How do I play with downloaded the shipsets

Are you playing with a mod or stock? If a mod, you generally need to add a blank folder in the mod's Empires folder (if it has one) to make a shipset installed in the stock folder available for use in the mod.

Failing that, go into the race's Name_AI_Main.txt file and make sure the top couple of settings read something like:

Is Empire Race := TRUE
Is Available For Player Selection := TRUE
Is Neutral Race := FALSE

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It is most unfortunate that Empire Interactive completely bungled the translation job... you should complain vigorously to them about their poor work, and demand they change their translation so it only affects actual data, and doesn't prevent the loading of mods/shipsets/etc. You should also inform Malfador and Strategy First (but especially Malfador) about their poor translation job, hoping they will apply more pressure on EI to get it made right...

Can you load a regular mod that has an English MainStrings.txt file? Or did they moronically change the actual data field and function names too?

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