So I Played the past few nights and it kind of takes the fun out. I can't upgrade volcanic planets, the skill isn't on the tree, and i can't research titan foundries, that's not on the skill tree either. The other ai factions can. That really takes the fun out. This is my first time back playing from a long absence.

I am running Dax's vanilla mod, another color mod that changes the secondary colors from the primary color choices, and a star base mod that doubles the range of the weapons for star bases. Am i doing something wrong? Should I just abandon the mod scene? Is the research tree broken after the last patch? Oh btw, i read they made skill tree UI adjustments "that made more sense" in the last patch, it doesn't look like it makes more sense, some stuff is down right in the wrong place, and my research tree is missing two abilities. Thanks for any advice help or acknowledgment.