Modding Stellaris is an easy and often a fun way to share your stories with your friends and the greater Stellaris community. Hello, my name is cbshing, creator of workshop mods such as Tomb World Start Systems and Cockroaches of Earth and an active modder since June 2017. For this lesson we will learn to share your Stellaris empires through creating and publishing a Stellaris mod. I look forward to seeing what stories you will share!

By the end of this lesson you will be able to do the following:

• Create and share your Stellaris empire(s).

This lesson assumes that you have no prior Stellaris modding experience, but does expect you know the following:

• Able to use a file browsing software (e.g. Windows Explorer)
  
• Able to use a text editor (e.g. Notepad, but another text editor is preferable)

This lesson is created in Stellaris version 1.8.3 and in the Windows 10 environment. The information here should be timeless and translatable to other OS environments. If not let me know. I'll try to keep it up to date as much as possible.

For this section we will step through on how to share your empire through creating a Stellaris mod. As an example, I will create a mod to share the first Stellaris country I made: the Cormathani Directorate, a nation of peaceful reptilian interstellar explorers.

1. Open your Stellaris game launcher and click on the Mods tab. In the top right of the launcher click on the Mod tools button (highlighted in red).
   
2. Click on the Create Mod button on the top left.
   
3. On the following mod creation screen, you need to enter the following information to be able to create a mod.
   
   • Available Mods is where you put the name of your mod. It will match the Steam Workshop name. Since we are making an empire mod I suggest you name your mod with the name of your empire you want to share. I will call my mod "Cormathani Directorate".
     
   • Directory is the name of the folder your mod will exist on your computer. I suggest you follow @oriramikad suggestion in the Making Your First Mod: A Guide For Primitives guide, or you could use the following example of "insert_empire_name". For example, I will call the Directory "cormathanidirectorate".
     
   • Supported version is the patch your mod is compatible for. No changes are needed here.
     
   • Tags are ways potential subscribers could search for your mod. I suggest using the "species" tag for an empire mod.
   
4. Once you have filled out all the information above, click the "Create Mod" button.

1. Open your file browser software and go to "...\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris" or wherever you may have stored your Stellaris game files.
   
2. Open the "mod" folder ("...\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod") and look for the name of the directory you just created.
   
3. Open your mod and create a new folder called "prescripted_countries".
   
4. Go back to the Stellaris game files directory ("...\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris") and copy the file called "user_empire_designs.txt".
   WARNING: DO NOT CUT AND PASTE THE FILE. THIS WILL DELETE ALL OF YOUR CUSTOM EMPIRES.
   
5. Paste the file "user_empire_designs.txt" into the "prescripted_countries" folder you just created. and rename it to match your mod. For example, you can call the file "insert_empire_name". In the image below I renamed the file to be "cormanthani_directorate_empire".
   
6. Open the file using your text editor and delete everything except for the empire you want to share. Save the changes.
   

1. Open your Stellaris game launcher and click on the Mods tab. Highlight your mod to activate it. Hit the "Play" button to start the game.
   
2. Once your game loads your "mod" empire will appear at the bottom of the list of prescripted empires. You can select it and start a new game with your empire.
   

For this section we will step through on how to upload the mod you just created to the Steam Workshop.

1. Select an image that you want to use to represent your mod. I cropped a screenshot of my empire flag and species.
   
   • Note: The image should be smaller than 1MB and preferably square.
   
   
2. Add the thumbnail image to your mod's directory.
   
3. Go back to the overall mod directory and search for the text file that matches the name of your mod and ends in the .mod file extension. The file is highlighted by the red box in the following image.
   
4. Open the file .mod file and add the following line of code to your file:
   
   picture = "insert_file_name_thumbnail.filetype"
   
5. Save and close the file.

1. Open your Stellaris game launcher and click on the Mods tab. In the top right of the launcher click on the Mod tools button (highlighted in red).
   
2. Click on the Upload Mod button on the top left.
   
3. On the right interface scroll until you find your mod. Click to highlight your mod.
   
4. Click the Fetch Info button. White text should appear above that button that reads "Mod does not exist on Steam. Will create a new mod.", which means your mod has never been uploaded to the Steam Workshop. If you had previously uploaded your mod, this button will have Stellaris search the workshop for your mod id so you could update your existing mod.
   
5. Click the Upload button on the bottom right. This will upload your mod to the Steam Workshop. If all goes well you should see text says "Mod uploaded okay".
   

Now add a description and upload images. If you used any dlc only content or mod content while making your mod, be sure to give those authors credit by adding Required Items or Required DLC.

1. In the event you find your mod has the dreaded red exclamation next to it (such as the symbol marked by the magenta box), it means your mod is outdated.
   
2. Go to the mod directory and search for the text file that matches the name of your mod and ends in the .mod file extension. The file is highlighted by the red box in the following image.
   
3. Open the file .mod file and update the following line of code:
   
   supported_version= "current_version_number"
   
4. Save and close the file.
   
5. Follow the steps in part 2.0 of this section making sure you do use the Fetch Info button. Since you have already uploaded the mod the following text will appear " ".
   
6. Click the Upload button on the bottom right. This will update your mod on the Steam Workshop.
   

Now that you have successfully uploaded a mod to the Steam Workshop, you are probably thinking "That was easy!". And you'd be correct in thinking so! The Paradox developers made modding Stellaris very easy, so don't hesitate to share your stories with the world!

Thank you for reading this guide. I hope to bring to you a series of modding guides so that more mods can be introduced to the Steam Workshop and more people can have fun while playing Stellaris!

If you're interested, you can find the mod created in this example at the following link on the Steam Workshop:
Cormathani Directorate

Stay tuned for Lesson 2 - Mod Structures, Localisation, and Custom Start Messages

If you've shared an empire in the Steam Workshop using this guide, please leave a link in the comments below. I'd love to see your stories!

I used the following guides as reference in making this guide.

• Making Your First Mod: A Guide For Primitives by oriramikad - a great introduction to modding.
  
• Stellaris Wiki: Modding[stellaris.paradoxwikis.com] - a great resource for a modder