Am I nuts or...
 

is the .exe ignoring the path statement in path file? no matter what name I call the modpack folder in that file, the game always uses the stuff in the default races/picture folder. or at least it seems so to me..

Re: Am I nuts or...
 

If files are missing, then SE4 will use the standard files.

You mod's directory tree should look exacly like the SE4 directory tree.

Ie. your modded components.txt should be in the directory:

c:\ ... \SE4\Mymod\Data\components.txt

That is the likely cause of SE4 ignoring your mod.