How to zip and attach a mod

[whoward69]

So you've created a mod and are having problems with it. You've posted on the forums asking for help and someone has said "zip your mod and attach it to your post", but how do you do that? See below!

Before attaching your mod to a post, make sure you have enabled logging and checked the log files for obvious problems. Also check that each of the files in your mod has the correct settings.

First we need to locate the mod and zip it up

Do NOT upload the ModBuddy project. The ModBuddy project is typically located in "C:\Users\{username}\Documents\Firaxis ModBuddy" sub-directory and does NOT have a version number

Spoiler :

Locate the built mod. The mod is typically located in the "C:\Users\{username}\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\MODS" sub-directory and DOES have a version number

Right click the mod folder and select "Send to" and then "Compressed (zipped) folder"

Spoiler :

Now we have the mod as a zipped file, we need to attach it to our post

The process for attaching the zip to a forum post has changed somewhat though with the newer version of CFC:
To attach the zip to a forum post, look for a button called Upload A File when composing your thread reply: this button opens a browse menu where you can select the zipped folder to attach directly to a forum post.
If the zipped folder is too large for the forum to accept then upload the zipped mod to a file-sharing site such as dropbox and provide a link where the mod can be downloaded.

Make sure the file is listed under the "Attach Files" section, complete your post, and then click "Submit Reply"

Spoiler :

 

[Nutty]

Thanks for writing this.

Note that 4 of the last 5 spoilers have their pictures swapped.

 

[whoward69]

Note that 4 of the last 5 spoilers have their pictures swapped.

Very weird! OP now corrected

 

[whoward69]

To answer a common question

"Why a zip of the mod sub-directory?"

Several reasons

1) It proves that you've built the mod in ModBuddy and it's being correctly deployed to your MODS directory

2) It really doesn't matter which files you think are in the mod, all that matters is what files are actually in the mod - and the zip clearly shows that

3) It contains the generated .modinfo file - many errors are due to incorrect attributes on files in the mod, and this file can be used to quickly identify these.

4) It saves us having to create the mod ourselves - we can just copy it into our own MODS directory for testing

5) While you may think you know which portion of XML/SQL/Lua the error is in, it may be somewhere else. Having the complete file(s), and not snippets, makes it a whole lot easier to find the real cause of the error.