Installing Mods on Civ5 for Mac

[Misaki21]

Hi Alan, thanks for your help!

Actually I downloaded a .dmg file via torrents. Its the 1.3.5 campaign edition. Maybe the problem comes from that...
To play mods, what version should I get? Steam or appstore? Thanks!

 

[AlanH]

Downloading torrents gets you what you deserve, I'm afraid. This site, and I, have zero tolerance for software piracy. Civ5 has to be registered with either the AppStore or Steam, and if you try to avoid that, then all bets are off as to whether it will work at all.

The AppStore version (Campaign Edition) doesn't support mods as far as I can tell, even if you buy it. You need to buy the Steam version if you want to play with mods.

 

[Adriano5]

A .civ5mod file is still a compressed archive - actually in .7z format. You have to extract the od from the .civ5mod file. I use Keka. There are several posts in this thread covering the way you do this, and ekc has written a neat Applescript that automates the entire process when you subscribe to a mod from the Steam workshop.

I tried this out with one of the mods I downloaded. I'm not sure if I'm doing this right still. I have keka and did all that you asked me to do. I extracted the .civ5mod file again, and it turned into a .7z file. I extracted this again, to test what would happen, and it just turned back into a .civ5mod file.

Here are some screenshots:
at the far bottom, you can see the original file I downloaded. Two files below the data.vdf file, you can see the .civ5mod file that is no longer a .zip file. Then, there is the .7z file that I got once i extracted the first .civ5mod file. After extracting the .7z file, the file converted back to a .civ5mod file, which is directly below the data.vdf file.

 

[AlanH]

This is all explained in the first post, and in several subsequent posts in this thread.

Keka compresses by default, unless it recognises the file as a compressed file.

Keka doesn't know that a .civ5mod file is a compressed file unless you tell it. So it just compresses it, which is not what you want.

There are several ways to tell Keka to extract the folder from a .civ5mod.file. All have been covered here before:

Option #1. Launch Keka, select its Preferences in the Keka menu, and select "Always extract" in the Actions selector.

Option #2. I have created a modified version of the Keka Preferences file that includes .civ5mod in its list of recognised file name extensions. You can download that preferences file from the first post and install it so that Keka will do the right thing with a .civ5mod file.

Option #3. A .civ5mod file is really a .7z file with a different file name extension. If you edit the file name and change its extension to ".7z" then Keka will recognise it and extract it.

 

[Adriano5]

This is all explained in the first post, and in several subsequent posts in this thread.

Keka compresses by default, unless it recognises the file as a compressed file.

Keka doesn't know that a .civ5mod file is a compressed file unless you tell it. So it just compresses it, which is not what you want.

There are several ways to tell Keka to extract the folder from a .civ5mod.file. All have been covered here before:

Option #1. Launch Keka, select its Preferences in the Keka menu, and select "Always extract" in the Actions selector.

Option #2. I have created a modified version of the Keka Preferences file that includes .civ5mod in its list of recognised file name extensions. You can download that preferences file from the first post and install it so that Keka will do the right thing with a .civ5mod file.

Option #3. A .civ5mod file is really a .7z file with a different file name extension. If you edit the file name and change its extension to ".7z" then Keka will recognise it and extract it.

Thank you for being so patient and working through this with me

I changed the preferences to 'always extract', and re read the original thread a dozen times. Turns out that I was extracting the file once, instead of twice (unless if its meant to be once, but either way I extracted the .z7/.civ5mod file into a folder) The reason why it would turn back into a .civ5mod/.z7 file was because it was compressing automatically.

Again, thank you so much. I apologize for bugging you with this for so long.

 

[AlanH]

I'm pleased to hear that you got it working.

 

[droberts97470]

Alan I thought the Mac file system must be way beyond me as I could not find

2. Find your Civ5 application
Your Civ5 application is in one of two places depending on whether it is registered with Steam or with the Mac App Store.

• In a Steam-registered installation, select the Finder's Go->Go to Folder menu option.
Copy and paste the following path string into the text box and click Go:

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/sid meier's civilization v/Civilization V.app
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple says they made the library folder invisible on the last few OS iterations.

To find it, from the Finder click and hold Option and Go. The Library will become visible

Perhaps now I will be able to work the magic necessary to have my Mods show up on my Mac. I do have the MOD button thanks to EKC.

 

[AlanH]

Are you saying you didn't read the Notes section? The second note covers this. There are several alternative ways to reach the hidden ~/Library/ folder. The Option key is one way to find it, also mentioned in various posts in this thread.

* NOTES:

• '~/' at the beginning of a file or folder path is short for "/Users/<your_user_name>/
• If a file or folder path begins with '~/Library' then this location may be hidden on your Mac. Use the Finder's Go to Folder menu option and copy/paste the path in order to find it.

If you have used ekc's script to display the Mods menu option, and you then use it to transfer downloaded mods from Steam Workshop, then you don't need to do anything in ~/Library/ yourself.

 

[civcity98]

For some reason, the folder "/com.aspyr.civ5campaign/" doesn't exist on my mac once i go to containers -even though i have an app store copy. Is there place for me to move my mod folder to?

thanks

 

[eternal_linen]

Alan, thanks for taking the time to write this guide. If you (or anyone else) can help me, I'd quite appreciate it.

I'm running the basic Civ V through steam on OS X 10.8. When I show package contents for the 'Civilization V.app' all I have is a folder labeled "Contents" with two sub-folders ("MacOS" and "Resources") as well as a file labeled Info.plist. I do not see a "MainMenu.lua" file anywhere -- are you familiar with this issue?

Thanks in advance.

This seems to be exactly my problem. I read your response and saw that this person was able to solve his problem, but your response didn't seem to give him any direct answer. BNW is working fine so I can't figure out what might be going on. Otherwise the rest of your instructions were very helpful and I was able to do all the rest. Thanks (whether or not you're able to help)

 

[AlanH]

For some reason, the folder "/com.aspyr.civ5campaign/" doesn't exist on my mac once i go to containers -even though i have an app store copy. Is there place for me to move my mod folder to?

thanks

Hi, welcome

First, please be warned that, as stated in other posts here, the Campaign Edition appears to be unable to run mods. Most users cannot even get the Mods menu to display. I would be interested to know how far you have got with that?

Are you quite sure you have no ~/Library/Containers//com.aspyr.civ5campaign/ folder? Have you actually run the Campaign Edition on that Mac, in your user account? That folder is where your saved games should be stored, together with various settings files. The only reason I can think of for it not to be there is if you have a very old version of OS X (10.5 or older?)

 

[AlanH]

This seems to be exactly my problem. I read your response and saw that this person was able to solve his problem, but your response didn't seem to give him any direct answer. BNW is working fine so I can't figure out what might be going on. Otherwise the rest of your instructions were very helpful and I was able to do all the rest. Thanks (whether or not you're able to help)

My response was:

Hi, welcome

Is Civ5 installed correctly? Does it run? Are you sure you are looking at the correct Civilization V.app? It's at:

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/sid meier's civilization v/Civilization V.app

Don't forget the '~', which is short for your Home folder, at /Users/<your_user_id>

When you Show Package Contents, you should see "MacOS", "Resources" and "Home" folders. This "Home" folder contains "assets", which is where you need to go to find the file to edit.

This seems to be pretty straightforward. If you have found "Home" within the application package Contents, then just follow the folder path - Contents/Home/assets/UI/FrontEnd/ In that folder you should find MainMenu.lua.

If all this is too difficult, then use ekc's script a little earlier in tis thread, which does it all for you if you have a Steam installation.

 

[eternal_linen]

My response was:


This seems to be pretty straightforward. If you have found "Home" within the application package Contents, then just follow the folder path - Contents/Home/assets/UI/FrontEnd/ In that folder you should find MainMenu.lua.

If all this is too difficult, then use ekc's script a little earlier in tis thread, which does it all for you if you have a Steam installation.

Thanks a lot for your help. Folders weren't showing up before but ekc's script did everything perfectly. I look forward to doing crazy things with Civ V.

 

[rallot]

Hello, I have followed all the instructions and the mods button is showing up on the main menu, but when I click on it nothing happens.

Is this an error with the scripts?

 

[AlanH]

Hi, welcome

Are you running the AppStore Campaign Edition? If so, I don't think it will support mods.

If you are running the Steam version, then you may have made an error when you edited the MainMenu.lua script.

 

[rallot]

I am using the steam version, the only error I think I could have made was with the hyphens; I put two of them but there was not as much space in-between the hyphens and the words as there was in the example.

Update: It is quite disappointing as I can see the mods button but I cannot click it, only every other button on the main menu

http://imgur.com/SCKvYWJ

-My script if it helps

 

[rallot]

I am using the steam version, the only error I think I could have made was with the hyphens; I put two of them but there was not as much space in-between the hyphens and the words as there was in the example.

Update: It is quite disappointing as I can see the mods button but I cannot click it, only every other button on the main menu

http://imgur.com/SCKvYWJ

-My script if it helps

I reinstalled the game and made the change to the script once more and it is now working, thank you

 

[beetle]

Sorry to be asking what feels like such a newb question, but are most Civ5 mods compatible with the Mac Steam version? With IV, we were limited to mods that did not use DLLs, which ruled out most of them. I am not finding that caveat on the first page of this thread!

 

[AlanH]

The post was not updated when the DLL was released, though it has been stated elsewhere in this forum. There are still very few mods that use custom DLLs, so most mods are still compatible with the Mac Steam version.

I have now added a note to the first post to state that mods with custom DLLs will not run on a Mac.

 

[Gyathaar]

Did anyone notice this?

http://steamcommunity.com/app/8930/...02415316/?tscn=1402600278#c540744299991637261

Seems like there will be official support for mods for mac too...