What seems hard now will eventually become easy, then you'll want to step up to one of the supermods that make it much harder. It's a sim, not an arcade game and to be successful has to be played like a sim.
There are still some great mods for 1.4 that improve the game 100 fold, but get 1.5 when you can so you can use the many up to date mods. The graphics of stock don't come close to how good the game is with mods.
Here is another good page full of useful info. Make sure you read the SHIV guide.
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...5/m/9661024145
Eventually you'll be doing battle with a huge enemy task force, sneaking by a dozen dd's and sending carriers to the bottom. You may even live to tell about it.