What is this Unity Editor? Do I need it to enable mods?

[DavesBrain]

I have foolishly jumped in with both feet instead of descending the ladder.

I
- installed the latest required update,
- bought the Beachfront Properties
- added some Paradox mods
all at the same time.

I haven't quite figured out which parts are active, but I went into the Options panel and I see this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3201158021

There's a lot of stuff there (such as Visual Studio) that looks like I might only need if I want to *make* mods, as opposed to just *using* them.

Can someone give me a short primer on the can of worms I've opened?

[Ricebug]

Unity is the engine used to create CS. You use it to create mods and assets. It's part of the game, so I don't think you need to download it. Could be wrong.

[G]

Do not need it - get id of it and everything works - damn confusing though working this out.

[rovaira2]

It's confusing, but you don't need it unless your a modder doing code from my understanding. If you are just editing maps, or using others mods you don't need those things.

[DavesBrain]

In that case I'm not sure how I got it. It wasn't my intent to do any development, just to use existing mods.