Hey there.
Sorry to bother you with stupid questions, but I've read the 1st post and then the manual and before I dive into the mod itself I want to clarify:
Apart from the combat being completely reworked, is there some major changes to the campaign and end-game? Or is it good old "farm a starting capital, build a colony, defend it and get swarmed with inspections"?
I'm asking because, in vanilla, you can't "win" as of right now, but in Nexerelin you theoretically can. Is this more of a vanilla or something else in terms of global gameplay? Maybe there is some kind of end-game invasion like crisis in Stellaris?
Hey there no bother at all! The manual needs an update as scale has changed and designations/hull sizes have also been changed to be a bit more specialized/balanced compared to the earlier versions.
To be honest, I'm not very familiar with Stellaris other than it's a 4X space game. The most recent 4X games I've played are Endless Space and Sins of a Solar Empire.
There are campaign changes in the mod in the sense that there are new factions, systems, planets, markets, ships, weapons, fighter wings, etc. Some vanilla markets have been modified as well.
As far as 4X gameplay, Nex would still be required for a win condition since this mod is more balanced around vanilla as a control for both testing and general balance outside of the combat changes. There are also planned story features but I'm waiting on future updates to make quest implementation easier and also to know the general story that is currently planned. That story takes precedence so I don't conflict with planned vanilla features in my own narrative - which was basically extrapolation from my sense of the setting Starsector originally released and was later fleshed out with more detail in future updates. I try to base anything I fan-write around that and that's a WIP - though in the past I've listed my own inspirations and influences.
To be fair, I've added a few resource conditions, industries and stations here and there in an attempt to think about the 4X condition of Nex in the overall campaign rig. I wouldn't say I've specialized in the 4X format or anything, but I've tried to emphasize faction uniqueness through either unique hulls or wings or weapons, etc, and give commissions more flavor. I've also attempted to balance colony resources to make the 4X situation at least somewhat balanced for the TC - though I've also tried to maintain certain areas of vulnerability to better reward knowledge of general campaign mechanics as well so it's a balance there.
As far as endgame enemies are concerned, I had an endgame threat in mind if I ever get to it, but the art alone would take a long time and Alex/David are already working on end-game things - so at the very least I would want to see those first.
As far as player colony mechanics, I haven't even touched those yet other than lightly adjusting vanilla markets. So if you are getting a lot of expeditions in a vanilla campaign you probably would with this mod too. The same game mechanics would apply there.