Having tried to make some practice custom race mods non off them seemed to load in the game (The option is checked to enable mods), I've checked the location and folder structure. Even renamed The GalCivIII folder in MyGames\ so the whole thing would be recreated when I ran the game. Then after that was recreated tried again.
I placed a copy of the FactionDefs.xml in the game folder of the ExampleMOD
then edited it the only thing I changed was the human engineering ability to be the Dregin Zealot ability instead then saved it. From the mod readme the game should pick that up as an override for the copy of the file in the main game folder since I didn't rename it.
Sadly the result was the humans totally unchanged.
I've tried serveral other mods and nothing.
Anyone else encountered this I know at least one person has.