Stellaris 3.4 Mod List, with four main aims;
1) improve depth, variation and available choices,
2) improve fun and immersion,
3) improve performance, and
4) keep bugs, conflicts and inconsistencies as low as possible.

See load order thread in discussion for correct mod load order. For recommended mod and game settings, see below. I recommend having all DLC enabled, as some mods might require one or more DLC (check specific mods for details).

For Legendary Worlds 3.3 to work; you must delete one file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\281990\1373224279\events\legw_color.txt

On StarNet AI and difficulty: I find that StarNet AI Ensign difficulty is enjoyable; you have to rush alloys, tech and warships, you will have early wars and invasions, but you can compete with StarNet and survive, with some room for mistake/RP/imperfection. On Commodore, StarNet will usually outperform your early game alloys even though you min-max and play your best, it will nonetheless invade you hard so you need to be good/lucky in wars, and/or federate early to survive.

Tactics/strategy to survive early-game StarNet AI: If playing StarNet; your neighbours will attack you, so prepare defenses quickly. Build starbases at choke points (hangars on every starbase ASAP), don't be too greedy early-game (do not expand too fast; it will be harder to defend a wide empire), make alloys production an early game priority, and invest in your navy as much as you can afford. If possible, rush Destroyers and Carrier Operations (unlock hangars). Fight the major battles in your own systems/chokepoints with good starbases. Position your fleet behind starbase when opponent arrive, so starbase gets locked in for the first attacks, then you attack with your fleet. Use the trade-action Neutral Zone/De-militarized zone (from AlphaAsh's superb mod), to make a friend/ally/federation at one flank, so you can focus on the other enemies.

On Planets/specialization: With this mod list, I aim for about 8-10 planets/habitats that are improved nicely, and try to specialize them towards: 1 Agri/Food, 1-2 Minerals, 1-2 Alloys/Foundry, 1-2 Manufacturing/Consumer Products, 1 Energy, 1 Research, and 1 Unity, with Capital being All-round (mostly Research and Unity, but when using "Local Production" mod, I try to balance it with a little of everything to get the bonuses, and when seeing how the other planets produce and what is needed in my empire, I let the Capital make some more Alloys/Energy/Food/Minerals/Consumer Products on demand). In the Capital, I want to unlock all 36 building slots, and build all the best/coolest buildings (use SkyIslands and Subterranean Cities and other traditions/decisions to add more districts/building slots) . When I can afford it, I add habitats/planets with fortress at choke points, so enemies have to invade those fortress worlds to get further into the empire. Expansion and Discovery from Vanilla are good early game traditions, and the two mod-added Industry-traditions work well with Prosperity to ensure a healthy economy (make sure to use the Industry-added Planetary Decisions to further specialize your planets). Build the Consortium buildings (from AlphaAsh's mod) for Food, Minerals, Alloys, Energy and Consumer Goods to further specialize. I also love the Navy tradition for specializing my fleets, it works nicely with the Signature Weapons mod.

A note on how I customize the mods;
- Guilli's Planet modifiers; I always choose "high".
- I choose 52 Ascension Perk slots (you will probably never be able to unlock all, but it is nice to have room if needed)
- Gigastructural Engineering; I always set galaxy core to quasar (no Aeternum), remove Katzenimperium and Blokkats, and give Fallen Empires "none" of the celestial warships. The reason for this, is Aeternum, Katzen, Blokkats and Fallen Empire Planet-crafts are totally OP when they arrive, and tend to destroy everything. I like better to buff the regular empires, and buff the crises and FE's in other ways.
- Tech Rubberbanding: Choose "After Galactic Community", and set value to 1,0 for those lagging behind, and 0,5 for those ahead (to avoid that AI falls too far behind you after the mid- to late-game power creep sets in)
- Open Crisis Manager (it may be auto-opened on game creation, or you can press ESC, “Mod settings” and find it there) – click "Configuration viewer", I recommend to set it so AI cannot open L-gates, and set both end-game and mid-game crisis fleet power to “normal”.
- AI Game Performance Optimization Fix: Click “Enable some fixes on human player”, and save/close menu (this leaves all the other fixes enabled).

Here's my favorite galaxy generation/game start settings, that fit the current mod collection nicely (for me):
- Galaxy Size: Medium (600 stars), no more is needed (for me), and it is good for performance (I rather choose medium with good graphics, than large with poor and more lag)
- Galaxy Shape: Elliptical (I like better the tight gameplay of the Elliptical, versus the spread of the Ring)
- Habitable Worlds: 0,5 (to reduce lag, and to make finding habitable planets a "wow-experience" and something to fight wars over)
- Empire placement: Clusters (I don't enjoy too much room to expand, I like it when I get some space, and have to make war or build habitats/terraform to get more - "random" tends to give me too much expansion, and I end up with a too-big/-wide empire, with too much micromanagement and stuff.)
- Primitive Civilizations, Hyperlane Density, Gateways/wormholes: 1x on these
- Tech/Tradition Cost: 1,75x (slows down the game a little, and ensures that tech is not rushed too much - have a lot of mods giving more tech)
- Logistic Growth Ceiling: 1,3x (to reduce lag, and ensure that you have to "work for" your growth)
- Growth Required Scaling: 0,5x (same as the last one; reduce lag and make you work for growth)
- Caravaneers and L-Gates: On
- Xeno-Compatibility: Off (reduce lag)
- AI Empires: 18 (max on medium), ensure a crammed galaxy, not too much expansion, a lot of diplomacy and wars with StarNet AI
- Advanced AI Starts: 2 or 3
- Advanced Neighbors: Off
- Fallen Empires: 2
- Marauder Empires: 2
- Crisis Strenght: 1x or 2,5x
- Crisis Type: Random
- Difficulty: With StarNet AI, I tend to run either Ensign, Captain or max Commodre. Without StarNet: Admiral or Grand Admiral.
- Scaling difficulty: Off (if Ensign), but you might turn it "On" if you choose Captain/Commodore, so you survive the first wave of attackers, but AI gets some gradual boosts as years go by.
- AI Aggressiveness: Normal (with StarNet that is enough; AI will be very aggressive at normal)
- Mid-game start year: 2350 (due to tech and growth going at slower rate)
-End-game start year: 2450 (same as above)

- Origin Recommendations: I really like the "Forged in Fire" origin, and the Remnants origin (buffed from the "Better Remnants" mod), and some of the Elven ones from the Elves of Stellaris mod. "Global Wars" is a good alternative to "Forged in Fire", and they both give some help surviving against early-game StarNet since they both unlock "Destroyers". "Stepping Stone" is an alternative, giving better starbases and hydrophonics initially, and Stellar Pioneers give early access to space elevators and early habitats.

- Government and Civics Recommendations: With the "Expanded Mandates" mod, I enjoy playing Democracies for the varied mini-games of fulfilling rulers mandates. Due to a lot of technologies added by mods, and to keep up with StarNet AI, I usually go with fanatic materialist and Technocracy civic, and usually add Functional Architecture as well, since that makes planet building and especially habitats a better experience. Legendary Hero civic is awesome.

7th of September 2022: Major update. See log in discussion thread.

Enjoy!