8/31/24:
Open Starbound, or OSB, might be compatible. Theoretically it should improve performance, and will even add more options to some mods such as Planet Search. But I only recently learned about it, and haven't tested it yet - https://github.com/OpenStarbound/OpenStarbound/blob/main/README.md you can get it here.

Now supports Futara's Dragon Pixel Full Bright Shader if you want to add glowing shader support to some races, enemies, and objects. (requires optional manual install - click the link for more info)


2024 Update:
Removed a few mods for balance reasons, added a few mods for aesthetics/SAIL customization, and to replace the removed mods related to difficulty and augments/collars/pets.


2023 Update:
Rebuilt the entire modpack, following the recommendations found here -

https://frackinuniverse.miraheze.org/wiki/Recommended - Recommend FU comaptible mods
https://frackinuniverse.miraheze.org/wiki/Included - Mods or functionality already included in FU
https://frackinuniverse.miraheze.org/wiki/Incompatible - Known incompatible or problem causing mods
https://frackinuniverse.miraheze.org/wiki/Races - Compatible races

-----------------------------------------------------

Modpack Description:
Basically, Frackin' Universe with massive additions and greatly extended endgame, tested for mod compatibility, and tweaked a little for QoL, such as reduced fall damage and the ability to beam back to ship while underground. I'm attempting to keep items balanced around FU, but it's easy to miss things. If you run into any issues, have any mod addition/removal suggestions, or know of any compatibility patches I missed, leave a comment.

Installation:
1. Many of these mods require or recommend starting a new character, otherwise crashes or character corruption could happen. So make peace with that first.

2. Unsubscribe from your current mods, then subscribe to all of these (intro/QoL/music mods optional). Done. No special instructions, unless you want to try the extra install steps for Futara's Dragon Engine (performance), or want to enable Futara's Dragon Full Bright Shader (extra glowing things, like some race's eyes). Click either for more info.

Adding extra mods:
Obviously it's your decision if you want to add extra mods on top of this (the point of this pack is so you don't have to though), but I highly recommend choosing mods from the above recommended links if you do, otherwise you may be adding races/mods that don't play nice with FU, and you wouldn't know it because it might not crash your game, yet things may be broken, or not spawning, or imbalanced in-game.

Performance:
When I first started building this modpack back on Windows, I did have some moments of dropped framerates in big cities with lots of lights and machines, and tried to find mods that would help. But I also heard the game ran better on linux, and that it also was fairly CPU dependent. Since then, I've tested performance on linux (specifically, linux mint + kde plasma + wayland), and then later with a better CPU. The game does in fact seem to run a lot better on linux with identical hardware, and then once I upgraded my CPU (still an older one though), I functionally get 0 lag now, even with FU machines.

So that would be my performance recommendation, both for Starbound, and in general. Try a linux distro, and if you still experience lag in some areas, make sure your single thread CPU performance is decent (a 16+ thread/core CPU with low single thread performance, might still lag in many games due to those games not taking advantage of multiple threads).