List of Mac-compatible MODs

[AckAck]

The Better AI mod runs as well. At least, I was successful in loading the Warlords version w/out the app crashing.

Virtually all of the Better AI mod is in the DLL file. The only exception is the HandicapInfos file. Sorry.

Eep. Does the mod work or not? I have Vanilla 1.61, and I've managed to put it into the CustomAssets folder (I think that's where it goes...) without anything crashing, but the "==BetterAI==" thing in the scorelist isn't displayed, leading me to think that I've improperly installed it...

 

[AlanH]

If most of the logic of the Better AI is in a custom DLL, which seems to be highly likely, then it will not have any effect when installed in the Mac version of Civ/Warlords, since the Mac cannot read or run the DLL.

 

[AckAck]

If most of the logic of the Better AI is in a custom DLL, which seems to be highly likely, then it will not have any effect when installed in the Mac version of Civ/Warlords, since the Mac cannot read or run the DLL.

Does this mean that the Mac can't run any DLL file, period? I.e., that there's no way to recompile whatever source files that are used for the Mac?

By the way, if anyone cares, v 1.0 of the Insane Barbarians mod works for the Mac (it's just a bunch of XML files that soups up barb spawn rate), on Civ IV Vanilla as well.

 

[AlanH]

The Mac versions of Civ4 and Warlords have no interface for communicating with DLLs, and the standard DLL is compiled monolithically into the software. So even if you recompiled the mod DLLs for OS X they would be ignored. Don't be fooled by the fact that there's a copy of CivGameCoreDLL.dll installed with the standard software - it's only there to make the CRC numbers add up correctly.

You can. of course, run the Windows versions of Civ4/Warlords using Bootcamp. Then you can use any mod created for the Windows versions because you've turned your Mac into a Windows PC..

 

[AckAck]

Ah, thanks for the clarification! I guess there goes hope...

 

[bamdad]

hi everybody,

sorry for digging up this thread and also sorry if i am not in the right place, but i just cannot get _any_ mod to work with the mac version. for example, i would really like to play this ww1 mod, and this dark age scenario requiring this mediaeval mod but have not had any luck.

when civ4 tries to load a mod, a strange xml error appears.

btw the ancient mediterranian (mac version) gets the same xml error.

would this also occur when installing a mod for warlords too? can somebody help?

thanks in advance,
bamdad

 

[AlanH]

Hello, welcome

The chances are that you are suffering from the common problem that most mods contain some XML characters that Windows can live with, but Mac OS doesn't like.

The standard way to deal with this is to look at each error message you see and identify the file it is complaining about. Find that file in the mod and open it in TextWrangler (free) or BBEdit and select the Text->Zap Gremlins menu option. Save the file and try loading the mod again. If you get another error (hopefully not on the file you just fixed) repeat until the mod loads without errors.

Have you checked out the earlier posts in this thread about The Ancient Mediterranean mod? For example post #38 includes a couple of Gremlin-free files I edited.

Please note that, even if you get the XML files to load, you may well not be able to run a mod in all its glory, as many mods these days include a custom DLL created with the Windows SDK. The SDK allows modders to rewrite a lot of the game logic in C++. We have no equivalent on the Mac version, which is totally incapable of reading or executing these DLLs. If the mod includes a file called CvGameCoreDLL.dll then you are probably going to miss out on some significant mod capabilities and/or suffer from errors during the game.

And yes, these problems are common to Civ4 and Warlords mods.

 

[bamdad]

thanks a lot, going to try the bbedit trick. and thanks for the quick reply.

strange, i am having only 'can't find wbsave file' and/or crashes with warlords, but no xml problems. and napoleon modpack loads and plays fine (at least until now).

 

[bamdad]

oh, one more question: when i zap gramlins, should i use
-delete zapped characters,
-replace zapped characters with code, or
-replace with [specified character]
in bbedit?

 

[AlanH]

Depends how thorough you want to be.

Generally you are modifying text that will appear in Civilopedia entries, or descriptions or names of cities, leaders, civs, units, etc. in the on-screen game interface. In many cases the edited characters will only be in non-English versions of the text. So you have several options:

Delete zapped characters is quick and dirty, but may leave text looking a bit truncated.

Replace with a character like asterisk, or even <space>, will leave the text the same length as before, but still not necessarily readable.

Replace with <Option-8> (the Bullet character), followed by a search for <Option-8> will allow you to find them all and then replace each one with something that makes sense. Sometimes I've simply copy/pasted the English version of the text in the file in place of heavily accented foreign language text. More time consuming than the first two options, of course.

I should mention that, occasionally, I've found that simply changing the XML header at the top of the file to define a different encoding fixes a file, but this requires that the file is consistent in its use of utf-8 or iso-8859-1 encoding or whatever.

 

[bamdad]

thanks, i have tried deleting, and it worked nicely on ww1 . now i have another problem (sorry for the nag):

the european middle ages mod (see above) gives me another xml error while loading (see attachment). can this also be as easily fixed as the previous one?

 

[AlanH]

That error is probably due to a typo in a XML tag in /Assets/XML/Units/Civ4UnitInfos.xml. For example, we've found tags (the strings between < and >) with a space at the end. Unfortunately the error mesage doesn't give you much of a clue to where this on is, so it's needles and haystacks time.

 

[bamdad]

i will try to sort them out. using only other mods until then.
if only there were mod installers/loaders for the mac version.. aspyr should keep in mind that some game capabilities are crucial for properly enjoying them. maybe that would encourage serious modders to use portable files. this was really off, so thanks again, and i will keep trying.

cheers,
bamdad

 

[AlanH]

What do you mean by "mod installers/loaders"?

I've tried to arouse Aspyr's interest in supporting the "most moddable version of Civ yet", but to no avail. I think they're worried that their support lines would be swamped with people asking them how to get their mods to work.

 

[bamdad]

i mean software responsible for installing, managing and injecting mods. just like with europa universalis or other games. if modding support is added at this level, why does the game restart with every mod loaded (why cannot it load the selected mod(s) at start)..? never mind, just dreaming.

i remember when support was equivalent to hour-long telephone calls and never replied e-mails. in some cases this is also true today. okay, maybe i am a bit pessimistic, but i do not think it is likely that they are worried about some busy phone lines. after all they may state that third-party mods are not eligible for their support but add more compatibility for them. the problem might be a bit more capitalistic: buy some copyrights, port a game to another environment, be the reseller, and grab the profit. of course, you must provide assistance for your product to a certain level, but, to be honest, these problems arise _after_ a user has purchased the software, and not everybody digs through these forums to find that the best he can do is buy a pc. i think this is more likely the way it goes..

geez, we are offing a lot..

 

[AlanH]

i mean software responsible for installing, managing and injecting mods. just like with europa universalis or other games. if modding support is added at this level, why does the game restart with every mod loaded (why cannot it load the selected mod(s) at start)..? never mind, just dreaming.

That's not Aspyr's responsibility. The basic architecture of the game software, and the way it loads mods, are down to Firaxis. Aspyr just moves it over to the Mac OS, with mixed success.

I'm less cynical about Aspyr's strategy than you are. After all, they are pretty dependent on people like us coming back to buy their next game, or the next expansion of this game. It's pretty well established that it's far less expensive to sell more to an existing customer than to go out and find a new one.

 

[bamdad]

of course not, i got a bit carried away and did not indicate i am not talking about aspyr.

call it cynical if you wish. i am not a great fan of software patents and such, and i think - although developers, testers and even resellers should be payed for their work - software prices, for example, are way too high, especially in our region. but this belongs elsewhere and is not even about aspyr or firaxis. i was only saying that although i cannot measure the demand for mods, missing a feature this small could not jeopardise their sales of quite a few great games, including civ4.
if i try to be less 'cynical', i would say that it is possible that they simply missed some small details like this. after all they are not in direct contact with individual modders and the built-in mods work just fine.

anyway, nagging them for this kind of support is pointless. we should work it out ourselves - i would do it if i were better at programming..

 

[Vespa Jester]

I was wondering if anyone has tested the Regiments & Formations modpack? It includes Regiments, Formations and Ethnically Diverse Units and a few small extras like Unitstats. I'm sorry for not putting precise details in, but I hope people know about this, apparently it is quite famous here - if it's not, i'll post more details.

Apparently I read earlier on that the Ethnically Diverse Units works here - but I've heard nothing about Regiments or Formations. I have it on my PC, on Warlords, with the 2.08 patch and it works fine. My girlfriend uses a Mac with the Rev A patch and all is good, but her Mac crashes with the "exited unexpectedly" problem. I only really care about getting the formations, regiments and the ethnicities, the other like 5 smaller things in the modpack can go jump for all I care!--- So if there is a work around, or some CustomAssets fix for this, i'd be most apprectative. I know this is for working mods, but I'm sort of posted one that doesn't, which I've hard was very popular, and whether i'm just missing something obvious, i hope this is not the wrong forum for this!
Thanks in advance...

 

[AlanH]

Can you provide a link to the mod description/download thread?

Does your girlfriend's Mac crash as soon as she starts a game, or when it tries to load the mod, or some way into the game? What does the crash report say when this happens?

 

[Vespa Jester]

Okay, I think this is the link to the file I used:
i THINK, it is this file, now I know it is in the Civilization IV category not Warlords, but when you download it etc, it says it is only for warlords etc, and works on mine.

http://files.filefront.com/Regiment+mod+adapted+with+EDU/;5974053;/fileinfo.html

Again, I think this is it - i can't be more specific because quite frankly finding mods etc etc seems so hard for this game, there is the vanilla, warlords and beyond the sword expansions, with all their varying patches etc and so many things are in the wrong place under wrong names! In fact, I would be very happy if you could point me in the direction of a Regiments, Formations and EDU mod that was just those things, and worked for both mac and pc, warlords 2.08. I know that sounds specific its just things are everywhere! I know what I want its just hard to find. I have lots of experience with amateur modding, i spent all summer doing it whilst in America for a bit, and have skills with the XMLs and even leaderhead, unit moddeling/skinning etc. So I could possibly go through and fix this manually, but basically I'm at uni, doing my last year and dissertation and don't really have the time to be messing around with it! I just want it to work.

So with her Mac, it loads the game normally and fine etc, all is working. I gave her the mod I got of the link above (i think) and she put it in her Warlords/mod directory. She starts up Warlords, goes to Advanced, Load a Mod, she clicks launch and it crashes to desktop saying something like "The applications has quit unexpectedly". Thats about all it said. Actually at first - it complained it could not load (by complain I mean, it got two seperate error messages and then did nothing - assumed it died) The files that couldn't be loaded were:

Civ4Text_Unitstats.xml
Civ4Text_Strategy_NavySEAL.xml

We tried removing these files (i know that was simplistic and a big leap of hope, but we did that) And so when we loaded the mod after removing those files we got the "The Application exited unexpectedly." error and it just remained on desktop.

I tried adding the mod into the CustomAssets folder but to no avail, the game crashes on attempting to load, so we removed that.

I hope that information is more helpful.
Any help again would be great.