The real must have mod that you forgot: Auto pop migration.

ASpec: "Every single planet having it's own personality ads so much potential" Me, a no sectors, per planet management guy: *Cries in micro management*

ASpec. You forgot the best one out there. The advisor voice to rule them all. Your voice!

One thing that I always have (although it doesn't work on the latest version of Stellaris) is a mod called "Carrying capacity" that really takes pressure off the late game. It does this by slowing down pop growth when a planet's available jobs and housing decrease when "Your people come to the cruel realization that their offspring will have limited job opportunities and extremely high rent costs"

When ASpec says that my empire isn’t an empire of hats. Laughs in Hive Mind

Another 3 mods that I consider ESSENTIAL are: 1. Unofficial Hive DLC: Forgotten Queens 2. Storypack: The Nyblax and the Collector 3. Complex Origins (this one may screw over an AI or two, but are worth it for players to choose)

Damn I really wish more were Ironman compatible

The best part of More Events Mod is that the flavor texts are so well written that you can't tell them apart from the original events. Often mods suffer from bad English, making them less immersive but More Events Mod doesn't have that. This mod is worth it all the way.

Thanks for making us console players even more jealous..

#0:00 Intro #0:51 Visuals #0:51 Quadrants Fixed #1:33 Pinwheel Galaxy #1:59 Lights borders #2:13 Real Space 3.6 #5:30 Machines Shipset #6:30 Quality of Life Mods #6:39 Tiny Outliner #7:19 More Events Mod #9:17 Dynamic Political Events #11:16 Outro

Thumbnail was predictable, such a good mod.

The only must-have mod: Gigastructures, just for systemcraft. Why? Because you can strap engines to a god damn solar system and blast it into your enemies.

I'd also like to add auto-explore for obvious reasons and Ethics and Civics Classic for expanded ethics and civics since that makes it possible to create more flavored empires (I'm a fan of the mod because it makes it possible to create more hashed out governments).

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees, gonna drop this master thesis for a coffee break with ASpec's video, thanks dude

I'm actually really surprised Gigastructures isn't in this list.

ASpec cares about the community, to the point of NOT doing a Tier list because everyone is doing their mods for free and no monetary gain. PARADOX, hire this man already! ;)

"Downscaled Ships" is good too.

More Mods recomendation Planetary Diversity Space Habitats Gigastructural Engineering Megastructural Engineering Real Space New Frontiers

Wow, I'm surprised SpeedDial isn't included in here. Such a useful mod that adds quick contact buttons for enclaves, the shroud, and marauders

The At War Suite is great. STL defense boats? PLANETARY WEAPONS? Check. Tactical Ship Sections is another good one. Because why the fuck wouldn't you want L slots on your corvettes? Or hangars on your destroyers?

Let's see how many I agree with being "Always enabled"... ++ Quadrants: It looks nice. This comes down to what people find aesthetically pleasing. Most will probably agree with this one. (--) Pinwheel Galaxy: Strictly aesthetic, not sure how many will agree. Makes some galaxy shape diversity. Not really an always imo. +(-) Light Borders: This is also strictly aesthetic, but it helps tone down the visual noise of the game, so some people are likely to agree with the notion stated in the video title. (--) Real Space: Far, faaaar fewer people agree with RealSpace. While it is fancy looking, it is far from an always-enable or must-have. Part of the issue here is other mods have to have compat patches made to recognize all the new planet classes/stars. +(-) Machine Shipsets: People love this ship set, and I agree with it to some extent. I wish the megastructures had graphical culture variants in vanilla, rather than always the same. I will say most people will want at least one modded ship set if they want to have something outside what vanilla offers, at least. ++ Tiny Outliner: Yes. 100%, yes. Shrink it down, keep track of a bit more information, reduce screen clutter/noise due to needless font size and spacing. ++ MEM: Yes. All the yes. So much of the mod-using community uses it. +(-) DPE: I get this one. I especially agree we need some of this in vanilla.

In my opinion More events mod and dynamic political events are necessary for my immersion.

0:29 Mentions there are 9 mods to recommend but later only lists 8 in the video and video description.

Thanks for these! Looks awesome, while retaining the original gameplay! I still have tons to discover and refining to do!

Great video! I was looking for some up to date mods to grab!

Awesome list ! Personally, the ones I cannot play without are the "Federation builders ship" and the "planetary diversity" mod (with all of its submods of course)

I downloaded/installed/love Tiny Outliner v2. I also let the maker know they have you to thank for me getting it. I love how I went from “2 - 3 pages” of worlds to them all fitting on “1 page”.

Yeah! Was waiting on this video! :) Thanks for the tips!

Thank you for the list! I actually went and subscribed to all 9 mods while you were listing them as I was looking for a good mod list to spice up my gameplay; turns out you get rather bored of the vanilla stuff after 200+ hours on it aha. Can't wait to start a new game!

I'd love to see you do a must have mods video for 2022! Which ones are you still playing? Which ones have you picked up and loved? 😀

Thank you for video, it was curious to watch:) Strange but you didn't mention "stellaris ui overhaul dynamic ", it one of the must-have mods as well, in my opinion.

1. Quadrants Fix (Circles that visually and not mechanically partition off the galaxy) 2. Pinwheel galaxy mod (visual textures) 3. Light borders (visual) 4. Real Space 3.6 (adds pretty solar systems with new hazards and such) 5. Machine Shipset 6. Tiny outliner (streamlines visual) 7. More event mods 8. Dynamic Political Events Mod (adds flavor - military coup, etc

one of my favorites is Aesthetic Borders, which get rid of the clutter with the two color borders

Thank you for your service. I'm archiving this for December.

Thanks for this. I am a first time player and this helps me a lot. Appreciate your guide vids and thanks again for always making guides for newbies like me. I really appreciate that.

Nice to see your favourites!

Been using them since this vid first came put, and it did improve my playability.

Gigastructural Engineering and the Zenith of Fallen Empires need to be tacked onto the end of this list, just because they offer so much to the game. They basically add a fleshed-out “Late-Game” segment to your playthrough, between the midgame and endgame, all on their own.

What a thoughtfull aproach! Thank you.

I like mods... but I also like getting achievements

I am really missing NSC in this list. Btw, the Machine Shipset mod has extra ship sections which work with NSC =) But i agree on Dynamical Political Events, that is a must have. As is Planet Diversity in my opinion.

do more streams or vidoes please been playing for years but learned more in the last few days watching while playing lol

Other must have mods for me are: Ecology Planetary Diversity Traditional Thinking Any mod that ends with the words 'story pack' Guilli's Planet Modifiers Technology Ascendant Potent Rebellions All of the mods just add so much life to the galaxy.

I'm so glad you didn't do a tier list. Tier lists are just an annoying trend and I'm glad you didn't follow the trend. Shows you have integrity.

Downloaded,done!!! Thanks ASpec !!!

Guilli's Planet Modifiers is great. The null modifiers (ones which don't do anything beyond add to a planet's individuality) are amazing for immersion. A mod that lets warships, even if just corvettes / strike craft because of limits imposed by gravity, be made by planets would be cool. It just feels weird when I capture a system but planets aren't throwing anything but useless army transports at me.

I *just* launched Stellaris today after a very long break, and I'm greeted to this. Guess I'll make a new save.

Literally googled "best Stellaris mods" last weekend. Great video 10/10

Jump gates was the first mod I downloaded for stellaris. You don't know you want it until you try it. All it does is replace the arrows in system maps with jump gates but it really brings the game to life on the system scale.

Mods add so much to the game so getting an expert to suggest a core set to start with is very helpful. Would like future addon videos to be related to a set of complementary add-ons (with themselves and this core set) rather than one or two in isolation.

Nice! Just what my shenanigans and I need. :)

achievements compatible: Better nigh lights Tier numbers: tech Tier numbers: Buidlings No achievements: No clustered starts these i run most of my games. unles i want achievements.

I just started Stellaris and I wanted to know what mods are good and I looked this up and was like I recognize that he does a lot of how to stuff for this immediately subscribed

Absolutely Necessary More Mods recomendation Planetary Diversity & Space Habitats Gigastructural Engineering Megastructural Engineering Also Real Space New Frontiers

Well giga structures can always be tailored to a more vanilla style through the in-game menu so it could still be a must install

I am working on updating the coloured energy weapons mod from a while ago, its nice when you can have tacyon lances and lasers that match the colour of your empire.

No mention of Giga-structures mod :P I also have a mod for you to add to the list/try out Aspec: Animated Xenomorph Fixed mod, it's a full species mod with animated portraits, traits, civics, shipset, and several xenomorph origins, each of which starts you on a different type of home-world. Works great when played as a devouring swarm hive mind. My only gripe is that you don't get xenomorph armies from the get go.

Me: *downloads realspace* also me: wait i lag just looking into nebula systems cause my potato pc Me *uninstalls realspace*

NSC2 is amazing ship expansion mod, highly recommend.

Softer Hyperlanes and UI Overhaul Dynamic are a must for me.

Carrying Capacity. Hands down. Also maybe a well made automatic station builder.

You have a different definition of must have than I, I think. The only one here that really is must have imo is tiny outliner.

I hope to see some reviews on game-altering mods, such as Giga-engineering, NSC2 and caches of technology? Not necessarily what you would recommend, just a review of what they add.

THANKS for that list! xD

Yes! These are must-haves! For the testing of GPU heat temp monitoring equipment

Great video, thank you! :)

Other mods i can highly recommend to Aspec´s list: 1. Gigastructural engineering 2. Plentiful traditions with Lot´s of Traditions (because there can always be MORE) 3. Unofficial Hive/Machine DLC 4. Gulli´s everything essentially 5. NSC2 6. United Sci-Fi Races + United Flags (Because why would you need original portrays, if you can literally have a Portray of the God Emperor of Man as a Race symbol and the Terran Eagle as a symbol? Don´t even try to argue against this one heretic) 7. and for the especially faithful: We are the Imperial Navy (Rebuilt). Cause nothing´s greater than sending out a fleet that looks like a bunch of churches. 8. At War 9. If you like me, love to see your PC sweat like a fat guy in the Gym. Try "Larger Galaxies". 10.000 stars makes even the greatest PC sweat like a pig after 20 years of mountain dew. (That´s also a mod, i would really love to have Aspec react to).

Been addicted to this game on console for months, this game alone makes me want a PC

Amazing Space Battles is a must. Surprised it's not on the list

i would like to add any and all of Cavily's shipsets they are extremely well done and absolutely beautiful

I want specific rebellions, like militarists having coups because you dont go to war, or companies rebelling because you increased taxes or whatever.

Tiny Fleets goes really well with Tiny Outliner.

In my opinion there should be Ancient Cache of Technologies. I love this mod and what it does to fallen empires and other stuff. Chiru if you reading this....i love your mod so much :3

U just got the dreadnought up and running. What a nightmare mixed with a fleet right now during a war.

Once I finally get Outside Context, Last Best Hope and Queening, I can finally play with some more mods!

that battle scene was beautiful

mods review review 1 - quadrant fixed - your 100% right looks grate 2 - pinwheel galaxy - hard to say without a side by side 3 - light boarders - looks good but is there a thinner boarders 4 - real space 3.6 - sold me with the proto system ( lot of orange ) 5 - machine ship set - I myself hate having to much choice, but as a random ai fleet. yes 6 - tiny outliner v2 - need a side by side. but anything that makes tabs better is a win. 7 - more events mod - yes please. its own name sells it (is this the one that adds a satellite galaxy event ) 8 - dynamic political events - iffy. I like every play though to be different but also not to difficult to maintain smooth game play 9 - I only notice 8 mods not 9. what did I miss.

@Aspec youre pretty close in contact with the Stellaris dev team right (as far as community members are concerned)? How receptive is Paradox/the stellaris dev team to mainboarding ideas from modders?

I appreciate you for putting out the video with your opinions. I don't agree that the first 3 visual mods are 'must haves.' Number 4-9 are all great mods that I use on almost every playthrough.

Always the highlite of my day.

I'd recommend Planetary diversity gives you so many more planet types and it looks awesom

TinyOutliner makes my life so much easier, but gigastructures is the must have. It is the end-game insanity that makes thing truly insane and fun.

Thank you for this video

TimeStamp Mods : 1. 0:57 = quadrant fixed 2. 1:33 = pinwheel galaxy 3. 2:01 = light borders 4. 2:20 = real space 3.6 5. 5:37 = machine shipset 6. 6:40 = tiny outliner v2 7. 7:33 = more events mod 8. 9:17 = dynamic political events thx aspec for the video

My first mod is Colored Map Icons. I got real tired of zooming in searching for worlds with my Jump gates to move my fleets around. Now with the colored map icons, it is quick and easy for me to scan the area and pick out those jump gates.

Would have liked to see Amazing Space Battles here.

1:58 - I didn't know I needed light boarders, now I know!!!!

Wish there was a combat cinematic camera that follows around in battles

Sadly, RS has little to no compatibility with most mods outside of the small few that actually have compatches for it. I love planetary diversity and Guilli's as well as the ethics alternative mod. 0 compatibility to RS.

Can you see about doing a playthrough of you playing with a bunch of game-changing mods on max difficulty? So like the mod that adds a bunch of super constructions ( Can't think of the name) Maybe throw in some mod races like maybe from Mass Effect or Star Trek. But edit the videos down a bit. I'd love to see a super campaign spanning years in the game.

Hey ASpec for your next video idea can you speculate the next dlc? since the diplomatic dlc we all wanted is here already :) I personally think now we need species update… most of them are too bland, too similar especially in the late game Stone species had the right idea but I think it should have been implemented better and extend to all species. Each species should feel different when playing. On the top of my head there are few things that should be in the game: More traits (and more trait slots so the more RP ones can be picked), Trait-related events, more species types (gaseous, undergrounds, microscopic，virus etc) and Special trait/mechanic for each species type, A "crew" slot for ships (load one army on a battle ship to give it bonus, like a species with "quick reflex" trait can give the ship more shooting speed) Planet modifiers showing what environment it has and what creatures they have, all creatures can be uplifted (and be different based on what they were, predators as army, smart ones to research, fat ones to eat, cute ones in zoo)

Guillis planetary Modifiers is a great get into modded Stellaris Mod.

Have you tried Giulli's Planet Modifiers 2.7? There's a whole lot of flavor in that one too--maybe for a later video?

The author behind the mod Machine Shipset just wrote: - "I'm working on a large update which completely overhauls most of the models"

What would be cool is a program within the game that tallies everything that happened and presented an endgame summary of the timeline of your empire, letting you read through the hundreds of years of your guidance. Add in some charts, who doesn’t love plotted data?

Don't forget Guilli's Planetary Modifiers, Planetary Diversity, and Stellar Diversity. Those are must-haves for me.

I miss guillies planet modifier. Adds more events, some crazy planet mods and more flavour to the precursor events, for example terraformable planets with precursor mods.

planetary diversity is a must have for me it adds just SO MUCH FLAVOR with the dozens of new planet types it adds...

I use 3 mods, tiny outliner, futurerama voice over,spiffing brit voiceover lol

aspec please tell me what mod you use for the little icons to display a planet's specialization. I can't find it anywhere