If you like tactical combat and fine control over just a few ships, try:
Pirates & Nomads
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/...dsModV3.1c.zip
Play as a Pirate or Nomad instead of a Normal race, and manage a tiny force as you try to hide and survive in a universe of giants. If the stock game is too easy, try this. Any trick in the book is fair game here.
It does require the imagemod, (combat, facility, and components) which is also available in handy RAR format for extra compression.
Getting winRAR will save you tons of downloading time in the future.
PS:
If you need it, I can break the imagemod up into floppy-sized pieces for you. It would then be easy to download from a neighbour or library and then carry home.
PPS:
The imagemod is an expansion of the stock images, and is used everywhere. Most mods use the graphics in it, and this way, you only have to download them once with occasional update patches. Much easier than downloading another copy of it with each mod.