Has anyone gotten We the People working on Steam Deck?

MahDryBread

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Hey! Long time no post

So, I've been trying to get We the People working on Steam Deck for the last few days with no luck. I tried googling around but couldn't find anything on it, nor could I find anything in the Colonization section of this forum so I thought I'd start a thread. I'll go over the problems I've run into and everything I've tried so far.

The issue is that I can't get the mod to run on the Steam Deck. I can play vanilla Colonization just fine (steam version) and I'm able to put the We the People mod in the mod folder, but when I try and load it from the in-game mod list, it doesn't work. I also tried using the Steam shortcut to make it boot straight into the mod, but that didn't work either.

You know that splash screen you get with the loading bars with text on it whenever you boot up Civ 4 or Colonization? I get to that and it loads about half way, but once it hits "We the People - 3.0.1] Init XML (Uncache" it halts, then closes. It might say more after "(Uncahce", not sure. It's a small window and that's as far as the text displays.

We the People still works just fine on my PC with the same Steam account, same game version, and same mod version. I tried both the current Steam patch as well as the older version that you can opt into in the beta menu, but both seem to have the same issue.


Anyone have any ideas? I'm happy to provide whatever info you might need! I'm not a programmer and don't know that much about how to change stuff in mods beyond using a .ini file, so you might need to really spell things out to me, but I'm happy to help out however I can. Best of luck!
 
Anyone have any ideas?
It is probalby simply not going to work because of the custom DLL.

@f1rpo
Have you ever heard of a player playing a Civ4BTS mod with custom DLL on Steam Deck?
(Maybe the same question has already been asked there as well and the problems should be identical.)
 
Presumably you need to switch to the beta version like you have to do when playing on windows.

Other than that, I have no idea. I don't have a steam deck and I don't know the software. Also I don't plan on buying one because I have no idea when I would use it.
Like I said, I tried the beta version but unfortunately I just had the same issue
 
It is probalby simply not going to work because of the custom DLL.
I started searching for this and the thread about it on steam does seem to indicate that the DLL file isn't loaded. My guess would be that it's some file permission issue, through I have no idea how to solve that. Searching for steam deck and file permissions turns up nothing other than steam deck has a POSIX command line. Good because that grants powerful access, but also not ideal right now because it's non-trivial to get started using that one.

I searched for strings in the exe file and it has MODS and Mods/. Windows doesn't care about case in the path, but sometimes linux does. No idea about steam deck in that regard. The case of Assets and CvGameCoreDLL.dll seems to be correct in our distribution so that's one issue to rule out.
 
I started searching for this and the thread about it on steam does seem to indicate that the DLL file isn't loaded. My guess would be that it's some file permission issue, through I have no idea how to solve that. Searching for steam deck and file permissions turns up nothing other than steam deck has a POSIX command line. Good because that grants powerful access, but also not ideal right now because it's non-trivial to get started using that one.

I searched for strings in the exe file and it has MODS and Mods/. Windows doesn't care about case in the path, but sometimes linux does. No idea about steam deck in that regard. The case of Assets and CvGameCoreDLL.dll seems to be correct in our distribution so that's one issue to rule out.
I believe that Linux cares about case in paths. I'm no Linux pro, but I noticed that when setting up the shortcut in Steam so that the game would boot straight to the mod, it mattered what direction the slash was


Like, on Windows I used "mod=\We the People - 3.0.1" but to get it to work on the Steam Deck, I had to use "mod=/We the People - 3.0.1". Changing the direction of the slash made it stop giving me path issues. I mean, at least in terms of it finding the mod. It still had the same issue I listed above in terms of it not booting up the mod, but this is why I think Linux cares about the direction of the slash in paths.
 
this is why I think Linux cares about the direction of the slash in paths.
Yeah windows use \ while POSIX uses / in paths. Since everybody else have moved to comply with POSIX, it has become yet another windows vs everybody else. This can cause major problems like when writing something, which has to work on multiple systems or in this case where it's not clear if if the path engine relies on windows or linux code.
 
@f1rpo
Have you ever heard of a player playing a Civ4BTS mod with custom DLL on Steam Deck?
(Maybe the same question has already been asked there as well and the problems should be identical.)
I'm only aware of this one (recent) thread:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civilization-iv-on-steam-deck.679119/post-16374327
Says that they got the BULL mod to work; that mod has its own DLL.

I don't suppose one could just overwrite the original Col files (or just the DLL) with those from the mod? :twitch: I've no clue how the user interacts with the Steam Deck (or what a Steam Deck even looks like). And obviously one couldn't easily go back to playing the original game then.
 
Says that they got the BULL mod to work; that mod has its own DLL.
Yeah. It does mention two tweaks were needed, through following that link means little to me without prior knowledge of proton.

What I gather is that there is an issue with lack of keyboard. Should people figure out how to get the mod running, then it's plausible that we can do something about that within the mod (like hijacking the ABXY buttons... maybe). Well at least try. Also the resolution is 1280x800, which should work ok for the mod. So yeah it seems plausible to get the mod to work well with steam deck if somebody takes the time to do so. Right now I have no idea who should be doing that through, but I guess it's one of those tasks, which is open for newcomers should somebody be interested.
 
Well, if anyone needs someone with a Steam Deck to try out versions of the mod, I'm happy to do it! I've already figured out where the Steam Deck puts the mods folder, since normally Colonization puts that in "My Games", but that isn't a thing on Linux. I'm also cool with trying to overwrite the original DLL and stuff since It's not like I'm planning on playing Vanilla Colonization anyway, I'd just need someone to let me know what to do.
 
I'm just trying to remember what the Proton fixes for using the mod on Linux (Arch) were. I re-installed and forgot to keep configs. When I've got it working again, i'll try it on the Deck.
Edit. Got it running again on Linux. Using Protontricks to install msxml3 was enough.

I use Arch Linux, Steam Beta, Proton Experimental.
"mod= WTP" in my launch options. (I renamed the We The People folder to WTP for simplicity). Note the space between the "=" and the name of the mod when using Steam launch options to start Col with the mod loaded.

I'll have a go at getting it done on the Deck when I get a chance. Though i've a nasty feeling it's not going to be as easy.
 
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I'm just trying to remember what the Proton fixes for using the mod on Linux (Arch) were. I re-installed and forgot to keep configs. When I've got it working again, i'll try it on the Deck.
Edit. Got it running again on Linux. Using Protontricks to install msxml3 was enough.

I use Arch Linux, Steam Beta, Proton Experimental.
"mod= WTP" in my launch options. (I renamed the We The People folder to WTP for simplicity). Note the space between the "=" and the name of the mod when using Steam launch options to start Col with the mod loaded.

I'll have a go at getting it done on the Deck when I get a chance. Though i've a nasty feeling it's not going to be as easy.
That's awesome, good luck on getting it working on the deck!
 
OK, it seems to work fine on the Deck.
Switch to desktop mode, open Discover Store, search for Protontricks, and install it. First time you start it, it will probably ask you to copy & paste a command into the terminal, to give it access to the sdcard. Good idea to do it, even if you don't need it now, as you might in future. Quit Proton tricks after this, and then start it again.

Select "Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization: 16810" from the menu
Select the default wineprefix
Select Install a Windows DLL or component
Select msxml3
OK the workaround notification, and wait for the screen to go back to the selection screen
Press cancel until you quit back out of Protontricks (no, it's not very intuitive, but it works ok)

Download and unpack the WTP mod into it's own folder (WeThePeople-3.0.1 currently)
Rename the folder to WTP to make it easier now, and for future (hopefully) versions
Check you now have a WTP folder with Assets, PrivateMaps, and Project Files folders within it, and a few other files belonging to the mod.
Right click the WTP folder and cut/copy it

Start Steam in desktop mode, and select Manage->Browse local files by right-clicking the game on the left list, or using the cog menu on the right.
Now go up 2 levels from the game folder so you are in "steamapps"
Now go to compatdata/16810/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/MyGames/Civlilization IV Colonization/MODS/
If there is no MODS folder, make it.
Paste the WTP folder into it.
That should be it. You should be able to start the game and load the mod as normal now.
 
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