Getting BNW to work under Windows for us Linux users ...

[NCommander]

Perhaps I'm the only one as I've yet to find reference to this on the forums, or on WineHQ, but I play Civ5 under WINE, and was dismayed that not only installing BNW not didn't work "right", it broke GNKs with it. If you just want the easy fix, scroll to the bottom, and follow the instructions, otherwise, here's a write up on how to fix it.

As a note, this was tested with wine-1.4.1. It MIGHT not be an issue with later wines, but I haven't tested as of yet.

THE BUG:
This appears to be both a bug in Civ5, and in WINE. Specifically, it appears one of the internal function calls (as of yet unlocalized), returns directory names in a different order than actual Windows will do so. Civ5 tries to load expansions in filename order, which under Windows is returned as "Expansion", then "Expansion2". Under WINE, the order is reversed, causing "Expansion2" to be loaded BEFORE "Expansion".

Civ5 reports both expansions available, but tries to run BNWs SQL statements BEFORE running GNKs. The workaround is relatively easy.

HOW TO FIX:
1. Open your wineprefix (if using winetricks, this is in $HOME/.local/share/steam)
2. Navigate to the Civilization V folder (its going to be in drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Steam/SteamApps/common/Sid Myer's Civilization V/ in a default install).
3. Open the Assets/DLC folder
4. Assuming you have GNK, BNW, and a few DLCS, you see folders name (Expansion, Expansion2, DLC_01, DLC_02).
5. Rename Expansion to Expansion3 (this forces Civ5 to load GNK before BNW)
6. Launch Civ5

DISCLAIMER:
I should note this isn't a real fix, but with this, I was able to start a game with civilizations from both BNW and GNKs, got the fancy new BNW music on the menu screens, and for the moment seems to be running relatively sane. Obviously there are likely to be unexploded bugs lurking in this setup, but I'll keep trying to keep the world stable.

I'll post a bug to winehq when I can and try and localize what voodoo in WINE needs to change to make a legit fix. I also suspect this is the source of some of the DLC problems people have been having with Civ 5 in general.

 

[ponytron]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It works!

I had exactly the same thing, but I've been waiting for Wine 1.6rc5 to come out on Ubuntu. I can confirm that this works with Wine 1.6rc4 though. Well done for finding it; that really is odd. I wasn't able to find any references to this either, though I suppose it's still pretty new.

Before, everything seemed to load and generally look OK, except that the interface was missing in the bottom left and it wasn't possible to choose production or generally look at city screens. In other words, practically unplayable.

Right... going to play some BNW now.

 

[darv1n]

Thank you, NCommander!
I'm running BNW under wine-1.6-rc4 on Ubuntu 13.10.
In Civilization V folder I have DLC_01, DLC_02, DLC_04, Expansion, Expansion2 folders. I renamed Expansion2 to Expansion3 and Expansion to Expansion2. And it works for me! Thank you for idea!

 

[hokkaidorider]

Thanks very much for your idea. It worked to a point but I have two issues that remain unresolved and I am stuck. Any help would be awesome!

In my new Expansion3 folder, the civilisations are there (brazil, morocco etc) but when I try to play the game, they do not show up under DLC. GNK civilisations are there. BNW civilisations are AWOL.

Problem two is that I have no sound at all.

Otherwise, the game now seems to play fine.

Ubuntu 12.04
Steam
PlayonLinux