Just found this site after playing Civ4 and Warlords since they came out. I've been interested in adding mods to add new features and scenarios and to that end I've read a bunch of the mod threads but I'm confused. The threads have links to mods that take me to non-Mac threads. I downloaded one of them - Amra v108, decompressed and placed it in the Warlords/Mods folder, loaded the Mod and then got a bunch of error messages.

So my questions:

Are these mods that are on this site installable via some kind of installer?

Are they configured so that I don't have to go in and edit them using some obscure (to me) programming language?

Is there a simple download site or page list or database of Mac mods so that I can see all of them at one time and not have to go through dozens of posts, each with its own link to a Mod?

I'm not a lazy person but I work all day and late at night I like to sit down for a couple of hours and play Civ4 and I just want to be able to customize the game a bit without having to learn a whole new set of skills.

Thanks,

Jonathan

Just found this site after playing Civ4 and Warlords since they came out.
Hello, welocme :wavey:

I've been interested in adding mods to add new features and scenarios and to that end I've read a bunch of the mod threads but I'm confused. The threads have links to mods that take me to non-Mac threads. I downloaded one of them - Amra v108, decompressed and placed it in the Warlords/Mods folder, loaded the Mod and then got a bunch of error messages.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Mac/Windows incompatibility.


So my questions:

Are these mods that are on this site installable via some kind of installer?

No. I have a drag and drop mod installer that is work in progress. I need to set it up to drop mods into the right location for Civ4/Warlords, but the logic is not trivial and I haven't got around to it. As well as the variation in the way mods are packaged, there's also a lot of variation in the places that people install their Civ4 software. It is currently only good for setting up CustomAssets mods like Blue Marble.

However, there really isn't much to installing a mod. It normally comes as a single folder containing all the mod files, and you should just drop it into the appropriate Mods folder for Civ4 or Warlords. The main problems are:

1. Extracting the mod folder. If it comes as a .7z file you need EZ 7z to extract it. Otherwise, try opening it with Stuffit Expander. If it comes as a Windows installer then you may have to run it on a Windows system to get at the files.

2. See next question ...


Are they configured so that I don't have to go in and edit them using some obscure (to me) programming language?

The short answer is "no". They use XML, Python, and in many cases C++, with varying levels of (in)compatibility with the Mac versions of Civ4/Warlords.

- The XML often uses accented characters that the Mac can't read so you get XML errors. Using TextWrangler to "Zap Gremlins" on the files with errors will usually fix this.

- The Python code that Windows modders write sometimes uses Windows calls and functions that are only available in Python v.1.24. The Mac Python is v 1.23. Fixing these problems requires some knowledge of the Python language.

- If the mod Assets folder contains a CvCoreGameDLL.dll file then all bets are off. This is created using C++ in the Civ4 Windows SDK. It will only run on the Windows versions of the software, and the Mac version doesn't even recognise the .dll file.


Is there a simple download site or page list or database of Mac mods so that I can see all of them at one time and not have to go through dozens of posts, each with its own link to a Mod?
There is a thread stuck to the top of this forum where we have attempted to collect information about mods that can be made to run on the Mac version. I think it's a pretty short list. The only mods I *know* that have been adapted specifically to run on the Mac are the Civ4 and Warlords versions of the HoF Mod I created so that Mac players can join in the Games of the Month. They don't add civs or units or graphics, just enhanced adviser screens, event notifications and logging.

I'm not a lazy person but I work all day and late at night I like to sit down for a couple of hours and play Civ4 and I just want to be able to customize the game a bit without having to learn a whole new set of skills.

I don't want to dash your hopes, but as you can see from the above, it is a bit of a minefield.

Thanks for the reply Alan. I downloaded and installed the HoF Mod and that's the kind of mod that I was looking for. Easy to install and it works. If there any others like that I'll download them too.

I gather that mods come in more than one catagory? There are mods that change the overall way the game is seen (like the Hof mod); mods that add new civs, and mods that add assets such as different types of soldiers. Are there any other types of mods?

New civs and new units often come together as a complete mod pack.

Most mods can only be used one at a time, as the game can only load one Mod. You can, however, also install CustomAssets that change the appearance of the map without affecting any of the game rules or behaviour. These are graphics or sound mods, and can be loaded for every game.

Blue Marble is such a mod. It just changes the colours and textures of the landscape. I believe it uses NASA-generated images. In a similar vein there's one called Better Ship Scales that claims to make the ships a more realistic size. There are threads around here somewhere that describe how to get and install these two mods.