Oh, and you do need to start a new game to play after changing up mods - it won't affect your previous save files.

And if you have old saves from before the newest DW2 was released, make sure you discard those as well - they might work and they might not. Better for stability to start a new game.

For a CTD - try:
1. verifying the game files
2. deselect all mods in the mod menu :: restart the game engine :: start a new game

You can deselect all of your games if you navigate to the game folder and delete the mods.json file in the mods subfolder.

On my installation, this is located at:
C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Distant Worlds 2\mods\mods.json

For this particular list, load order should not matter. Having XL on the bottom is generally a good idea, but these are all mods that do not collide at all (well, only one background will work, and only one music will set the music, and the bottommost is the one that wins).

I keep getting CTD - and XL is at the bottom of the list. Is anyone else having this problem?

Does load order matter at all?