Apparently I'm the last person here who still gives a crap about this, but I'm still enjoying it. Another thing that's been added since the May update is a "creation" link on the menu page which contains numerous mods. I could never get the Vortex stuff to work and eventually just gave up on it, but haven't had any issues with these. The best ones that I use are:
1. A mod that massively increases vendor cash amounts, well into the six figure range. The days of half hour commerce runs through Neon are over.
2. A mod that makes all resources stored on ships weightless. That's a huge game changer, since it completely alleviates the need for huge ships with massive holds and super powerful engines. Makes shipbuilding much more fun as well.
3. A mod entitled "Shut Up Cora" which removes all the unwanted NPC chatter while you're actually piloting your ship. They do still babble incessantly while you're wandering through the ship, but that's tolerable. Also, since I no longer need Sam onboard to ramp up cargo capacity, I only have him and his unholy spawn onboard for the Empty Nest mission, and then leave them in the lodge after that.
There are a few others that I use, but I'm not going to list them all. So far there have been no crashes or conflicts, and everything seems to be working smoothly.
There is one that I just loaded last night called Darkstar Astrodynamics, which, among other things, gives you the ability to massively, and I mean MASSIVELY, upgrade your ship parts. 40 power reactors are replaced with 60 power reactors, shield strengths are tripled, base speed is increased to 200, and the weapons are just sick. I may not continue to use it simply because it's too much. I did a Kryx run on extreme difficulty, and I was basically like Tom Cruise piloting the Borg cube at Wolf 359.
One final thing - I finally got the NG+ start where an adult, Starborn Cora has taken over the Lodge and wants to kill me because she blames me for Sam's death. Since I was unarmed, and also, because Sam hadn't died during my playthrough, I was able to talk her down. So I left, got weapons, and came back and killed her. Goddamn that may have been my most satisfying moment in all my years of playing these games. I emptied three full magazines worth of ammo into her head while screaming "HAVE YOU READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY????? SKYSCRAPERS CAN'T JUMP!!!! NONE OF THAT GRAV DRIVE CHEATING!!!!"
