There are some optional mods, that I highly recommend to use, so your game experience would be improved:

I recommend using the SEWorldGen[github.com] by Thorwin99. It creates asteroid belts and rings around some of the planets. You need Plugin Loader for this to work.

Pirates have the tendency to like you too much over time. As this is quickly becoming ackward, I suggest adding Perpetually Perturbed Pirates mod by Lucas.

Some graphic improvement mods such as Rendering Improved by SEModder4, Space Just Got Real by Dr. Novikov, or Apothilight by Apothicon are always good to have.

Add Recolorable Thrusters by Darkmist and enjoy more alien looking enemies.

Some of the NPCs use Tank Track Pack: Morue provided by Righty. Shoutout to Digi and his brilliant framework.

Always Respawn without Hydrogen just to spice up the gameplay a bit more.