My sincere apologies as I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I could not find an exact thread listing what I'm looking for. If there is one, I would appreciate being directed there.

I've purchased the ultimate edition off steam last week and am slowly getting into the think of things. I'm an experienced Civ4 player (Emperor) who's played practically nothing else for the last 4 years. I expect GalCiv to be my space equivalent and am quite willing to spend the time required to learn any detailed strategies.

In this context, could you please recommend any mods for me? If there's a learning curve, I'd rather spend my time learning a complicated mod rather than investing time and then restarting again with a new set of rules. From my Civ experience I realize  there are mods for pretty much everything under the stars, but I'm looking for comprehensive (non-arcadish) mods to deepen the experience. For instance, I play Civ4 with Rise of Mankind installed as I feel the longer tech tree and additional rules (terrain damage, etc) better reflect the real world. I would certainly enjoy something similar.

  At this time I do not know enough to objectively evaluate the focus of various mods, and would rather go with your expertise.

Many Thanks.