I haven't actually looked at the Maelstrom mod, but odds are it's broken.  To work with the game, your mod needs to be in the proper folder, for some reason they change the folder with each version.  If it's in there, and it dumps instead of loads, it's toast.  The mod would have to change almost nothing to avoid being broken, so you probably have to wait for it to be patched.

On the plus side, at least SOA2 has already been updated to work with it, so there are mods you can currently use with diplomacy.

I wish there was a way to get to get the planets that Malestrom gave the Dyson sphers ringworlds and such that I realy enjoyed.

also, is there a way to build new ships as a mini mod? I have a couple Ideas for a ship that I would like to try and set up but not even sure what I am doing I downloaded the Modding tools and dev tools but have no clue where to get started.