[Lemmy]

My question is this: if you had to recommend one thing (a mod, say, but anything else is cool) to an utter newbie, what would it be?

Absolutely nothing! Figure everything out yourself, i believe the newb faq has some spoiler in it. Also don't get any mods, not yet anyway, the first time playing vanilla SE4 realy is the best experience IMO, and after that, the mods only make the next games better.
Or if possible, get on the irc channel, and only ask question when you're stuck or something.