The Dark Times II mod is one of the best mods ever created for BF2. It's purely Galactic Civil War era, but it features several new maps, new units with new weapons, and new heroes. It's also one of the very few mods that includes good space maps.

I used the TIE Vanguard in this match, although I actually prefer the Dark Times II TIE Fighter. This Vanguard features a displacement field that's actually an armor boost (which is very distracting in first person mode). The ship weapons are a little stronger than in the vanilla game, so you don't have to rely on missiles so much. I appreciate the first person cockpit overlays, but I still prefer fighting in 3rd person in BF2.