Best "immersive", non OP mods

[Redeemed_Jester]

Title says it all: can you recommend mods for me to use that are a "must"? I have played some of the game, but I find that the pawns themselves are a little shallow. Short of pyromaniac, nothing seems to affect their behavior. I know about Prepare Carefully, but I've forced myself to use it at bare minimum because otherwise I abuse the heck out of it. I would rather skip cosmetics for the time being, or things that add furniture, etc. I want actual gameplay mods. Thank you in advance for answering!

[Jigain]

I'd probably start with Dubs Bad Hygiene.

[Preechr]

Mods can completely change the game. While some can be very overpowered, you don't have to play that way. As you said, you could use Prepare Carefully to start with godlike pawns and faceroll the game, but you don't. I think the best way to get what you're looking for is to first figure out what you are looking for, specifically. Once you get into adding mods, that's just what you do.

If you want to play as a Tolkienesque Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit race, in a completely Middle Earth/medieval setting, you can do that. That may not be your thing though, and even if you go that route, there will be overpowered things in the game you may just avoid.

If you want a complete revamp of the ranged and melee systems that is much more realistic and actually requires making and using ammunition, Combat Extended does that. A lot of people love it, but you may not. You can turn the ammunition requirement off in that one if you choose...

You can extend the endgame technology tree to include drilling for oil and making products out of it. You can extend bionics and learn to perform genetic experiments on people and animals. You can add Dinosaurs and other fantastic creatures and add mods to ride animals into battle or fight and hunt for you...

You can allow your pawns to have babies and raise them, set up hotels for your guests, increase the diplomatic things you can attempt with other factions, add all kinds of alien and fantasy races, add requirements for going to the bathroom or drinking water, which adds all the tech to provide those amenities...

If you just want to add depth to how your pawns interact with one another, maybe try Psychology, Rumor Has It, and/or any one of the mods that messes with the romantic systems.

You can also spend more time in Prepare Carefully to design a balanced scenario by giving your pawns real flaws and tweaking the biome settings to create weird environments for them to deal with, and then add new biomes.

No matter what mods you choose to add, there will always be balance issues that you will want to iron out, either by adjusting settings, adding further mods that give you more control to bring stuff into line, or even adjusting values in the XML sheets, which is easier than it sounds once you figure out where everything is.

Its a journey, not a destination. First, you need to decide where you want to go.

If any of these ideas sound like something you want to try, people will most definitely answer any specific questions you have and offer a lot of opinions.

[Monoxide]

I personally like to maintain difficulty as well, so I stick to quality of life mods that dont really make things easier per se, but give options that take away some micromanagement. A list of these mods I would hate no longer having are:

Replace Stuff - lets you turn something from one material to another without micromanagement (materials still needed)

Cut Blighted Plants - Designate all plants with blight in a single click opposed to having to select them individually

RimFridge* - lets you create a 1x1, 1x2, or 2x2 fridge anywhere opposed to a single big freezer room. *Some may think this may reduce difficulty - however its balanced in my opinion because these take extra components and electricity.

Allow Tool - Lets you select multiple things instead of individual clicks.

Quality Builder - lets you designate a minimum quality on an item. If not met, the pawn will deconstruct the item and try again. Removes micromanagement.

EDIT - I also started adding the VGP mods. If you like cooking/farming for your pawns, these add a LOT of new things; many more crops (beans, red lentils, watermelon, etc), many more meals (meat stew, tacos, cheeseburgers), new work benches (sweets bench to make candy, smoothies, ice cream | oven to make bread, dehydrate fruits, polenta | grinding mill to make flour | prep bench that allows basic things to be made)

[Redeemed_Jester]

Originally posted by Preechr:

Mods can completely change the game. While some can be very overpowered, you don't have to play that way. As you said, you could use Prepare Carefully to start with godlike pawns and faceroll the game, but you don't. I think the best way to get what you're looking for is to first figure out what you are looking for, specifically. Once you get into adding mods, that's just what you do.

If you want to play as a Tolkienesque Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit race, in a completely Middle Earth/medieval setting, you can do that. That may not be your thing though, and even if you go that route, there will be overpowered things in the game you may just avoid.

If you want a complete revamp of the ranged and melee systems that is much more realistic and actually requires making and using ammunition, Combat Extended does that. A lot of people love it, but you may not. You can turn the ammunition requirement off in that one if you choose...

You can extend the endgame technology tree to include drilling for oil and making products out of it. You can extend bionics and learn to perform genetic experiments on people and animals. You can add Dinosaurs and other fantastic creatures and add mods to ride animals into battle or fight and hunt for you...

*You can allow your pawns to have babies and raise them, set up hotels for your guests, increase the diplomatic things you can attempt with other factions, add all kinds of alien and fantasy races, add requirements for going to the bathroom or drinking water, which adds all the tech to provide those amenities...

If you just want to add depth to how your pawns interact with one another, maybe try Psychology, Rumor Has It, and/or any one of the mods that messes with the romantic systems.*

You can also spend more time in Prepare Carefully to design a balanced scenario by giving your pawns real flaws and tweaking the biome settings to create weird environments for them to deal with, and then add new biomes.

No matter what mods you choose to add, there will always be balance issues that you will want to iron out, either by adjusting settings, adding further mods that give you more control to bring stuff into line, or even adjusting values in the XML sheets, which is easier than it sounds once you figure out where everything is.

Its a journey, not a destination. First, you need to decide where you want to go.

If any of these ideas sound like something you want to try, people will most definitely answer any specific questions you have and offer a lot of opinions.

The more day to day life of pawns is what I wanna make interesting. I am one of those strange creatures that likes creating good/terrible scenarios for my pawns and like to watch the madness unfold. Anything that can make the pawns more "human-like" I am gonna adore, so I will definitely take a look at Psychology and Rumor has it. What mod allows for pawns to have children together and just how much will it break the game?

[Preechr]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1541438230

I've used that, but honestly didn't find it a lot of fun for gameplay... It does add some depth, and by your screen name I wonder if it you might find this one particularly interesting...

There is also this one:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1641239442

[Preechr]

Oh yeah... and like @Monoxide said, VGP is pretty cool. I don't ever prepare Simple/Fine/Lavish meals anymore... I have to grow many different types of crops so I can make VGP complex meals. For a fine meal, I grind corn into meal, then make that into polenta, then either grill it or bake it, which is a lot of work but I like complex kitchens and realistic recipes.

I also offer pizzas, tacos, pies, sodas and cookies... It's fun to see what pawns will choose when they have a choice. They also get beer, tea, coffee, spectago tea and a range of various sodas to choose from. On my non-Prison colony run I'm about to add all sorts of liquors and other drinks to the menu as well.

[LYNX Scout]

Prepare Carefully, Hospitality, Psychology, Dubs bad Hygeine, RBSE (or EPOE, pick one), Children School and Learning, More Faction Interaction.

(so ofc HugsLib and possibly JecsTools, not sure if Jecs is required for that list but it's best to just have those in there.)

Children School and learning doesn't "break" the game really. You can have them born at age 0, and I think there is a mod-to-the-mod thing that makes them helpless and requiring Wardens/nannies or whatever, but I just go for the Dune Muad'Dib's little sister scenario (lol) and don't worry about them being born at age 6 with at times amazing skill levels. (also tbh I am not sure which mod to use to adjust Dylan's mod, so, I just don't. My current game just had triplets born, so the kids are enough trouble on their own without making it worse :D )

.. the kids make it so cute. And obviously raise the stakes. Pregnant snipers are awkward.

[LYNX Scout]

Oh. Birds and the Bees too.

[Redeemed_Jester]

Originally posted by Preechr:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1541438230

I've used that, but honestly didn't find it a lot of fun for gameplay... It does add some depth, and by your screen name I wonder if it you might find this one particularly interesting...

There is also this one:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1641239442

Oh, my name isn't in reference to this game. I refer to myself as "Baby Survivor" because I suck at Dead by Daylight! It is pretty funny where your head went to though :D

[martindirt]

CSL, and the list from Lynx is really good.
Also you can add themed mods.
Rimmunation: gives tons of guns with real names, and new clothes. (Bit op IMO, but raiders have better equipment so that's balance a bit)
Jectrell (hope I'm spell it right) Ctullhu collection if u want some horror. (Can make the game lot harder) or StarWars mods if u like SciFi.
There is a mod what adds US Space Marines and the bugs as factions from the movie.
Vampires / werewolves if u like them. (Jectrells name is a mark of quality)
VGP mod collection: more farm, more meals.
Alpha Animals / Megafauna if u want more wildlife.
Medieval times: name tells everything.
Westerado things for Western style.
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