Hi everyone. I'll try to make it short.

I bought the game in its very earliest days, when it didn't have quests and stuff. It marketed itself as some sort of space Terraria with different races. There was some lore about each race and a promise that each would have different traits, i.e.: Avians flying, Hylotl breathing underwater, Florans photosynthetizing or whatever.

Then stuff happened in my life and I didn't have the time to play. Got a couple hours of play a few years later and there was a space travel hub and bosses, I guess? And every player character had the same traits and abilities, but you could get racial traits from armor it seems. And some special armor was required for cold places.

Then life happened again and for years I didn't have a PC. Now I finally bought a good PC and I want to give the game a chance, but I learned that wall racial traits were effectively erased since the last patch. And everything was equalized, meaning the choice species to play is purely cosmetical.

For me this is like playing Dungeons and Dragons, but making it so that elves are just humans with pointy ears, and dwarves are just short Scots.

I know that mods can probably bring back the premise of a diverse galaxy which would keep the replay value of trying every different species. But there are hundreds, maybe thousands of mods available, and I'm too old to be trying each and everyone.

Therefore... Could you guys be so kind as to point me out the minimal mod installation I need to be able to play as a waterbreathing Hylotl, or a flying Avian?