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).
The TDM ModPack includes a file called path.txt that needs to be placed in the same directory as you se4.exe. This bottom of this file looks like this:
Using Mod Directory := ModPack
This tells the game to pull much of its data from the se4\ModPack directory. The ModPack directory contains modified copies of the AI, Data, DsgName, Empires and Pictures subdirectories.
After you have copied the new path.txt into the se4 directory, start a new game and go to Add Existing Empire. If all is well, you will see new empires such as Darlok 2000, Earth Alliance, etc.
Hope that helps. The TDM ModPack adds some great races to the game.
[This message has been edited by raynor (edited 03 March 2001).]