This only applies to those who do not wish their mods to be updated by steam all at once and instead wish to have 100% control over their mods, with regards to when they will be updated etc.

Please follow these steps as this can be a time saver with regards to using the mods on the list I have provided.

1) Follow this path - S:\User\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris

2) Once inside the Stellaris folder, you should see two folders named mod and workshop. These are the folders that you'll be using for your mods. If these don't exist, then create them.

3) Download a mod from steam workshop. This can be any mod on the list or any mod of your choice.

4) Once you have subsribed to a particular mod, go into your steam workshop folder - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\281990 and locate the mod that you had subscribed to.

5) Open that folder and open the zip file (do not extract) or in our case united traits as an example mod. Once the zip file has been opened, open the descriptor.mod file using a text editing software; I use sublime text.

6) Once opened, change the following line from this - archive="united_traits.zip" to this - path="workshop/content/281990/united_traits/united_traits.zip" replacing it entirely. Make sure that you also check that the version of the desriptor.mod should match the version of the main game. You will find this in the supported_version="1.9.*" a few lines below the path you just edited.

Click save once everything has been edited in the descriptor.mod file and exit.

7) Drag the descriptor.mod file out of the zip file and into the same folder as your zip file, which is still currently named as 850721710 since that is the ID for united_traits. Replace the name of the .mod file from - descriptor.mod file to united_traits.

8) Once complete, right click on the descriptor and cut before heading back here - S:\User\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\mod and pasting it into the mod folder. Now head back to your steam workshop folder and copy (not cut) the folder 850721710 (which contains the zip file) before pasting it into S:\User\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\workshop. Once you have pasted the folder 850721710, rename it united_traits.

10) Minimise everything and click on your Stellaris shortcut (if you have one) to bring up the game. Check that you have united traits ticked and hit play. If everything was followed correctly, then your game should load up without crashing or having any conflicts. File conflicts tend to occur by the way when you have set up your species and loaded up a new galaxy. If your mods are not compatible, then you will immediately get a ctd.

I do apologise if this is a tad bit long winded, but hopefully the instructions I've given above will help you to play any mod you want, without steam updating them when you don't want it to. I know there are Stellaris gamers out there who probably have other methods, but I prefer to do it like this. Also, doing it like this saves a lot of time and hassle, especially if you're like me who likes to play the game with tons of mods. I've had instances where steam would update my mods or the base game without me realising it and boom! Hours of game time lost.

Anyway, I hope this helps.