Best mods for the first playthrough?

[clop1000]

What are the best mods that don't completely change the gameplay, but add new interesting features and variety? Also that stable and don't break the game.

[clop1000]

And what about more guns and tanks and aircraft? (Its a cold war era, there is such a variety),

[Sunday Driver]

Probably the community edition is best to start with. Not sure what else to include for that "vanilla" gameplay experience.

[pipo.p]

As you can read on the official forum, X:CE should be the game you start with. There's at least one another version of the game, and it should be reserved for ulterior playthrough (X:Division by Charon and team). Community Edition keeps vanilla flavor while going on correcting some flaws that couldn't be corrected in the last official version of the game. Hence, there's absolutely no reason for not starting your experience with X:CE. Besides, it is required by most of the best mods (else the requirement will be X:Division).

Here's my old mod list from 2 years ago. Most of them are purely visual or audio, and I've tried and indicated those that more or less seriously affect the game play (***), but I believe it was for the good cause anyways (none add more weapons, more planes more..., more...). Some of them are integrated in the X:CE Community Edition already, but not necessarily activated by default. Any localized version should be added just above the original mod (in the mod manager), as a rule of thumb (not under anyways).

I think it's better if anyone adding mod goes and reads about what mods do actually, so I won't say anything about them. Also, as this is an old list, better check for new versions and redundancy. Also, some of them might be a little buggy (Projectile Overhaul?), but it's simple to deactivate an undesired mod. In short, use it at your own "risks".

In the reverse order as on the mod manager (bottom top):

1. X:CE Base
   
2. X:CE Settings
   
3. X:CE Balance Adjustments
   
4. Skitso's Ultimate Megamix Map Pack 2000
   
5. Skitso's Improved Tile Art Pack
   
6. Skitso's Alien Base Booster Pack
   
7. Restored Community Map Pack
   
8. Random Map Packj Farm Edition (Kabill's)
   
9. Random Map Pack Desert Style (Kabill's)
   
10. Random Map Pack Arctic Collection (Kabill's)
    
11. NewCars (UfoTubby's)
    
12. Lore+
    
13. Khall's Tundra Tileset
    
14. Khall's More Portraits
    
15. Extended Weapon Descriptions for Fighters (Buzubuzu's)
    
16. Furies, Terror, and Dreadnoughts Oh My (***)
    
17. Fire in the Hole (Kabill's) (***)
    
18. Projectiles Overhaul (Allen Wrench's) (***)
    
19. Armoured Assault! (Kabill's) (***)
    
20. UFO and crew diversity (Axiomatic's) (***)
    
21. Skitso's Sounds of Pain
    
22. COM - Ambient Sounds
    
23. COM - Ambient Forest
    
24. Aircombat Radio Sounds 2.1 (Charon's)
    
25. Geographic addition (Axiomatic's)
    
26. Hold the Line! (Kabill's) (***)
    
27. Sleek Plasma Weapons (C-Variant)(Eisfunke's)
    
28. Blood (TT3's)

[Sunday Driver]

Originally posted by pipo.p:

As you can read on the official forum, X:CE should be the game you start with. There's at least one another version of the game, and it should be reserved for ulterior playthrough (X:Division by Charon and team). Community Edition keeps vanilla flavor while going on correcting some flaws that couldn't be corrected in the last official version of the game. Hence, there's absolutely no reason for not starting your experience with X:CE. Besides, it is required by most of the best mods (else the requirement will be X:Division).

Here's my old mod list from 2 years ago. Most of them are purely visual or audio, and I've tried and indicated those that more or less seriously affect the game play (***), but I believe it was for the good cause anyways (none add more weapons, more planes more..., more...). Some of them are integrated in the X:CE Community Edition already, but not necessarily activated by default. Any localized version should be added just above the original mod (in the mod manager), as a rule of thumb (not under anyways).

I think it's better if anyone adding mod goes and reads about what mods do actually, so I won't say anything about them. Also, as this is an old list, better check for new versions and redundancy. Also, some of them might be a little buggy (Projectile Overhaul?), but it's simple to deactivate an undesired mod. In short, use it at your own "risks".

In the reverse order as on the mod manager (bottom top):

1. X:CE Base
   
2. X:CE Settings
   
3. X:CE Balance Adjustments
   
4. Skitso's Ultimate Megamix Map Pack 2000
   
5. Skitso's Improved Tile Art Pack
   
6. Skitso's Alien Base Booster Pack
   
7. Restored Community Map Pack
   
8. Random Map Packj Farm Edition (Kabill's)
   
9. Random Map Pack Desert Style (Kabill's)
   
10. Random Map Pack Arctic Collection (Kabill's)
    
11. NewCars (UfoTubby's)
    
12. Lore+
    
13. Khall's Tundra Tileset
    
14. Khall's More Portraits
    
15. Extended Weapon Descriptions for Fighters (Buzubuzu's)
    
16. Furies, Terror, and Dreadnoughts Oh My (***)
    
17. Fire in the Hole (Kabill's) (***)
    
18. Projectiles Overhaul (Allen Wrench's) (***)
    
19. Armoured Assault! (Kabill's) (***)
    
20. UFO and crew diversity (Axiomatic's) (***)
    
21. Skitso's Sounds of Pain
    
22. COM - Ambient Sounds
    
23. COM - Ambient Forest
    
24. Aircombat Radio Sounds 2.1 (Charon's)
    
25. Geographic addition (Axiomatic's)
    
26. Hold the Line! (Kabill's) (***)
    
27. Sleek Plasma Weapons (C-Variant)(Eisfunke's)
    
28. Blood (TT3's)

Good post! Should be useful to new and returning players.

[pipo.p]

Well, returning myself to the game, I realize that most of the list belongs to X:CE mod pack,so it's quite redundant with saying to start with X:CE! Also, I hadn't included (new) Steam mods, because I couldn't and still can't download any of them from within Steam OS. Also, some names could have changed in the meantime.

Moreover, I since realized that two of them, at least, are (were) a little buggy: Projectile Overhaul had problems with laser beams, centered on the weapon, instead of emerging from them; UFO and crew diversity having 0 crew on new scouting UFOs. But perhaps it's now corrected. Anyways, as I said, it's best to go to the source, i.e. to those mods' pages.

[raneko]

I remember being able to pack 12 into the helicopter. not 8 WTH?