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So, you want to get into Starsector? Before you do, here's a quick rundown of everything you need to know.

-don't like reading? Sseth made an interesting youtube video to sum it up; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqpulP1hLo
-tl;dw it's free to try since you can use the key provided in the video
-the game requires a ton of technical knowhow. if the idea of running colonies or micromanaging a fleet of starships doesn't interest you, this might not be the game for you
-the game also has an autistic amount of modding for future playthroughs. Pretty much every mod can be found here on the forum: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=177.0
-mods add new factions, gameplay elements, and even address some quality of life features. it's recommended to play vanilla first to get an idea of what you'll be changing Be wary with modding however. there's a flurry of autism and drama queens that infest the community, not to mention poor quality mods. Below is a comprehensive look at what mods to avoid and consider

>for starters, avoid using Archean Order if you plan on using any other mods. This is a total overhaul and won't work with anything else. 
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>Nexerelin is considered the go-to mod due to it adding 4X grand strategy features, as well as being compatible with most other mods. It has its problems, as detailed below.
>faction mods add new races that bring their own ships into the fray. Multiple can be used at a time, so long as your PC can handle it. It's recommended to have a safe 4GB of ram
>QOL mods, like Starship Legends, bring new mechanics that affect all faction mods and vanilla. Some give you new perks for your officers, some make your ships run better, some even add ships that don't belong to any one faction. Others improve vanilla factions

Mods that can be recommended (list in progress):
The Star Federation
Starship Legends
Nexerelin (your mileage may vary, see below)
Diable Avionics
Arkships
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Arsenal Expansions
Carters' Freetraders
CONCORD
Hazard mining Inc
Industrial Evolution
Interstellar Imperium
Kyeltziv Technocracy
Legacy of Arkgneisis
Mayasuran Navy 
Modern Carrier
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Rotcesrats
Scrapyard Armories
Secrets of the Frontier
SEEKER_UC
Speedup
Hyperdrive
torchships

The following is a list of mods and modders that have been involved in drama. Note that most of these mods are well-known and popular for their content. This is not a "do not play" list, but a word of caution so you know what and who you are dealing with. They've been put into several categories:

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>YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
Modders complicit in outright malicious behavior recently: crash code, malware, attempts to mess with other mods
>Nia Tahl
The all-knowing master of passive-aggressive snapping at all criticism. Chiefly known for including stealth nerfs to other mods on the grounds of people "cheesing" Tahlan Shipworks' infamous "boss faction", Legio Infernalis. Reverted them after much outrage, but never admitted being in the wrong. Gets extremely offended at the idea that people might not enjoy LI and mocks those who disable it.
>boggled
Included an IP logger in Terraforming & Station Construction, didn’t bother making it opt-in, thus sparking suspicions of malware. Subsequently removed it after moderate amounts of drama. Never admitted being in the wrong either.
>theDragn, 
Made High Tech Expansion, Apex Design Collective and the furry portrait pack. Mods are unbalanced, such as Apex. High Tech Expansion still includes crash code to prevent the game from starting with New Galactic Order enabled, despite NGO having been dead for years. The dev has often said that he doesn't find a problem with putting malicious code into mods Source: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=19548.120

>ONCE BITTEN
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Modders that have been caught red-handed doing malicious shit in the past but haven’t repeated it as of late. Trust, but verify.
>Soren aka HarmfulMechanic
The content police. First to take up torches and pitchforks against any mod or modder deemed undesirable for any reason (NGO, Tahlan, T&ST, Superweapons). Got mods to pull the links to Superweapons Arsenal over a questionable argument over "stolen" art assets and has apparently driven its author out of the community. 
>Vayra
Participant of the NGO crash code bandwagon (seen most often in Kadur's Remnant). Infamous for making modding tutorials containing and proliferating horrid spaghetti code. Currently more or less inactive. Vayra’s Sector wasn't updated for 0.95, but an unofficial update is available on Discord.

>SPAGHETTI EMPORIUM (AND OTHER MODS TO BE WARY OF)
Mods with coding or performance issues. Also includes mechanically sound mods let down by subpar integration or balance issues. 
>Luddic Enhancement Mod
Includes Luddic Path IED ships that, questionable balance aside, have very poorly coded explosion effects that can slow down any PC to a crawl.
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>Nexerelin (from the above portion of the pastebin)
An attempt to introduce both an endgame and 4X elements into Starsector. VERY performance intensive, especially as more factions are added with mods. Unfortunately it adds quite a bit of extra content, so this may be one where you want to buckle up and deal with the potential bloat.
>LazyLib, Graphicslib, pretty much any library mod
Potential memory leak issues. Unfortunately required for multiple mods. If any mod requires Tartiflette's libraries, it'll jack up the resource requirements, so have a beefy PC ready to use them.
> Beyond the Sector and Capture Officers & Crew, possibly all other mods by Kentington too
GAME-BREAKING memory leak issues. Problems in both stem from the same cause – new entities keep being created and loaded into memory, but are never deleted, eventually bloating and bricking your save.
>Iron Shell
Questionable art, questionable writing, questionable decision to add a powerful sub-faction to an already obscenely powerful faction. Known for spawning a huge doomstack on top of you should you steal the Chicomoztoc nanoforge and not letting you out without a fight, as well as for the near-instantly respawning doomstacks in its home system.
>Volkov Industrial Conglomerate
Every mod community has to have furries in it. The portraits at least fall in line with Vanilla's artstyle. 
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>The Aurora Federation
Basically Volkov, but with anime waifus. Terrible portraits, still WIP so alot of items and features don't work, and ship balance is out of whack. Good if you binge Naruto inbetween watching visual novels, you degenerate.
>Kenningtons DIY planets 
Considered a generally pretty safe mod as an alternative for Boggled versions of the mod. Breaks alpha core drops, however, and the mod maker is MIA, so bugs might not be fixed anytime soon 
>Dassault-Mikoyan Engineering
Bloated mod that includes lots of unsubtle woke/current thing moments. Also adds a sub-faction that's rather amateurish in both design and concept, the Blade Breakers
>Kadur Remnant
As stated above, it included an infamous line of crash code designed to break your game if you used certain "incorrect" mods. If you don't have New Galactic Order installed, it shouldn't give you problems, but the dev is definitely shady.

FAQ:
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Q:How do I mod? This sounds Difficult?
A: the game is built around it, so it's as easy as putting the mods in the designated folder and clicking play.

Q: how do I know if this mod is suspicious or not?
A: if you don't trust the mod, check the author and their history. If you want to be absolutely sure, block starsector from accessing the internet through your firewall. You might not be able to get information on what mods to update, but it's better safe than sorry.

Q: Is the campaign finished?
A: almost, but the lead dev is too busy getting bombed in Russia, or getting shot in America, or stabbed in Canada (he moves around alot) so updates might be slow.

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Q: My game is running slow and crashing, and I'm often running into memory leaks! please help!
A: Several mods are known for causing this issue. Check the threads and the pastebin for specific mods mentioned, such as DME, VS, captured crew. 

Q: My game is taking forever to save/load/enter sectors!
A: Starsector is prone to memory leaks, especially with certain mods. Save a copy of your file (to prevent save corruption) and then restart the game client.
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