[Jmenschenfresser]

I don't have an affiliation with the TDM-modpack but I can answer some of the questions:

#2: In the TDM, only the race files have been modded...nothing else. As far as I understand, the TDM modpack is pure SE4, just the races have been tweaked to improve them. I believe most all the original races have been modified. Not significantly enough to change general behaviour, but enough to stop them from making stupid mistakes. As far as I know, Malfador has not changed it's original races (outside the TDM-modpack) to reflect what the modders have done. In otherwords, the general sentiment is, the TDM originals are better than the Malfador originals.

#4: Several I've run across--Ultimate Mod, P&N mod, Zippy's mod...all those add or change the components and data files of the general game.

#5: Well, the AI is still a push-over in many ways. Does dumb things. with the TDM they are significantly better, no doubt. Some of them are really good. However, if you play without an AI bonus, and you happen to get good placement in the galaxy, you probably won't lose. However, with a high bonus, high difficulty, med galaxy and 10-15 AIs you should have a pretty hellacious time.

#3 (sorry out of order): yes this is confusing. The "use race style" matters in two spheres. The only way it matters to a human player, is if you plan to use the ministers to run part of your galaxy. If you don't, don't worry about it. If you let the computer pick your opponent AIs, then this will be turned on automatically. However, be aware, that if you manually add computer opponents to your galaxy at startup, I would check to make sure this is checked, otherwise they will play with a generic AI and not the one designed for them. However, I think all of the TDM modpack AIs have this on by default. The other half of this question is easier for at least the TDM. It's a crap shoot on what empires are picked if you don't manually add them. WIth the TDM, they are all included in the settings.txt file as quickstart races, which means that even if you don't pick them, they could be picked. However, I always pick a few I want to be around and leave the rest up to god.

#1 This is a good one. Yes, you can disable tech on startup. I've never played a game against the AI with anything disabled. However, I think they just skip them in research as they are not available to research. No, the AI will most definitely not underperform for a lack of mines, not nearly as much as a human will. However, if you take out a specific weapon the race uses (not sure if this is possible), it will suffer. If you disable say, torpedos and a race uses them as their main weapon, they may be left with a secondary to use, but will suffer as this may be weaker than the first choice. This takes a bit of understanding as to the workings of the design file for ships the AI uses.

Hope I have been of some help.