Mods you concider "must have"?

[maculator]

I've been playing with A17 for a while now and since I'm a "only the mods you really need" -person I got my modlist down to "a hand full" of mods I concider essential:
  <activeMods>

    <li>HugsLib</li>
    <li>StackXXL</li>
    <li>ChickensMod</li>
    <li>DeadMansClothing</li>
    <li>RBSE</li>
    <li>A Dog Said</li>
    <li>AnimalsLogic</li>
    <li>TilledSoil</li>
    <li>EasySpeedup</li>
    <li>QualitySurgeon</li>
    <li>Hand Me That Brick</li>
    <li>IdleFix</li>
    <li>RotTickFix</li>
    <li>MyLittlePlanet</li>
    <li>Configurable Maps</li>
    <li>DontTemptMe_v1.2</li>
    <li>RuntimeGC</li>

And as always I'm interessted in how others mod their game. Well specifically I'm interested in "small" mod list, not those 5 pages long "gimme all da moooods" -lists, but rather those boiled down to the essentials ones.

[Nameless]

RuntimeGC is really the only thing that you can say you must need it because it boost performance significantly. Everything is just icing on the cake.

[TheManWithoutAPlan]

Combat Extended.

[SpaceDorf]

Hugslib ( a requirement .. so running outside of the competition )

AllowTool

Fluffie Worktab
Fluffie Medicaltab
Wildlife Tab

CooksCanRefuel
AnimalLogic
RuntimeGC

icing for smoother gameplay :

ConduitDeconstruct
JTZoneButtons
JTReplaceWalls
MorePlanning

[MCreeper]

Force do job. Why i never see it in "must have mods" is a mystery, it's most must have from all the mods.

[Sola]

There's one convenience one that isn't so much "necessary" as "should be in the base game, as the less hardcore among us will want this":
edb Prepare Carefully

The only must-haves are things you can do in the actual game.
OSHA compliance - Pawns will ALWAYS treat deadfall traps as armed.  No more accidental falling to your death.
Look, I'm the worker now! - Automatic overrides for work prioritization.

"Emu!"

"Yeah?"

"Patch up this prisoner, will you?"

"Can't."

". . . Why not?"

"Zoya's doing it."

". . . Oooookay. Zoya! Zoya! ZOYA!"

"CHEF, WHAT'S UP?"

"DON'T TEND THE PRISONER."

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YA. I'M BY THE GENERATORS."

"DON'T. TEND. THE. PRISONER."

"OKAY, BOSS!"

"Alright. Emu!"

"Yeah?"

"*Now* you can patch up this prisoner."

"Nope."

"Why not now?"

"I'm not a doctor."

"Okay. Alright. Emu? You're a doctor now."

"Cool."

"Patch up this prisoner."

"You got it."

"Great. Fine. Black, you patch up the other prisoner."

"Ooh, I'd love to, but I can't."

"Why not?!"

"Zoya's doin' it."

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Must haves for me, there are none that I won't play new vanilla alphas before these are updated, but any way my "must haves" besides that point:

(not in any order of "must-have-ness")
HugsLib (because so many mods need it!)
Moody
Allow Deadman's apparel (this one adds the filter, doesn't remove the mechanic)
Fresh Stockpile Filter (adds "allow fresh" filter to stockpiles/bills)
Cleaning Area
Quality Builder
Allow Tool
Storage Search
New Zone Tools by Britnoth (primarily for Uniform Grow Zone tool)
Better Workbench Management
Worktab (probably my biggest "must have")

Some others that are one step below must-haves for me:
More Trade ships
Fluffy Breakdowns
Stack Merger
Trading Spot
Recycle
Notification Archiver
Hunting Alert
Wildlife Tab
Zhentar's Vanilla Tweaks (primarily for Sun Lamp planning/fertility tool)
Miniaturisation
More Planning

[SpaceDorf]

The only must-haves are things you can do in the actual game.
OSHA compliance - Pawns will ALWAYS treat deadfall traps as armed.  No more accidental falling to your death.
Look, I'm the worker now! - Automatic overrides for work prioritization.

How could I forget those two, you are right.
EdB is a bit of a double-edged sword for me. 
For one it is just the better setup tool than the scenario editor
on the other hand it is so extremely powerful in what you can do with your pawns, that it really feels cheesy sometimes.

Not to forget the other "should be ingame"-tool that was modlistbackup, was modlist manager by edb and seems to reincarnate as ModSwitch and Mod-E

and the different mods used to export outfit, storage, zone and restriction settings.

[ColonistGirl]

I refuse to play without using Prepare Carefully. I love setting up specific colony ideas, so I want to set the people up with specific skills, traits, etc, rather than a bunch of randos.

Other stuff I use is the one that allows a trading spot, plentiful forests (cause I love having huge forests of trees), expanded prosthetics, and a bunch of other random ones I don't remember offhand.

[Trylobyte]

I play with a lot of mods.  A LOT of mods.  But these are the mods that I consider so essential I'd consider them 'Vanilla Plus' mods - Things that don't change the vanilla gameplay experience but instead provide important functionality and ease of use.

EdB Prepare Carefully - This should really just be in the base game.  It's the most powerful tool available for setting the scene for your story.  It naturally complements the ingame Scenario Editor perfectly and once you use it a few times you'll wonder how you ever did without it.

HugsLib - Do you like using mods?  You need HugsLib.  A lot of mods need it and even if you don't like mods then it won't do anything that interferes with the vanilla experience.  Get it just so you don't forget it next time you see a must-have mod.

Allow Tool - Another thing that should be in the base game, this tool (actually a set of tools) allows you a vastly-improved mechanism to select things on the map and set permissions based on item type, like selecting every ship debris for deconstruction or every squirrel for taming (you mad bastard).  It also makes cleaning up after raids a snap by letting you set everything on the map to Allowed at once instead of needing to designate everything item by item.  This mod has saved me so much time I'm not sure how I got by without it.

Stack Merger - Regardless of how you feel about storage (there is always a debate between 'Don't hoard' and 'More space') you want this mod.  This adds a low-priority hauling job that has pawns tidy up stockpiles.  No more having 9 piles of 5 steel or 4 individual smokeleaf joints wasting tiles of stockpile space, since pawns with nothing better to do will automatically clean it up and put everything together, the way it should be.  As much as I hate to keep saying it, this should also be base-game behavior.

Path Avoid A17 - This adds a tool that lets you designate pathing options for colonists.  With some thought and planning this mod can easily overcome the game's occasionally-dodgy pathfinding and make life a lot easier.  No more will colonists attempt to run through every patch of mud or copse of trees on their way to and from the farm, nor will they decide that climbing over a research table is faster than walking around it, because you can tell them not to do that.

Set-Up Camp - This is a bit more unusual since it's not a new tool or interface tweak but rather a natural expansion and streamlining of something you can already sort of do.  All it does is set up a Tiny map for your caravan to camp at if they need to recover joy, find some emergency supplies, or just rest for a while.  You can already achieve this by Settling a tile, but this mod means you can do it without littering the area with abandoned settlements.

Melee Hunting A17 - Colonists no longer need ranged weapons to go hunting.  Especially great if you play tribals, since their melee options are often much better than their ranged ones.  Also gives your Brawlers something to do.  Just make sure colonists aren't told to hunt until they actually have a weapon or they will gladly go out and try to punch bears to death.

Conduit Deconstruct - This lets you remove power conduits without ripping down what's build over top of them first or having to select each one individually.  Vital for those times you need to rewire your base, you'll never know how great a tool it is until you realize you need to rip up 90 power cables you've laid under several load-bearing walls.

[{insert_name_here}]

Prepare Carefully - As previously mentioned, this should pretty much already be in the base game.

Trading Spot - A tiny mod, but super useful.

JTReplaceWalls - Basically, it makes it so that you don't need to deconstruct walls and then rebuild them with a separate order if you want to replace a wall with a wall of a different material.

Which version of RBSE do you use? Personally, I think RBSE Hardcore is the most balanced one.

[maculator]

I use the normal version since its the first time I'm using that mod and I wasn't sure.
Well Prepare Carefully is super usefull but it's also super cheesy.

[Lady Wolf]

Well Prepare Carefully is super usefull but it's also super cheesy.

It actually includes an option "use points" option you can toggle on off in the prepare carefully menu to restrict how much you can cheese your starting colony if you want something more aimed at a balanced load out btw.

As for myself, I use over 100 mods gives or take, so the list of what I find "essenital" would be pretty long, but here's a few that I consider "must haves" and hold off on checking out a new version of RW until they're available.

li>Hugslib</li> A Core file needed for most mods to function, (and runs invisibly in the background) so put it in before you start messing with mods or you'll just have to do it later.

li>Romance Diversified A17</li> Makes the romances much better than vanilla.

<li>EdBPrepareCarefully</li> No more sitting around clicking refresh on random colonists until you get some that aren't fail boats waiting to happen, and being able to customize your start is pretty epic when you want to mix things up.

<li>RW_ColonistBarKF-0.17.1.12</li> So much better than the vanilla colonist bar in so many ways, makes the game UI far better.

Code Select Expand

    <li>Spoons Hair Mod -A17</li>
    <li>NackbladIncRimhair</li>
    <li>Rimsenal_Hair</li>
    <li>Xeva's Hair</li>

These hair mods aren't "essential" to me, however they are universally compatible, so can be used without needing to wait for the next version to be updated so worth listing here.

<li>Better Pawn Control</li> Like others have said, it's a huge QOL improvement

<li>Stack XXL</li> Yeah, being able to make meat and anything else you want stack higher than the default is nice, no more needing a insanely huge freezer or stockpile, being able to set the values to whatever you want from an ingame menu is a huge plus!

<li>StorageSearch-A17</li> Such a huge, time saver! Being able to just type the name of what you're trying to allow or forbid on stockpile lists to find it really makes life easier.

<li>Miniaturisation-0.17.2</li> It's nice not having to rebuild workbenches and everything else when you just want to relocate something a couple squares over.

<li>MadSkills-A17-2.0.1</li> It blows having your elite sniper lose most of their gunnery skill over several seasons because they don't get enough chances to kill stuff, and seeing your intellect skill dwindle down to nothing once you run out of research can make crafting items that require intellect impossible.

<li>A_Dog_Said-A17</li> Essential for animal surgery, otherwise most animals are good for combat maybe once, then they're too crippled to be good for anything but the stew pot. (which really isn't what someone bonded animal that gave their legs defending the colony deserves.)

<li>Mending</li> It's nice to be able to repair damaged armor and weapons instead of having to craft new sets all the time, especially for legendary power armor and other rare bits of gear.

<li>CombatExtended</li> Makes combat so much better, giving pawns inventory is a nice plus too so you can carry both melee and ranged weapons plus a side arm if you feel like it. (Still kind of divided on if I like its the ammo system, but there's an option to toggle that part off entirely so you can play it either way.)

<li>CombatExtended Guns</li> More guns for combat extended, always a good thing!

<li>RimFridge</li> Doesn't sound like a huge deal, but a fridge is a nice qol improvement when you don't want people running in and out of the freezer every ten minutes for meals.

<li>QualityBuilder</li> Hard to recommend this enough, having the builder with the best skill build stuff with quality ratings saves on so much wasted resources, and lets your wannabe constructors still help out smoothing floors, building power cables and other simple tasks.

<li>MiningCo. MiningHelmet</li> No more debuffs for mining in the dark, also has an option for turning the light on automatically, which is nice when trying to navigate a colony during a solar flare at night.

<li>M No Death Randomness A17</li> Nice not to have everyone but your colonists dying 60% of the time from any injury.

<li>Change Dresser</li> Didn't really think I'd fall in love with this one so hard, but being able to set up separate clothing sets for colonists to switch to when drafted is a huge asset, why wear power armor to cook breakfast and romance your significant other anyway and subject it to all that daily durability degradation?

<li>ReconAndDiscovery</li> More fun events to give you reasons to send caravans out into the world? Yes please.

<li>Rimfire 2.3</li> More guns, (with an option to turn off any weapons in game you dislike, even ones added by other mods) also Combat Extended compatible!

<li>OHU-Dropships-1.55</li> I can build a starship to fly off planet, but not a shuttle to visit the colony ten tiles over? Makes mid to late game raiding and trading much more fun and less of a giant time sink, the fuel req and weight restrictions also keep it balanced.

<li>Dubs Bad Hygiene</li> After having toilets and baths in the game it feels really weird without them, makes the bases feel much more "real" and the various buffs/debuffs keep it nicely balanced.

<li>AnimalsLogic</li> Being able to assign beds to animals so bonded animals will sleep in the same room as their master is handy, as is being able to designate animal beds for medical use. (Plus a bunch of other changes, also compatible with fluffy's animal tab)

<li>Much Better Pods</li> Removes the 300kg drop pod weight limit and improves the range (you can customize both to your liking) Makes drop pods useful without needing to build a dozen of them.

<li>Feed The Colonists</li> Because skill 15 chef should be able to cook food in larger batches than a single meals worth at a time. (With this they cook them in batches of 4 at a time.)

<li>DeadMansClothing</li> You're on a crashed alien world, barely surviving against all odds and your colonists whine about if the power armor keeping their insides from being on the outside, or the parka keeping them from freezing to death was worn by some dead guy? This reminds them to shut up and be grateful to have the clothing they need to see another sunrise than think too deeply on who wore it before them.

<li>No_Mood_Loss_Prisoner_Sold_or_Died</li> Because it's doubtful they'd care if the raider who just murdered their dog and wife gets sold into slavery or have their eyes harvested so the colony's only cook and gardener can see again.

There's a ton more mods I use, (nearly all of Fluffy's and RT's mods, EPOE, GlitterTech, The camping mods, etc, that there's just not room to list them all here without making the post a mile long. (If anyone wants a full list pm me.)

[tyriaelsoban]

Hugslib - this is needed for ALL the best mods.

Fluffys breakdowns - breakdown system in rw is a bit shitty and having your guys have to make compulsory maint. cycles makes sense.

Vanilla friendly weapon pack - because you touch yourself at night, j/k j/k, i think rimworld is missing one crucial thing; gief teh revolvers!

Dubs hygiene and central heating mod - where the hell do these people poop otherwise?! and they never wash! it also adds some new and interesting systems for heating, solar heaters, fueled stoves and immersion heaters. etc

RT Fuses - no, just no, leave my fucking batteries alone cass, and while these dont stop shorts, they just make them less destructive by reducing the discharge values in exchange for components and repair labor.

Animal logic - because ive never heard of a fucking fox hunting people, or unmilkable goats.

Rimfridge - QOL for reducing how much time is wasted tending to prisoners, stick a fridge in their common room and fill it with crap quality meals, bosh. sorted.

Tribal Essentials - for when you wonder what is missing from vanilla rimworld starting as tribals.

Trading spot - GET OUT OF MY FOOD ROOM!

[maculator]

Never thought I'd get that many usefull answers!
A fe weeks ago I clicked myself through the whole releases thread now I guess I'll have to do it again^^
Edit:
My definition of essential differs alot form the opinions shared here. I really concidered only the most essential stuff. Well, in my opinion.
But since everyone has a bigger list I wonder why "Doormats" didn't get listed more often. Because when talking about easing the load on haulers etc. "Doormats" does a great job keeping you cleaners bored!