You can jump in, but there are several vanilla things that they couldnt change with the mod, so you might want to get used to the game before you go on to the mod. But I will say this, the mod rocks.

Its a great game, easy to learn, and wonderful to play. You also don't need to be an expert on the core Stellaris game either. Novices can understand this game just fine.

STNH, IMO, is a bit more in-depth than vanilla... There's probably no reason you shouldn't jump straight into STNH, but it also wouldn't hurt to play a game or two on vanilla just to get a feel for the basic mechanics, just in case you end up a bit overwhelmed with all the extra stuff that STNH adds...

Thank you guys for the replies. I think I will play the base game for a bit to get an understanding of how it works, and then jump into ST: NH after that.

So have you tried it? What do you think?

Originally posted by Asmodean:

So have you tried it? What do you think?

No, I decided to get familiar with the base game first. I definitely will play it at some point though.

I literally never played Vanilla. This mod is the only reason I even bought the game. Never had the urge to play Vanilla anyway, love this mod way too much.

Originally posted by Hiphopopotamus:

I literally never played Vanilla. This mod is the only reason I even bought the game. Never had the urge to play Vanilla anyway, love this mod way too much.

Yeah, I can definitely see the interest in just playing the Mod. It's the Star Trek universe versus an unknown entity. Having played years of Masters of Orion and other games along the way, I do enjoy seeing what a game has to offer. I still consider Masters of Orion to be the best game of its type, even after all of this time, so I'm fine with paying the base Stellaris game first.

I just wanted to see what the thoughts were about just diving in to ST: New Horizons first. I was always leaning towards playing the base game first, and then giving the Mod a shot.

I've put in 36 hours on one play-through, and I have a basic grasp of the game, but It's going to take a few more games with no DLC's before I'm ready to try ST: New Horizons.