CIV Gold for Mac

[Wyz_sub10]

This thread is for the discussion of Mac-specific CIV Gold issues. General discussions - civs, units, etc. - should remain in the appropriate threads.

CFC Moderator AlanH was kind enough to address some gremlins for the Mac in CIV Gold. That thread can be found here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=186917

 

[AlanH]

Hi Wyz_sub10 I did the work to detail what files had to be modified to get a working Mac version. I was working with version 3. See my post for the details.

I was able to load it up and played a few turns with the mod, but I still get one unresolved error during startup:

Tag ATTITUDE_FURIOUS in Info class was incorrect
Current XML file is: Civilizations/CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml

After OK'ing that error the mod loads up, but of course this may be creating problems down the line. I found that there appeared to be some diplomacy text missing, at least for Nampoina, but that seemed to be missing from the actual diplomacy file, so I don't know if it's a secondary effect of the above XML error or a separate issue.

I've not spent time trying to work out what this error is about, and I don't really know enough about how it all works to be able to do so. If you need any more assistance to get to the bottom of this, please just ask.

 

[eman950]

Hello, I know this thread is long dead, but I have been struggling now for 6 sum hours with trying to get the latest version of civ gold (5.2) running on mac.
When I download the file I get the exe extension, I then followed the instructions and expanded the file using Ez7z and get an error telling me "Error: Can not open file as archive"

Can someone help me? What am I doing wrong... BTW, I got it to work pre version 4.0

 

[AlanH]

If the mod is now delivered as a Windows executable then you probably can't just expand it on a Mac. I'll have a look, but you may need to get a zipped version of the mod.

[UPDATE]
I've downloaded it and confirmed that you can't easily extract the mod using a Mac. Your options are:

1. Find a friendly Windows user who can run the installer for you. They don't need a copy of Civ4 on their PC as it will extract into an empty folder. Then transfer the mod to your Mac using a memory stick. Note that it's almost 2 GBytes when installed.

OR

2. Do as I did, and run Windows on your Mac. Crossover *might* work. I use Parallels.

OR

3. Persuade the creators to make it available as a downloadable zip or 7z archive.

 

[eman950]

Crossover did not work, not sure however if I did it right

Edit:

Downloaded on a PC following the instructions labeled "1", when I then tried to open it with BTS I got a whole bunch of XML errors when the loader is on "Int XML"

 

[AlanH]

I didn't have time to try to run it. I've just fired it up, and it needs a lot of gremlin zapping. 20 files and counting!

 

[eman950]

Is that something you can do? I'm not familiar with the term "gremlin zapping"

 

[AlanH]

I use BBEdit for text editing. It has a free baby brother called TextWrangler. Both of them have a menu option called "Zap Gremlins". You can use it to replace all invalid characters in a document with something else.

Mods made by Windows users frequently contain accented characters that do not conform to the valid character sets permitted in the XML standards. These are "gremlins". The Windows version of Civ4 lets them get away with it, but the Mac version is not so forgiving. So to get a mod to work you usually need to zap the gremlins.

This one was particularly challenging, as it has a lot of text files, and a lot of them contain gremlins. So I used a feature of BBEdit that I haven't explored before called a "Text factory". This allows you to create a simple script that will run on one or more folders full of files and do whatever you ask it to do. I asked it to zap gremlins on all xml files in the /Civ Gold/Assets/Modules/ folder, change them to '*', and save the changed files. It took a few minutes, but having completed that I was able to start up BtS with the Civ Gold mod installed and start a game as the Philippines. I haven't played the game, so I don't know if this has made it fully compatible with the Mac version.

You could replicate my action, which requires a copy of BBEdit, or you can use the attached set of files I changed when I did it.

Since the folder structure that contains the changed files is 2 GBytes in size, I can't post the entire file set here. The changed files themselves compress to about 500 KBytes, and I have attached that zip file to this post. If you want to use my changed files, you will have to find each original file in your mod and replace it. Remember that many accented characters will have been replaced by '*', which will appear in text relating to the civs and leaders in the mod.

The changed file names all start with the name of a civilization or a leader. They all live in folders within Mods/CivGold/Assets/Modules/Custom Civilizations/ or Mods/CivGold/Assets/Modules/Custom Leaderheads/. Some of them are in nested subfolders. You should be able to use Spotlight to track them down if you can't see immediately where they go.

Hope this helps.

 

[eman950]

Will replacing the game text be the only fix needed for it to work? or do we need to zap gremlins in every file? Btw I'm going to replace every file, going to take me a few hours of course

 

[AlanH]

All I did to get it to work was to change the files I attached. You should just have to replace yours with mine. As you say, with 164 files to find and replace, it's not a short job, though most of them probably just go into the /Modules/Custom Civilizations/ or /Modules/Custom Leaderheads/ folder that is named the same as the file. The rest go into subfolders, and you'll have to search for them.

Even if you have never used BBEdit before, it would be much quicker to just zap the gremlins on your own copy of Civ Gold using BBEdit. You can download a 30 days free trial of BBEdit here.

To do what I did:

- Download, install and launch BBEdit
- Select File -> New -> Text Factory.

1. Choose the folder to zap
- In the new "untitled factory" window that opens click Choose ...
- In the new dialog that opens click Other...
- In the files and folders dialog navigate to /Applications/Civilization IV/Beyond the Sword/Civ Gold/Assets/
- Highlight Modules and click Choose
- Modules should be selected in the My Files & Folders list. Click OK.
- The top of the text factory window should now say "One folder: Modules"

2. Tell BBEdit what to do
- Select "Zap Gremlins" in the pop-up menu.
- Click the Options button next to it.
- In the dialog, check all the checkboxes and select "Replace with". Type an asterisk in the text field. -
- Click OK.

3. Define text factory options
- Click the Options... button at the top of the window
- Check "Search nested folders"
- Select "Text files only"
- Check "Use file filter"
- Click on the pop-up menu that says "None" and select New... to create a file filter
- Name the filter "XML files". Click OK
- Click Edit Filter...
- In the filter editor select "File name extension" in the first pop-up menu
- Select "is"
- Type 'xml' in the text field without the quotes. Click OK to close the filter editor.
- Under "If a file is changed:" select "Save to disk".
- Uncheck "Confirm before saving" to avoid being asked for confirmation 164 times.
- Click OK

4. Run the text factory
- Click the Green arrow button at the bottom of the text factory window.

It will tell you when it's finished and you can then try launching BtS and loading Civ Gold.

 

[davidtylr]

All I did to get it to work was to change the files I attached. You should just have to replace yours with mine. As you say, with 164 files to find and replace, it's not a short job, though most of them probably just go into the /Modules/Custom Civilizations/ or /Modules/Custom Leaderheads/ folder that is named the same as the file. The rest go into subfolders, and you'll have to search for them.

Even if you have never used BBEdit before, it would be much quicker to just zap the gremlins on your own copy of Civ Gold using BBEdit. You can download a 30 days free trial of BBEdit here.

To do what I did:

- Download, install and launch BBEdit
- Select File -> New -> Text Factory.

1. Choose the folder to zap
- In the new "untitled factory" window that opens click Choose ...
- In the new dialog that opens click Other...
- In the files and folders dialog navigate to /Applications/Civilization IV/Beyond the Sword/Civ Gold/Assets/
- Highlight Modules and click Choose
- Modules should be selected in the My Files & Folders list. Click OK.
- The top of the text factory window should now say "One folder: Modules"

2. Tell BBEdit what to do
- Select "Zap Gremlins" in the pop-up menu.
- Click the Options button next to it.
- In the dialog, check all the checkboxes and select "Replace with". Type an asterisk in the text field. -
- Click OK.

3. Define text factory options
- Click the Options... button at the top of the window
- Check "Search nested folders"
- Select "Text files only"
- Check "Use file filter"
- Click on the pop-up menu that says "None" and select New... to create a file filter
- Name the filter "XML files". Click OK
- Click Edit Filter...
- In the filter editor select "File name extension" in the first pop-up menu
- Select "is"
- Type 'xml' in the text field without the quotes. Click OK to close the filter editor.
- Under "If a file is changed:" select "Save to disk".
- Uncheck "Confirm before saving" to avoid being asked for confirmation 164 times.
- Click OK

4. Run the text factory
- Click the Green arrow button at the bottom of the text factory window.

It will tell you when it's finished and you can then try launching BtS and loading Civ Gold.

I did all of that. It works great for a mac. Its a big file so it takes a while to load. Thanks for the information.