Installing Mods on Civ5 for Mac

AlanH · Mar 31, 2018

I don't have the Campaign edition installed now, so I can't check it. But my first post says the Mods folder is in ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.civ5campaign/Data/Library/Application Support/Civilization V Campaign Edition/MODS Have you looked there?

~/Library/ is a hidden folder in your Home folder. Use the Go/Go to folder ... menu item in the Finder and copy/paste the above path into it.

[UPDATE]
I found I do have the campaign edition installed, and it does all still work as I described in the first post.

wilko2607 · Mar 31, 2018

You absolute genius, changing the permissions on the previous file allowed me to edit the main menu file, and the Go/Go function allowed me to find the mods folder, it's all worked and the mods menu has appeared on the main menu with the three mods I downloaded and installed all sitting in there waiting for me, can't wait to try them out. Thanks for the help man, you're a true gent!

beetle · Mar 31, 2018

@AlanH is very generous with his time and talents. @wilko2607, FWIW, I wish I had held out for the Apple Store version. It is nice to save money, but I have found Steam even more annoying than I thought it would be.

beetle · May 6, 2018

I know the SDK is not available for OS X, but should it be possible to create a very simple mod just using a text editor?

All I want to do is force various AI to use the same flavors/bias as Shaka. Which I could do by manually copy/paste of the various leader XML files. But I would like share the end results so others could try it out, and I cannot very well expect people to backup and copy 42 files.

From what I have read, the “virtual file system” makes me think that what I would like to do is pretty easy, but I am hoping to avoid having to run Windows just for this little experiment.

civ5noobbbbb · May 6, 2018

Hi,

Thank you for your post

I got a problem when doing step 3. After adding the two hyphens clicking save, an error occurred saying "the authenticated save for this file failed, error code 20004". I was using TextWrangler from App Store. My Civ5 was also downloaded from App Store.

Any help would be appreciated

AlanH · May 7, 2018

civ5noobbbbb said:
Hi,

Thank you for your post

I got a problem when doing step 3. After adding the two hyphens clicking save, an error occurred saying "the authenticated save for this file failed, error code 20004". I was using TextWrangler from App Store. My Civ5 was also downloaded from App Store.

Any help would be appreciated

Googled that error and the second result that came up was:

https://slickmedia.co.uk/blog/glenns-blog/the-authenticated-save-for-this-file-failed-textwrangler/

Basically, the App Store version of Text Wrangler doesn't write to protected files. You need to download Text Wrangler directly from the BareBones web site.

AlanH · May 7, 2018

beetle said:
I know the SDK is not available for OS X, but should it be possible to create a very simple mod just using a text editor?

All I want to do is force various AI to use the same flavors/bias as Shaka. Which I could do by manually copy/paste of the various leader XML files. But I would like share the end results so others could try it out, and I cannot very well expect people to backup and copy 42 files.

From what I have read, the “virtual file system” makes me think that what I would like to do is pretty easy, but I am hoping to avoid having to run Windows just for this little experiment.

You should be able to create a text-only mod, but you need to create a folder containing the modified versions of your changed files. You also need to include a xxxx.modinfo file - actually an xml file - that lists them, gives them unique identifiers, and tells Civ5 to add them to its database. Put the folder in the right place, and enable it using the Mods menu. Kael's modding guide is the main bible explaining all this. It's quite old and probably not up to date for the clever stuff. But for a simple mod to the .xml files, you can probably just adapt a copy of a xxxx.modinfo file from an existing working mod. There's also a modding Wiki that may help.

beetle · May 7, 2018

Thank you @AlanH, that is pretty encouraging!

civ5noobbbbb · May 8, 2018

Thank you for your help.

I can now extract rar files with Keka, but it seems that when I try to extract civ5map files with Keka, a warning always pops up saying extraction failed (Error code 2 using "p7zip"). What should I do?

Thank you so much

AlanH · May 9, 2018

civ5noobbbbb said:
Thank you for your help.

I can now extract rar files with Keka, but it seems that when I try to extract civ5map files with Keka, a warning always pops up saying extraction failed (Error code 2 using "p7zip"). What should I do?

Thank you so much

As far as I know, .civ5map files are not compressed. You should be able to put them straight into the Maps folder.

Do you have an example of one you are trying to use?

civ5noobbbbb · May 9, 2018

AlanH said:
As far as I know, .civ5map files are not compressed. You should be able to put them straight into the Maps folder.

Do you have an example of one you are trying to use?

Thank you!

How can I find the Maps folder? Sorry Im not quite savvy in mac...

civ5noobbbbb · May 9, 2018

Never mind.

I have just found the Maps folder and put the civ5map in it. Everything works fine so far!

Again, thank you so much

ArmanPeters · Aug 14, 2018

I do have a problem. I understand it has been quite a while, and I'm not sure if the game is dead. I downloaded Civ V from the App Store and followed all of the steps above and they all worked perfectly fine. I downloaded two mods, extracted them into folders, and placed them in the mod folder. The app works perfect when I start up, but when the menu with the SinglePlayer, Multiplayer, Mods, DLC etc loads, I cannot click on any of the options. There is a weird red magnifying glass in the bottom right stating for touchscreen but even that I cannot click on. Any help would be greatly appreciated

AlanH · Aug 15, 2018

HI, welcome. It sounds as if you have corrupted the mainmenu.lua file. Check back over the instructions. Did you use TextEdit to modify the file? TextEdit was a habit of inserting a special long hyphen character into the file when you try to type the two 'minus' signs used to disable the line. Copy and paste two minus signs instead of typing them.

ArmanPeters · Aug 15, 2018

AlanH said:
HI, welcome. It sounds as if you have corrupted the mainmenu.lua file. Check back over the instructions. Did you use TextEdit to modify the file? TextEdit was a habit of inserting a special long hyphen character into the file when you try to type the two 'minus' signs used to disable the line. Copy and paste two minus signs instead of typing them.

I'm afraid I still have the same problem. TextEdit wasn't working so I downloaded BBEdit instead. I followed all steps as listed, going into assets, UI, FrontEnd, and then MainMenu.lua and editing it as follows (see attached Screenshot). I did have to make a copy of the file so that it could go back into the FrontEnd folder and named it MainMenuM.lua. The same happens when I start up the game, and I see the mods folder but I cannot click on anything. I also noticed this time that there was something on the bottom of the screen stating "Invalid number". Weird. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ArmanPeters · Aug 18, 2018

Any updates or potential solutions?

beetle · Aug 20, 2018

ArmanPeters said:
Any updates or potential solutions?

I do not think you have given anyone additional information so that they might help you.

Can you restore things to how they were a few days ago, when the game worked?
That screen shot does not help diagnose your problems at all, from what I could tell. Why did you think that would be helpful? What were you trying to point out?
Renaming files does not help, except to preserve the original file under a new name so hopefully you can revert things, should anything go wrong.

hunner · Aug 21, 2018

Or I found RED WW2 mods that work for mac. If you click one of the load secenrio, it brings you to a form where a guy posted a link with mods that work

AlanH · Aug 21, 2018

ArmanPeters said:
I'm afraid I still have the same problem. TextEdit wasn't working so I downloaded BBEdit instead. I followed all steps as listed, going into assets, UI, FrontEnd, and then MainMenu.lua and editing it as follows (see attached Screenshot). I did have to make a copy of the file so that it could go back into the FrontEnd folder and named it MainMenuM.lua. The same happens when I start up the game, and I see the mods folder but I cannot click on anything. I also noticed this time that there was something on the bottom of the screen stating "Invalid number". Weird. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Those symptoms are typical of a corrupted MainMenu.lua file. The screenshot indicates that you have edited that line in the file correctly, but I don't understand why you had to rename it. It will not work at all with the wrong name, as the software is expecting to find the correct file by its name!

benjosh · Sep 3, 2018

I'm trying to get mods working. I didn't download the game from Steam or the App Store... I've been playing it off of a mounted disk. I moved the application into my Applications folder in order to be able to edit the MainMenu.lua file. Got the mods in there, was able to see them under the Mods menu, but the game crashes once I try to start the game. Also, I now can't start any game, modded or otherwise, from the version of the game saved under the Applications folder, even after removing the mod files and restoring the MainMenu.lua file to its previous state. I can still play from the mounted disk. Problem Report attached. Any ideas?

ETA: You're a saint.

Spoiler Problem Report :

Installing Mods on Civ5 for Mac

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