I was stumped by this for a while but I figured it out. If you mod FactionDefs the game will crash when you attempt to click new game, or possibly quick game. This is due to the game making calls to factions that are not in the modified FactionDefs. All factions may work just fine in an alternatively named file. I know mod support isn't far along but any chance there will be a fix for this like an If faction x not present then move to next? Would be appreciated. Thanks