It seems a bit easy

[Suicide Junkie]

Play By Web is the way to get challenging opponents.

One that nobody seems to have mentioned yet is Pirates & Nomads mod.

Especially if you like fighting tactical combats, or focussing on a small group of named ships.

Play as a pirate or nomad against regular AIs, and you will almost certainly not win
Struggling to stay alive with a tiny fleet, building secret bases in nebulae and storms, raiding enemy ships for tech and resources.
You can do quite a lot with a single-digit number of ships

PS:
Most mods will require parts of the imagemod to be installed.
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE4/imagemod/
Download the imagemod packs, and install them over top of your stock pictures.
- They do not change any stock images, but simply extend the list of available images and animations available for use.
- Installing it to your stock folder means you only need one copy, and it will work for all mods instantly.

[Matius]

Lol thanks douglas

I'm going to restart following all this advice.
I'm checking out Proportions and Fyrons Quadrant mods today, along with the settings Grandpa Kim suggested.

PBW does interest me, and I'll probably try it at least once, but I haven't yet read up on how it works.

I didn't know about the image mods, they look pretty cool. Do many mods use them? Downloading now, anyway.

I'll probably check back in a few hours... being a nomad sounds like a totally different game so now I just need a ten-day week so I can check out the possibilities