those graphics, and War Name Variants which tries to make more unique names for wars. Hopefully some people agree with me that these mods, or at least something similar to these mods, should be in the base game.
Additional Map Modes adds a ton of map modes to the game that are extremely useful for looking up information on the fly. Among my favorites are estimated fleet strength, relative technology advancement, and mineral/energy income. Some of these are a bit overpowered as they are presented in the mod (primarily the fleet strength one) but the sheer range of map modes is very useful.
This mod adjusts the UI to make all the components in the ontliner very small. This, along with these others, interface mods on that page, are literally the best things. Knowing there are people who wouldn't be able to use this for various reasons, I feel like this should be made into a thing you can toggle. Seriously, it makes the interface so good.
Shanty Towns is a pretty good way to beat the system when it comes to unproductive AI. It installs shanty buildings on tiles with pops that have no buildings to work. They provide minimal resources and give a slight happiness penalty, but they can upgrade into basic versions of said buildings and it's a great way to trick lagging AIs into paying attention to their pops. Even if Sector AI sucks, as a lot of people say, this could encourage the AI to get a move on.
Certain aspects of Stellar Expansion aught to be at least considered for the base game, in my opinion. Several aspects of it are overpowered in my opinion, but I think it addresses some holes in the game that should be looked at and filled with some interesting content. The ethics exclusive buildings in particular are something worth considering.
The guy who makes Stellar Expansion also makes several mods that can be added on alongside it, among which my favorite is Geoengineering which lets you terriform colonized planets with a special building. The catch is the terriformer frequently spawns habitibility-reducing debuffs on the planet, which I would say is a fair cost for turning my core worlds Gaia at the endgame.
Gods and Guardians adds a bit more versitility to observation outposts in that they let you establish direct contact with natives and either trick them into gathering resources for you or watching over and directly guiding their advancement to the cosmos without enlightening them. Both are overpowered in this mod but this is still a very nice idea. More ways to interact with primitives would be awesome.
Evolving Worlds is a wonderful mod which makes it so that worlds will occasionally get modifiers that allow you to more directly specialize your planets for resource benefits. It unfortunately doesn't account for any modifiers the planet already has or what has been built there, but again it's a very nice idea that should be looked at.
A few other mods I think should be part of the base game include Unique Resources, which makes unique symbol variants for strategic resources, A mod to bring back the Heinlein map graphics which would be nice for people with rigs powerful enough for those graphics, and War Name Variants which tries to make more unique names for wars. Hopefully some people agree with me that these mods, or at least something similar to these mods, should be in the base game.
