Newbies Q: Which Mods?

[Nitram Draw]

Definately try the game as designed first. You may find you don't need anything else to have fun.
Once you are comfortable with the game you may want to slowly modify settings that don't feel right to you. This is fairly easy to do, usually just changing a nuber or value.
Most of what I find great about the mods are the improved AI files and the new shipsets. The new techs are good but I haven't used all the available ones yet so I haven't needed to add more.

[zen.]

My biggest fear about -some- of the mods is that it hasn't been playtested. Don't get me wrong, I play with quite a few mods, but the thing for me that would make a mod 'not good' is if I can utilize new components/strategies, but the AI can't. In which case, it would simply be another form of cheating. (Not that there is anything wrong with that. )

Either way, in case it hasn't been noted in the past, extra kudos to the Modders who thoroughly test their mods with the AI! It's appreciated!

zen

[Tampa_Gamer]

Zenbudo- that is exactly why we have not included any tech/component mods in our AI Mod Packs (at least not until we are much further down the patch road). One of our main goals is to create and modify AI opponents that will offer a good challenge. Believe me, it takes tons of time to properly test, and even then you do not catch everything. . .

[ratster]

Some more newbie questions here-

Do these mods generally "add" races/tech/A.I/ships, etc or "overwrite" the existing data? Or a little of both?

[pathfinder]

depends on the mod rat..

the MODPACK by Mephisto, Tampa_Gamer, Daynarr, et al fixes/enhances some of the AI files but also gives one several new shipsets/races...

some of the others give new components, others enhance/fix certain AI files.

most of the authors have readme files with the mod, so mebbe read that before applying whatever mod(s) you d/l.

and always backup whatever is being changed/fixed...

[God Emperor]

My mod has been tested quite extensively and does help the AI quite a bit.
My mod has two parts;
1) modified AI_Research files which fix faults - the only preference thing I have included is to get the AI to research DUC's up to level 3 early on,
2) modified AI_Design Creation and Tech Area files to add more point defence to AI ships to make them less susceptible to missile attacks.
The two mods can be used separately but together make a significant difference to ship to ship combat.
I would advise anyone looking to beef up the AI's ship to ship fighting ability to use my entire mod (but, if you dont like my PD mod, you can simply just use the AI_Research files alone).

[pathfinder]

and an excellent mod it is.. I use it, along with modpack and sundevils anger/politics mod...