Thanks to all who replied with patient help and advice. Shows the high quality of folks who post here.
I will try editing the AI data files to get a more even responses from the races and also I`ll pay more attention to the stellar research tree. I`ll look at playing at higher levels as advised by Mephisto.
I think if the .." AGGAHH NO !! " level of flipping Race Relations is reduced for me SE IV would be a great game, although I wonder if I will ever think the there is some evil alive presence living in my Computer as I often did at 2 AM when playing SE III.