How can you mod Earth 18 civs?

I was wondering how to add civs and change starting locations. Please be as detailed as possible I know nothing about modding.

Thanks

How I do it (I am not a modder, but perhaps it will help you):

1) I open a custom game with the opponents I want to include on the earth map.
I save the game at 4000 BC and quit. Open the save file in a text editor.

2) I then open the Earth map scenario on a text editor.
You have two things to change: at the beginning you have the teams definition, and then the leader/civilization for each team. Change the civs and leaders you want to drop with the info you find in the 4000 BC save. (In the team definition you have to change the starting techs, in the other part, the name of leader, his traits, colors, etc...) A Copy/Paste excercise...
Save again the scenario under your favorite name.

3) Open the modified scenario with civIV, selecting the first civ in the list (otherwise, when editing the save with worldbuilder, you will notice that the civs which are before you in the list have already settled their cap).
On first turn, before doing anything, open the world builder. Modify the place of the starting units of the modified civs (select the player layer, select a leader, then go select a unit on the window in the left of the screen. Left click on the map to add the selected unit, right click to remove). Save. Exit WorldBuilder.

4) Enjoy.

It's possible I missed steps, but I can't acces the XML files right now, so it's from memory. I suggest you post on the customisation forum to have more detailed tips

Cheers,
Raskolnikov

This is probably a noob question but how do you open a save with a text editor?when i try to open one with word or notepad i just get a huge jumble of weird letters

It has to be a worldbuilder save. Meaning it ends in ".civ4btsworldbuildersave" or something of the like. To do this, you have to go into worldbuilder and save it as opposed to the regular saving process.

cujo376 said:

This is probably a noob question but how do you open a save with a text editor?when i try to open one with word or notepad i just get a huge jumble of weird letters

Click to expand...

The easiest way is to open a text file, then open the WBS by selecting "All files" instead of text files.

Ok,so i did everything in the above post and now when i start the game it immidiately says i['ve been defeated,did i do something wrong while modding?

cujo376 said:

Ok,so i did everything in the above post and now when i start the game it immidiately says i['ve been defeated,did i do something wrong while modding?

Click to expand...

Like, maybe deleted a settler or 2?