Introducing a new player

I am only playing stock and having a lot of fun with it. Granted, the AI is not a challange, but the depth of the game is wonderfull. In SEV you don't HAVE to rush to the top of a tech branch (CG2 armor) to counter cheezy AI. You can actually take you time and enjoy building your empire before finally going off the chain . Of course in a MP setting I would be a lot more agressive, with SP being like an enjoyable sunday drive.

The MODs I hear are very good, esp the balance mod. However I am sticking with stock for now, and very much enjoying the game.

If you get no other mods at all, get Unnamed's Mod. All his mod does is tweak the AI so they are more of a challenge. If you really want the game to be better than stock, get Captain Kwok's Balance Mod. He tweaks the AI, balances the tech and racial costs and makes gameplay balances as well.

After that, there are a wealth of other mods that are very enjoyable, especially if you like MP. Some of the better mods aren't really compatible with AI's so MP is a must. Devnull's Mod, Dark Nova, Proportions, Battlestar Galactica Mod, Gid's Mod, Gritty Galaxy ...theres tons man, tons.

I like to use Fyron's Quadrant Mod as well. That doesn't change anything but the graphics of the planets and such. Its just an aesthetic thing but hey, aesthetics count heh.

Oh, btw - Welcome! Also, come on over to http://home.spaceempires.net/forums.html and check out the stuff there. All the bigwigs hang out there + that site hosts most (if not all) of the mods and even has a link to a bittorrent tracker site with a bunch of SE related files/mods.

Welcome Robin!
As was said, Balance Mod, Unnameds Mod and GidMod have the best AI available. The wiki contains a good list of many mods: http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.php/Space_Empires_V
For Multiplayer you should get a free acount here: http://seiv.pbw.cc
PBW makes things a lot easier. If you like 1 vs 1 games, too, you also should join the Empire of the Universe (E.O.T.U.)league: http://thewelloftakahlah.spaces.live.com/
It uses Balance Mod (BM) so you should better be a bit familiar with the BM tech tree. These fast EOTU games are really much fun...

Check out Kwok's Balance mod, large player base, well polished and on hard difficulty/high AI bonus the AI will knock 10 bells of **** out of you if you aren't careful. Also rebalances the tech tree and condenses a lot of the techs down into more manageable branches without compromising game longevity.

http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php

If you prefer to play the stock game but with the improved AI then check out Unnamed's AI mod which is based on the AI in Balancemod but without the tech/game adjustments.

http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.php/Unnamed%27s_Stock_AI_mod

Welcome.
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Don't forget my starter mod to get beginners in the game, "Space Empires LITE"

A couple good downloads you will want are the Multi-Media Pack to spice up your graphics and Fryon's Quadrant mod.

Best single player games with good AI's: SE5 LITE, BalanceMod, Unnamed's and GideonMod.

www.spaceempires5.com then hit the Downloads section.

www.PBW.cc for multi player. Choose TEXT based option when you go there.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

In answer to your last question, I believe www.spaceempires.net to be the better board. I like the way its laid out better, it has more options and seems to be frequented by most of the regulars playing the game (such as all the modding gurus). To be honest though, I check both boards but I just prefer the other one.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

The named mods are all still in progresss, so their AI should get even better over time.

For some guides, there are only a few, but this one: http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.php/Strategy_Guide_%28SEV%29

and this one (which is pretty old and for BM, but I still think is the best): http://www.spaceempires5.com/en-US/node/2782

You should be ok with multimedia pack only. Don't worry about it unless you encounter a error in the game. The errors usually happen when loading the game data files if there is something missing. No errors at start....typically ok to play.

SE5 Files hosted on Filefront (Patches, Mods, Races, etc)

FQM is not a "graphics mod." Graphics are just one small part of it. As with all mods, it should be installed into the GameTypes folder.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

As a rule, no. There are, however, some exceptions. Balance mod and Unnamed's mod both either can or do use FQM. I'm sure some others do as well. Mostly FQM is the exception though. You couldn't load Balance mod + Proportions for example. The data files are widely different for each mod.

I would absolutely love to be able to slip Unnamed's AI into say Devnull's mod or something.

The help page on the FQM site contains instructions on how to combine it with other mods.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

I am also pretty new here and recently downloaded Captian Kwoks Balanced Mod......They are right about the AI. It still is not exactly Sky Net, but if you dont watch yourself... you will be in a true dog fight against three AI at war with you....... struggling to build ships in time to defend your systems...... or mount a decent attack. You spend most of your time in the beginning researching and expanding.(unless your happen to be surrounded by Other races at the start. I am in a real dogfight..... I have one ally and we are up against four Alien races...I have never seen such colorful and exciting space battles from the Stock version as I do with Balanced. (Because the AI in stock seems to be content with using uranium cannons and level one capital missiles on frigates through out their entire history)

Trusts me...... MOO's AI was ten times better than the Stock version of SEV... and that was years ago. You will want to get the Balanced mod..... and check out Captian Kwoks homepage for the best settings to have on in the pre game start mode. Just message Captian Kwok and I am sure he will fill you in on questions and direct you to his homepage.

You cannot possibly compare MOO AI with SE AI... The data set and options available in MOO (even MOO2) were so many orders of magnitude simpler that the task of optimizing the AI was trivial by comparison.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

Astorax's advice on mods near the beginning is good. By all means have fun fiddling with the data files yourself then try the AI after you get comfortable with the verbage.

@ Fyron, I'm sure he meant to say it was more Challenging, which it certainly was.