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The first star trek: infinite mods add a bigger map, remove pirates, and more.

Star Trek: Infinite’s first mods are here, giving us the chance to alter our playthroughs in a way that helps ups more easily achieve galactic domination or simply have to deal with fewer annoying things while we explore space.

The majority of Star Trek: Infinite’s first mods are now available through Paradox Mods, the publisher’s own platform, which could indicate a broader shift in how it handles user-made creations . Read on below for a number of picks that you might not want to skip.

The First Star Trek: Infinite Mods

Before delving into our list, it’s best to keep in mind that, at the time of publishing, we’re still in the early days of Star Trek: Infinite modding, so the effects of most of our picks will be smaller.

As is the case with all games, patches can and often do break mods, leaving it up to their creator to update them and make them usable once more.

Perhaps the most notable addition that’s part of Star Trek: Infinite’s first batch of mods, Infinite Plus adds a number of smaller tweaks that prioritize immersion.

The Klingons and Romulans start with cloak technology, the Federation gets the Excelsior from the get-go, while the Romulans no longer have access to Photon Torpedoes when the game begins.

In case the game feels a bit too claustrophobic, a bigger map mod is now available, while another allows leaders to stick around for longer.

The Consortiums mod aims to add three new buildings that help specialize energy, agriculture, and mining colonies further.

Among Star Trek: Infinite’s first mods also counts one that removes pirates and make the outliner font easier to read.

More Star Trek: Infinite mods are likely to pop up as the game’s journey continues.

For more help with Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy game, check out our guides on the silent alarm and infinite bulk carrier .

Keep updated on the latest Gaming News by following GameWatcher on X , checking out our videos on YouTube , or by giving us a like on Facebook .

When not brewing coffee or debating serious topics with my cat, you'll either find me playing video games or writing about them.

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Star Trek: Infinite

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• 2.1 Species
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Summary [ ]

Appearances [ ], species [ ], external links [ ].

• NimbleGiant.com – developer's official website
• ParadoxInteractive.com – publisher's official website
• Star Trek: Infinite at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek: Infinite at Wikipedia

Star Trek: Infinite review

It's stellaris, but not as we know it., our verdict.

Compelling, but not quite there yet. Needs two seasons to grow the beard.

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What is it?  Paradox style grand strategy, but Star Trek. Release date October 12, 2023 Expect to pay $30/£27 Developer Nimble Giant Publisher Paradox Interactive Reviewed on  Intel i5, 16GB RAM, GTX 1660 Link Official site

I am opening this review with a warning: I am going to spend a lot of time here talking about a different game. This isn't something I usually do, but as you may have guessed from the screenshots, Infinite is very much built on the chassis of Stellaris with some appropriately Star Trek twists. Consider it the Napoleon: Total War to Stellaris's Empire: Total War: a more focused, narrative spin off from a larger and more sprawling game.

The game is set firmly in the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine era (it actually begins with the Romulan attack on Khitomer, where Worf's family were killed) and portrays the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians as four superpowers locked in constant competition. In my game for example, an early decision brought the Federation and the Klingons closer together, and the Romulans and Cardassians immediately responded by forming a counter-alliance to stop the perceived threat.

Unlike Stellaris, Infinite is only semi-random. The four great powers collide in the middle of the map in roughly the same way every game while the rest of the galaxy is full of randomly placed "minor powers". So a classic Federation member like Trill can feasibly spawn on the opposite side of the galaxy and end up getting invaded by Romulans. It's not unlike joining a Stellaris game a third of the way in, after the big power blocks have formed. For the most part this works surprisingly well, but there are some oddities: for example playing as the Federation I was prompted to colonise the uninhabited planet of Denobula. I know, Nimble Giant, I like to pretend Enterprise never existed sometimes too.

Here's the good news: Star Trek: Infinite expresses the Federation fantasy far better than Stellaris ever did. You can genuinely expand by diplomacy here, buttering up minor species and inviting them, one by one. The other playable factions have their own spin on this, with the Romulans setting up puppet governments and the Cardassians using something similar to Stellaris's overlord system. The Klingons just invade people, they don't really do subtle.

One of the other big changes from Stellaris will be familiar to players of other Paradox games. There's now a narrative structure to the game in the form of a branching mission tree, where events can be triggered by objectives as exciting as "have Bajor join the federation" or as banal as "survey 10 systems". Some of these events follow classic Trek storylines, but others present compelling 'what if' moments, like Romulan and Vulcan reunification. They're as much about steering your playstyle as getting the rewards, and I ended up enjoying them a great deal.

Continuing mission

One of the best of these mission chains is the Enterprise itself. Completing the first step will reward you with a jack of all trades super ship that is equally adept at science, war and diplomacy. Sending the Enterprise out to do various tasks will reward you with a Next Generation crew member, who might give you a generic empire bonus, or might physically appear as a recruitable leader. Other major and minor Trek characters can also emerge in this fashion, meaning that, entirely organically, I once ended up in a situation where the Enterprise was valiantly holding the line against an unstoppable Borg sphere, only to be rescued by Benjamin Sisko commanding a fleet of Voyagers.

I once ended up in a situation where the Enterprise was valiantly holding the line against an unstoppable Borg sphere, only to be rescued by Benjamin Sisko commanding a fleet of Voyagers.

At this point I have to talk about the targ in the room. Stellaris already has a Star Trek mod, so why should you pay for a game when a mod is free? Well Stellaris's New Horizons mod is a sprawling epic that covers the entirety of Star Trek history and every faction in the galaxy, while Infinite is focused on the Alpha and Beta quadrants of the Next Generation era, and frankly I think it's better for it. This means, for example, that the Borg are more akin to the terrifying invader from nowhere they are in the show, rather than another player faction. It's also, paradoxically, the cheaper option if you don't already own a full deck of Stellaris DLC.

Something Infinite should have over any mod is polish, and while it does feel less clunky than New Horizons, there are still more issues than there should be at launch. Like a decidedly un-silent notification for a "silent alarm", or the strange bug that caused the voiceover to claim a character had died every five minutes, or the time I ended up with two Rikers. Although to be fair that last one also happened in the show.

It's things like this, and the more direct ports from Stellaris, that make Infinite feel a little unfinished. I don't mind that Nimble Giant haven't really changed the planet building interface, but I feel like I probably shouldn't be trading energy credits for alloys as the famously post capitalist Federation. There's also a disappointing lack of interactions with pre-FTL civilisations, a Prime Directive dilemma or two would've been nice. In the end I stopped playing well before the victory conditions, but that's also frequently true of Stellaris, a game I've played for hundreds of hours.

Nevertheless at the end of every review I ask myself "do I still want to play this game some more, now that I'm not being paid?" and the answer here is yes. I really do want to try that reunification story arc, I want to see if I can evacuate the Romulans before their sun explodes this time (sorry guys), I want to actually get the Enterprise E before Jean Luc Picard dies of old age.

I don't mark games on what they could be, but I certainly hope that Infinite gets the same kind of post release support as its bigger brother. I think it would be fascinating (captain) to see how the two games grow and inform one another over the years. Now that would be the best of both worlds.

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Star Trek: Infinite could be the grand strategy game Trekkies need

Paradox flexes its sci-fi credentials

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In 2016, Paradox released Stellaris , its first space-based 4X grand strategy game. It allowed players to take on the role of an upstart interstellar empire, establish colonies, manage their government, forge alliances, and crush their enemies. The game’s galaxy was vast and robust, but, as Polygon’s own Charlie Hall pointed out in his initial review , it was also fairly generic, a weakness that the modding community has sought to rectify by applying the aesthetics and history of their own favorite space operas overtop of it, such as Star Wars, Mass Effect, and of course, Star Trek. Not to be outdone, Paradox and developer Nimble Giant have been creating an officially licensed Star Trek 4X game, Star Trek: Infinite . Paradox offered me the opportunity to preview the game over Labor Day weekend, and those four days melted away.

Stellaris players will immediately recognize much of Star Trek: Infinite ’s interface and basic gameplay, down to the keyboard shortcuts. You begin by selecting your faction and expanding your immediate circle of influence across a two-dimensional galactic map, surveying and colonizing local star systems, developing new technologies and relationships with your neighbors. Depending on your faction, your goal may be to build partnerships, annihilate obstacles, or something in between.

As the decades pass and your empire grows, your responsibilities become more complex and varied, from keeping your sprawling population employed to defending your borders against hostile invasion. Conflict is inevitable and defeat is an expected part of the process, as power dynamics shift over the course of centuries. The constant juggling of tasks and the ability to shrug off the odd failure make for a compelling combination that I suspect will keep players glued to their seats for hours on end.

The things that make Star Trek: Infinite hard to put down are mainly inherited from Stellaris ; however, producer Mats Holm flatly rejects the notion that Star Trek: Infinite is a mere branded module.

“We split off from the Stellaris main branch quite a while ago,” says Holm. “The Stellaris team is completely focused on making every possible sci-fi theme that you can imagine, put into one game. On Star Trek: Infinite , we want to make the ultimate Star Trek fantasy. We want it to be very bespoke.”

While Stellaris certainly provides the foundational mechanical elements, Infinite ’s gameplay experience is shaped by its Star Trek setting. Rather than offering a dozen different playable empires with subtly different play styles, Infinite narrows your options to four major powers with conflicting philosophies. The United Federation of Planets is driven by scientific advancement and intergalactic cooperation. The Klingon Empire is a warrior culture that relishes in battle and conquest. The Romulan Empire prefers a more subtle approach to statecraft, utilizing spies and propaganda to keep their enemies off balance. The Cardassian Union is a cunning military dictatorship whose economy relies on slave labor and vassal states.

Conveniently, these four bodies also happen to be neighbors in the Star Trek canon, and each of them has been both ally and enemy to every other over the course of the franchise’s long fictional history. In a change from Stellaris , each empire’s gameplay is guided by a unique mission tree that rewards you for keeping your faction on brand and on task, or for making certain radical departures from the canon. Certain events are set in stone, such as the Borg invasion or the destruction of the Romulan sun, but the rest depends on your skill as well as your whims, and should your imagination fail you, the mission tree is there to point you to your next goal. Each faction has canonical and counter-canonical branches on the mission tree (will you play the Federation at its most benevolent, or give in to its more paranoid, martial tendencies?), but in either case, you’re encouraged to lean into your character.

Infinite ’s creative leads chose the game’s major factions and temporal setting very deliberately, beginning gameplay in 2340, about 20 years before the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation . This is an era during which all four player empires are evenly matched, generally stable, and will see a lot of conflict in ensuing decades. Infinite ’s first unavoidable event is the Khitomer Massacre, a Romulan sneak attack against the Klingons whose political ramifications reverberate throughout The Next Generation . The merciless Cardassian occupation of Bajor, a peaceful world that also shares a border with the Federation, is well underway. Rumors grow of strange cubical starships full of cybernetic zombies, looming just outside of known space. If you were going to design an original universe for a space conquest game, you might very well come up with a status quo like this one, and it just happens to be the beginning of the most prolific and popular era of an iconic franchise.

“Choosing the time period was a pretty big discussion,” says game director Ezequiel Maldonado. “We felt The Next Generation was the best fit, because that series is very focused on what’s happening on the Enterprise and not too much of what’s happening in the universe, but you get just a glimpse of what’s happening on a diplomatic scale. For us, it was a perfect starting point for a grand strategy game.”

“Once you choose the TNG era, you sort of have to include the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians,” adds programming director Andres Ricardo Chamarra. “Apart from late seasons of Deep Space Nine , the metapolitical stuff happens around the series, but it doesn’t happen in the series, so the player has to use their imagination.”

Setting the game in this familiar galaxy isn’t without its drawbacks. Unlike in Stellaris , where the geography of the galaxy is randomized at the start of each game, the relative positions of the powers in Star Trek: Infinite are fixed to something approximating the canonical star map. Anomalies and obstacles are scattered across the map to create some variety, but for the most part, replays of Infinite take an hour or two to become dramatically different from one another.

The diversity of the galaxy itself is also hampered by the limitations of its source material. All of the major and minor powers you encounter are, as in the TV show, humanoids with slightly different bumpy foreheads. The consistent geography might help you to remember what part of space belongs to which empire, but if you don’t know a Ktarian from a Talarian, that’s not much help. For Star Trek fans, however, pre-investment can sweeten the experience, as many of the societies you meet or planets you settle will have a deeper meaning than their practical value in the game. There is no specific advantage to giving Benjamin Sisko command of one of your fleets, but you’ll probably keep a more watchful eye on him than on NPCs with randomly generated names.

As in Stellaris , warfare is easily the most underwhelming element of Star Trek: Infinite . While seasoned strategy gamers may find more interesting ways to maneuver their forces, for the most part, winning a battle in Infinite merely depends on amassing a larger force than your opponent, and military might is merely another resource for the player to manage. That being said, combat has never been the most important element of Star Trek on screen, and given the habit of Star Trek games to disproportionately focus on violence (particularly during Activision’s time with the license in the 2000s), lackluster action is certainly forgivable. In Infinite , just as in most Star Trek, the future is built at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield.

For longtime players of Stellaris who have kept up with its expansions and mods, whether or not Star Trek: Infinite is worth a separate purchase will likely depend on the price point. (Paradox certainly hopes to court this audience, going so far as to invite the creators of the popular Star Trek: New Civilisations mod to playtest Infinite and give notes.) But, for strategy fans who are not already bought in — particularly Trekkies — Star Trek: Infinite is already promising. Even in its pre-release state, Infinite is an abyss into which you can easily lose yourself for days at a time, and given the studio’s track record of expansions and extended game life cycles, it’s likely to get a lot deeper.

Star Trek: Infinite will be released on Oct. 12 on Mac and Windows PC.

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Star Trek: Infinite

Originally posted by corestandeven : All good and reasonable suggestions above, though no signs the devs will do any of it. Some of us were pointing out and suggesting things before the game was released, and look what came out 2 months ago. On the timelines point, I sadly think players need to be realistic here. It is very clear the devs haven't got the full licence for Star Trek. If they haven't even got the right licence to play TNG sounds, TNG music, have TNG voice actors, or even voice clips from a show released over 25 years ago, they won't have anything for ENT, TOS or the TMP era. The only conceivable way they could expand into those eras is with payable DLC. Would players be willing to pay for that? Part of me says "Yes", but given how shallow the basegame is why would I expect these DLC to be any richer in content? I'm sure modders will add ENT, TOS and TMP ships, so whats left that the devs could add? Personally I don't think the devs have done enough to the basegame to warrant any DLC, but I bet their Paradox masters are already pushing them to produce some low quality overpriced crap early in 2024. I hope the devs will ignore that push and instead focus on improving their base game before turning to decent DLC. My expectations are rather low, but one can hope.

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