Starsector

a solid procgen world and schlocky writing absolutely carried by the INCREDIBLY good combat. it somehow manages to balance being a kinda-sorta twin-stick shooter with being a 2d fleet combat sim AND has an RTS element layered on top. you start out doing one or two of these at once -- zipping around in a frigate melting fools too slow to catch you, or sitting in a carrier keeping the fleet together with clever opportunism -- and eventually you get sucked into the zone and become the swiss army knife of blowing up spaceships. the AI presents a good challenge; it's satisfying to master in the very least.

one of those games that's improved exponentially by its modding scene -- if you don't give a shit about the writing (It's Mid) and like 4x, try nexerelin. and/or if you don't, the mod factions range from "stupid overpowered" to "so consistently excellent in their design i feel naked playing without them."

must-have mods --
* nexerelin: a total conversion that adds 4x elements into the game. invade planets, inflame revolutions, become king of the sector. or get mobbed trying to defend your shitty little city-state system from the combined forces of literally everyone. in any case, it adds a post-endgame that's well worth your time.
* diable avionics: sleek and deadly red ships, plus mecha instead of fighters. a little pulp for the setting, but i can't deny the sheer cool factor.
* magellan: homeworld-inspired brutalism. good writing, well-balanced, sick ships (capella!).
* industrial.evolution: pairs well with nexerelin. allows you to grow your colonies bigger and better with a selection of rare treasure items and more industries.
* shadowyards: a bit strong for their flavor, but the ship sprites.... they awaken something in me...... something.... high-tech........
* vayra's ship pack: i love the tyrant-class. what can i say?
* ship and weapon pack: so good you start to lose your grip on reality and no longer know what's vanilla and what's modded in by this
* interstellar imperium: made by the SWP guy. behind Le Space Roman Empire are probably the best ship designs in any mod hands down. the sound and FX work is top notch too
* tahlan shipworks: a little all over the place, but hey, the ships are very fun.
* speedup: QoL. makes combat rollout faster with a button.
* combat radar: kinda janky-looking but means you don't have to tab between the strategic map every couple of seconds to get your bearings in a messy fight.
* combat chatter: your ships get (consistent) personalities and talk on comms. useful for announcing when they're in deep shit, enjoyable for all the funny things they say.
* locked and loaded: adds a bunch of unique bounties with unique ships you can carjack. most of the established faction mods also use its framework to add their own bounties.
* legacy of arkgneisis: gimmicky lore with ships that are both eminently customizable and great to look at.
* kadur remnant: a vayra mod-faction. ships are a little slow for my tastes, but the guns either fill the holes in the vanilla roster or provide interesting alternatives to what's already there. writing's above the cut, too

maybe-have mods:
* commissioned crews: gives ships "personalities" (perks) based on their combat performance. usually good, but the bad traits are more annoying than anything and can be easily circumvented by save scumming. also comes with a post-battle debrief sheet to soothe your inner statistician.
* terraforming and station construction/DIY planets: good if you hate invading your neighbors to get arable land, bad if you like balance. very easy to make super-systems with multiple profitable colonies. can run either or both, just go in and disable the conflicting features in either's config.
* better colonies: allows AI colonies to scale just like the player's. really only useful if you also have nex.
* dassault-mikoyan: magellan's predecessor. adds a [hegint redacted]-like AI faction to plunder. used to edge on overpowered, now it's a lot more reasonable.
* hazard mining inc.: the core faction isn't very interesting, but it also adds a smattering of interesting ships to the main pool, plus two or three side quests. do not add if you don't want a bloated save. see also: brighton federation
* prv starworks: "what if high-tech was interesting"
* roider union: retrofit your civilian ships into proper warships! cry at the amount of save bloat it adds!
* volkov industrial: do you like to go fast? of course you do. hope you like catgirls also
* iron shell: makes the hegemony much more interesting, plus they have a LOT of cool ships (XIV tyrant!). also adds anime player portraits. whether that's a good thing is up to you.
* luddic enhancement: fleshes out the cgr so they don't roll over and die when you breathe on them and makes pathers into white-knuckle-worthy opponents.
* more hullmods: what it says on the can. some are very specialized, some are easy to put on anything. a little unbalanced from a logistics perspective, but the combat hullmods are fine.