Quick Question: What determines if a mod is playable in Vanilla/GnK/BnW?

Pretty much the question in the title. I just published my mod, and while I have BnW myself, a user said that he just had vanilla Civ5 and could not see my mod show up in the mod section. I have XML and Lua files, no DLLs.

What the user was experiencing most likely had nothing to do with your mod; mods not showing up in the mod list after subscribing is a common steam workshop bug.

As for determining which version it is playable with, that largely depends on what your mod does. If its something that just edits some names, it will probably work in all versions. If it edits something specific to an expansion, it will probably only work with that and later expansions.

In terms of mods that add new civs, there were more changes between vanilla and GK and GK and BNW. You'd have to look at individual unit/building entries to see if there are any specific stat changes. For the most part, civilization mods made for vanilla won't work with the expansions without crashing somewhere, but GK and BNW civilization will probably work in either one (though individual stats might still be off, etc.)

Ahh thanks. Unfortunately I developed all the XML mostly from my own files, which is BNW. Thanks for the quick reply!

The mod should show up in the MODS menu regardless of the expansion the player has. Most likely the mod has never downloaded from steam (this is an on-going aggravation with the way the steam system works in tandem with the game's mod downloading system). It may also have downloaded, but then never 'unpacked' itself from the zipped version of the mod that you are actually uploading to the steam workshop when you publish your mod. There are several mods that I am subscribed to that I can never get to download properly and I always have to go to where the mod author is offering a direct download method (one not through steam).

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The following is also relevant after a player enables a mod that was meant for G&K or BNW, but they only have Vanilla.

There were numerous changes to the XML when G&K was released. There were additional changes with BNW.

If your mod has an xml file with a BNW-only table or BNW-only column within a table, this will cause conflicts with G&K and Vanilla. Same is true with G&K but the compatibility issues with G&K-only commands will for the most part only be between G&K and Vanilla.

So if a player only has Vanilla but your mod has a BNW-only command somewhere in an XML file, this will cause one of two types of results:

1. An Incorrect/Missing Reference error will get posted to the Database.log but the game will load everything else.
2. The problem column or table will cause the game to discard the entire XML file.

#1 is annoying for the player, usually, because in such cases your mod won't actually do everything you as the mod author say it does.
#2 can have a cascading effect throughout your entire mod.

[edit] basically saying the same as turingmachine just I took far longer to type it, and was far more wordy about it

Perfect LeeS, thanks so very much for the comprehensive answer. I think since I based one civilization off Isabella (G&K) and another off Bismark (Vanilla), I'm guessing the mod will need G&K.

Thanks again, I'll get to supplying a direct download method in my mod.

greenlamb said:

Perfect LeeS, thanks so very much for the comprehensive answer. I think since I based one civilization off Isabella (G&K) and another off Bismark (Vanilla), I'm guessing the mod will need G&K.

Thanks again, I'll get to supplying a direct download method in my mod.

Click to expand...

It's actually a bit more complicated because Spain is part of DLC #2 (I think it's #2) and not every player with G&K and/or BNW will have the DLC that adds Spain and the Inca (I think) as well as adds a playable special scenario. Depending on how a player bought their copy of G&K and/or BNW they might have all the DLCs (and the civs that came with the DLCs), or they may only have specific DLCs, or none at all except the Vanilla one that adds Mongolia (and which I think everyone will have).

Easiest solution for you is simply to state in your mod description that they must have G&K (or was it actually BNW that you built your mod around ?) and the Spain DLC in order to use your mod.

Hmm but I did not use any unique stuff from Spain, I just copied their Leader Flavors. Even the diplo screen is my own. So I hope that with this, they don't actually need the Spain DLC.

OK. I misunderstood. I thought you meant your mod was changing Spain. But just using some of the basic info from Spain with changes to create, say, CIVILZATION_LEES, you'll be fine.