Mods are a pretty big part of Planetary Annihilation. There are mods that do all kinds of things, from improving the UI to completely rebalancing the entire game, to converting the game to something new entirely. Modders are still figuring out what is possible with the tools we have been given, so mods can only improve over time as we discover new techniques and more tools are given to us by Uber Entertainment.

That said there are 2 different kinds of mods you can get, Server mods and Client mods.

One of the two kinds of mods you can get are called server mods. Server mods are cool. Server mods can completely change the balance/content of the game. We have mods such as the "Realm Community Balance Mod", "Statera" or "Orbital Warfare Overhaul" that add new units and change the stats of the current units in PA. The really cool bit about server mods is that only the game's host needs a copy of the mod for all the game's participants to be able to join the game. Now that modded games are shown by default, anyone can join modded games. This can be a problem, as you might not want to join a modded game, or you might want to know if a game is modded beforehand.

There is an easy way to determine both if a lobby is modded, and what mod is being hosted.

In the game list screen:

In the game lobby:

Server mods have to be downloaded temporarily to your computer so lobbies will take longer to load, but they are often worth it as they can add much more to the game then there is in vanilla!

Client-side mods are mods that change things on your end of the game. Things like unit icons, particle effects, and general UI changes. No one else needs your client-side mods to play in the same game as you, (though if you're running a server mod that adds new units, and their respective strategic icons through a client-side mod, it might be reccomended) and no one else will see your mods in-game on their end. You can get client mods from the PA mod manager as well.

Finally we come to the mod manager. This easy-to use program displays most availible mods for PA (client and server), and will download and activate them for you.

You can get the mod manager here:

Forum thread: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-pa-mod-manager-cross-platform.59992/
Direct Download: https://github.com/pamods/pamm-atom/releases/tag/v1.0.0