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Mod Load Order - A deception broken into pieces.

By Kepos and 1 collaborators

A short guide to Stellaris mod load order, which was inspired by ShadyDemoness and his quite unique The Great Plan II mod anthology (offline).

Be sure to keep in mind, that PDX often changes rules to their games...so even this load-order guide might get outdated sooner or later. A long time I was quite satisfied to set load order from Z -> A, but mods get more and more complicated, do have their unique dependencies, so you might even alter this load-order guide manually to fit for specific mods.

As I was often questioned and answered it in the comments a few times already, how PDX organised their mod load order, so I'll point it out directly. PDX mods are actually (!) loaded from top to bottom by their engine, where later mods in common could overwrite the earlier ones. There are some few exceptions in the code, but to solve and sort that out you might want to use tools like Irony Mod Manager and/or understand coding yourself. So, my guide should be read from #1/I to be the first mods in your launcher's list down to #10/X. The higher numbers overwrite the lower numbers. Since I spare #10/X for universal patches, you should place any usual mod in the sections #1/I to #9/IX according to their short description.

I love playing Stellaris with a load of mods. Without collections I often was limited by ~120 active mods, while more and more we get mod compilations that include an incredible number of mods in single file or only splitted into a few mods. Every single modded start creates a quite unique gaming experience.

Hope this guide may help you to create that special mod setup you personally like Stellaris to be played the right way!

Have fun!

* Just a little status update *

Managed to start stable mod game with 199 active mods using this mod load order.

* Cheers! *

** SHARED PLAYSETS **

Instead of reading all the explanations, you also could use SHARED PLAYSETS following this guide.

** HAVE FUN! **

Award

Created by

Kepos
Offline

ShadyDemoness
Offline

Category: Workshop

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

17 Nov, 2020 @ 8:11am

20 May @ 4:28am

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Guide Index

Overview

I - Visuals - 1

II - Flesh on the bones - 2

III - Shipsets - 3

IV - Galaxy is huge - 4

V - Traditions - 5

VI - Social enviroments - 6

VII - Diplomacy - 7

VIII - Misc-ellaneous - 8

IX - Big Stuff - 9

X - Patches - 10

Comments

I - Visuals - 1

In the first section of the load order, you should place the most basic mods regarding UI, visuals, (technical) extentions of basic stuff.

For me it was always the best to place stuff in first section, that you would also patch in for any Ironman variation you play Stellaris with.

This is ment to be the very basic stuff you want to load, that in most cases doesn't even change checksum. Besides UI-mods like Orrie's outstanding UI Overhaul Dynamic and it's submods + modpatches, colors and such, you want to include also building slot extentions and alike.

II - Flesh on the bones - 2

The second sector is related toward any stuff you like to color up your gameplay.

This should include any namelists like Cyberxkhan's namelist, star names, flags, species, pre-scripted empires, AI enhancements like Starnet AI and others, origins, sound files, also advisors and more.

III - Shipsets - 3

Ships, fleets, shipsets, visual enhancements to ships or shipnames.

Namely you should place here any shipsets, like Machine Shipset, you like to include, except mods that need a special position in the load order (like NSC, differnet blueprints, patches to them, aso.).

IV - Galaxy is huge - 4

Here you place any mod, that would alter the galaxy shape, numbers of stars, hyperlanes + visibility, different system views, any planetary modifiers (growth rates, extra conditions for planets or peoples) up to Gatekeeper's wonderful Planetary Diversity + submods + UI patches.

V - Traditions - 5

This sector is related to traditions like More Traditions + possibly UI patches for more traditions, traits, as well as standalone civics and other society mods.

VI - Social enviroments - 6

At this point you might consider to include different ethics, Petruxa's post-successors like Ethics and Civics Alternative - FunEFork or Ethics & Civics: Bug Branch and others + UI and other patches.

VII - Diplomacy - 7

Here you put in everthing related toward Diplomacy like Government Variety Pack, Leaders enhancements, altered Federations or Laws, Vasal modifiers, Events like Caligula Ceasar's MEM mod and Stories packs you like to enhance your gameplay with.

VIII - Misc-ellaneous - 8

This is the great dump, you'll include anything that doesn't fit into the other sectors.

If you like your Rulers proceed or upgrade differently, if you have new weapons or tech you like to test, if you have different battle behaviors or rules for your fleets up to the latest NSC mod and possible alternations for the game's pace by using Shio's No Space Race 3 or more dramatic affected engine or ship speeds ....just put it all in this sector and don't forget the obvious needed UI and other patches.

IX - Big Stuff - 9

Reserved for any mods that tendent to do real gamechanging, that are big and bloated or need to be placed at the bottom, so it could overwrite any of the before included mod changes to their special needs. For me it was reserved for very unique and big stuff like Gigastructural engineering and similar mods.

X - Patches - 10

Last and least you put here any unspecific and unrelated common patches like Universal Ressources Patch that are ment to be a base for several other mods to function correctly.

But you also might want to include quite unique stuff or hacks like No limit for influence that didn't fit to one of the above sections or at least should not be overwritten by any of the above mods.

203 Comments

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Kepos [author] 27 Oct @ 5:10am

@Terr Jones
Glad to read that this guide is still usefull and will help to build your own modded game.
Have fun!

Terr Jones 27 Oct @ 4:29am

Thank you very much, I was finally able to figure out a bunch of modifications that I arranged intuitively.

Kepos [author] 16 Oct @ 1:13am

@Reaperrising
For simple buildings and add-ons you may try # II/2 Flesh on the bones.

Reaperrising 15 Oct @ 2:47pm

Wait where do building and component mods go? I don't mean like ACOT but mods that do building or components only?

Kepos [author] 15 Oct @ 8:42am

@SPACEKITTY
Argh...400+ sounds quite overwhelming. Sort outdated ones out in first place and you'll end up with ~100 possibly. As posted above, if you are following this guide, you should be able to get a stable game in 99%. There are always mods, that produce incompatibility with the one other mod you defenitely don't want to cut out. Then you might want to get used to Irony Mod Manager tool to include all your desired mods into one single self produced mixed mod. No matter what, every PDX patch might kill your efforts or you have to play downgraded version. Last but not least, I managed to have a nearly stable modded game with ~200 mods, but needed a lot of testing first. Have fun!

SPACEKITTY 14 Oct @ 3:34pm

welp time to sort through the 400+ mods ive downloaded and see if this works lmao wish me luck booooys

Reaperrising 14 Oct @ 4:02am

@Kepos thanks will see how that works out.

Kepos [author] 14 Oct @ 12:54am

@Reaperrising
I would place submods right after their required mods and in the same section, possible compatibility patches as needed after the whole complex,. Section # X/10 is ment for general patches and not according to specific mods.
Crisis mods depend, some worked great for me at #II/2 when they fire late-game and bring in special species or empires, while more complex crisis mods would be mostly at # VIII/8 or # IX/9. Always depends on what areas the crisis mod alters, but in general I'd go for # IX/9, so they could overwrite other mods.

Reaperrising 13 Oct @ 2:51pm

An additional question what about mods that add crisis to the game? Would they be put near events or big stuff?

Reaperrising 13 Oct @ 11:47am

A question. Should submods be near their bottom most required mod, in the section that fits according to the list or in patches?

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