Mac Mod Installation Solutions

Hi all,

Some good news and some bad news:

The good news: I've discovered the Barbarossa: The War in the East scenario seems to work fine on a mac - only played a couple of turns so far, but nothing has cropped up. Just dl the files and install as the thread says

The bad news: the number of units involved in this scenario is huge!! Took me a couple of hours just to sort through them all, plan and then make all my attacks on the first turn. Say goodbye to your friends and family for a while if you're going to take this one on...

Wolfe

 

Welcome, General Wolfe.

Glad you're having fun with C3. We've tried to keep this thread focused on found solutions for installing scenarios & mods that previously were problems. That's why we didn't include a list of everything that already works.

Look forward to seeing your play analysis in the Barbarossa thread.

 

Most people know about the folders found under the game folder in Applications. The usual paths are...

Applications\Civ III Complete\Civilization III Game Data\Scenarios

Applications\Civ III Complete\Conquests Game Data\Conquests

Applications\Civ III Complete\Conquests Game Data\Scenarios

Applications\Civ III Complete\Play the World Game Data\Scenarios

Well in this post I learned of an alternative location. I checked it out and discovered there are two such folders, in the paths...

User\Documents\Civilization III Complete\Scenarios

Users\Documents\Civilization III Play the World\Scenarios

According to AlanH, in the post linked to above, Aspyr apparently wants you to install scenarios and mods in the "Documents" folder in preference to any other folder. I'll be trying it with a new download (The Mod With No Name by the late Spacer One) to see how placing it there works out.

So if you have a mod or scenario that isn't working placed into one of the app's folders, it might work put into one of the "Documents" folders listed above. But be sure to place the mod into the appropriate folder. A Play the World scenario into the Play the World\Scenarios folder, and a Complete scenario into the Complete\Scenarios folder.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi,

Its been a while since anything has been posted here but recently I've come back to Civ3 (after the total disappointment of Civ5) and been getting Civ3 Mods & Senarios up and running. I've actually got over 20 running on a Mac now, most quite easy. There have been some things I've had to do that seem to fix a lot of problems (not already mentioned here...)

1. Ive converted some .bix files, like Australia Ideology Wars - lots of fun and a whole new avenue for mac players
2. hint - if you are playing a WW2 senario, grab the Unit files you get with Civ 3 Conquest - as in "9.WWII in the Pacific" - this resolves most (if not all) of the issues you have with missing Units
3. also, I have a quite a few PediaIcons issues - mostly building name issues, grab the latest java patch 'Conquests Editor 0.61.jar" - select the file in the java app, rename it ICON_BLDG_**** (insert building name here), save it, open the file in Civ 3 - it will fail, rename it back to its original name, usally (but not always) this fixes the problem...
4. BEFORE you start on anything, duplicate the .biq file (and all the files really) before you start, so you always have the originals

I'm not sure if anyone is interested, I can go into more details (screen dumps and alike) if anyone needs a hand.

I do have some stuff Im trying to nut out thats killing me though - for example, I can run Warhammer 2.5 no roblem after a bit of tweaking (I can forward the completed files if anyone needs them), but when I load a .biq senario - warhammer 2.5PL+Y+Umap I keep getting a pediaIcons error on the Herdstane building... but it doesnt fault in the original game when it gets built - how weird is that? Once I can crack this I'm pretty sure I'll be able to fix any mod there is

 

I am curious as to how much time it takes you to get a scenario designed for the Windows version to run on a Mac?

 

"I am curious as to how much time it takes you to get a scenario designed for the Windows version to run on a Mac?"

Sorry about the War and Peace...

for example, the Conquest Civ3 Wroldwide, crashed first startup, missing units, it took about 90 seconds to resolve the issue(s).

It depends, but if no pediaicon errors, normally well under 10 mins to sort through any errors (mostly missing Units)... from - what I can see, and have tested, as long as the end files are there (such as .wav Unit files) it doesnt seem to matter too much what folder its in, just drop in the original Civ3 files and mostly it looks fafter itself - you can do them one by one as I use too, but when playing a WW2 Pafcific Mod, I just dropped everything in and hey presto it worked!!! - I kept doing it ever since, making sure not paste over existing Unit Folders, and it pretty much fixed the problem. There are a couple of anomolies, like Iwoa .wav files in the BattleShip unit, if your on MacOSX 10.6, running spotlight its a 30 second jon to locate copy/paste the remaining file(s).

Im running a 27" quad Mac, 4gb ram, lots of power, lots of screen space, so this makes it easier to view issues and fix them (I run parrallels Windows as well), so Im starting to try and fix stuff in Civ3 Editor, and see if it works on the Mac (usually it does as well)

PediaIcons are a bit of a pain - but they seem to be so for Windows stuff as well (as far as I can see) - still simply renaming them, exiting the game, having it fail, then rename again - this has fixed most PediaIcon problems - a 2 minute job.

My problem is Im learning by mistake and I just dont understand PediaIcons enough (something I need to fix in the next few weeks).. I think I might need to find one of the gurus out there and see if I can learn some stuff, maybe do some beta testing and make it Mac Friendly when something gets released...

Im sorry about the war and peace answer but I thought it might explain mostly where Im going with this...

 

I am doing most of my work and playing on a G4 iBook running 10.4.11. I cannot really justify upgrading to a newer laptop. I have pretty much quit trying to get any Windows scenarios running on the Mac. None of them are interesting enough to put in the effort.

 

Well, I have several senarios and modpacks all running ok, I can burn them to a DVD and send them somewhere (maybe CivFanatics), and they can shoot them out as required. If anyone is nterested just post here and we can work out the details as its really no problem to burn a DVD and mail it

All that will be required is dragging and dropping files into the right folder(s). If want me to let me know and I'll shoot them off, it 10 mins you'll be in a whole new world...

- for example the Warhammer really cool (its a RAR file, but it took a bit of tweaking, but if you like Warhammer this is awesome fun!!)
- Lord of the Middle Earth (plus the 'true' version) - seriously I think this is the greatest Mod ever and you have to try it!!

Not sure what the protocols are her, but I happy to send this to the Moderators and they can forward, whatever works

Cheers

Phil

 

Haha, just read my last post - I should of read it too, I repeated myself!!

 

At home I use wireless broadband (apart from this stuff it suits my needs very well) - in Oz its slow, so uploading will take forever and use up all of my allocation... so sending a burned DVD somewhere is the easist and quickest way for me...

Also, just so I dont want to russel any feathers, I haven't adapted anyone elses work, just added missing Units, edited various Text files, etc to make the stuff work, I have converted a few bix files to bic (and unlocked a few of players in some cases) but nothing of the game has been changed and the authors have full credit... also I think half of the problem with compressed files from PC MACOSX issues are that the Mac just doesnt unpack them all that well, hence the (many) missing files, sometimes corrupted text files, etc

many of the files are well over 10mbs in size

 

Hi All Mac Users, Good news... I'm very confident that all .biq mods & senarions can be run your Mac. Thanks to 'r16' for the final piece of the puzzle... (I've testing quite a few mods/scenario over the last few days - all have worked.

I've tried to write this for people with a limited Mac knowledge base...

What I'm running...

I run 2 Macs
Macbook - Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM
IMac 27" - QUAD4 with 4GB of RAM (a thing of beauty)

OSX 10.6.6

...Note: delete any all files/folders in the Conquests and Scenarios folders before starting of MODS you are going to try and have another crack at... if you are unsure drag and drop the whole of the CivIII Complete (located in the Applications Folder) into Trash, then delete the Trash... do NOT go into any Libarary folders, Macs don't need the same attention to detail PCs do, this will delete all relevant files, simply and quickly, then re-install CivIII Complete in the Applications Folder, make sure you have version 1.22 (the latest) and its the Intel Version - that is the verion that doesnt give you a warning when you start up.

1.Once downloaded, extract/paster the package to your Civ 3 installation path should be to the Conquests Folder:
Applications/CivIII Complete/Conquests Game Data/Conquests
2. Most files will be zip files, just un-zip them here, for the .rar files just select the same path
3. drag the Folder, say AoI II, to the scenarios folder
4. then, separately, drag/drop the .biq file to the Scenarios folder
5. its really important you follow steps 4 & 5 - don't ask me why, but all I know is that this works. I've now done this 20 times, all have been ok

++++This process will eliminate 99% of your PediaIcon issues++++, if you still get this message, look at my earlier post for fixing this issue+++++

If you get an error that is missing a Unit File, such as the Ashigaru Spearman..

6. go to spotlight and type in the Unit name, select the Folder and click on it, it will go to where that Folder is placed (so far I've always had them at least in the original game data, if not other Mods)
7. Grab ALL of the Unit Folders by, Apple A (select all), Apple C, to copy all of them, go to the Units location, in the case of AoI II, it would be..

Applications/CivIII Complete/Conquests Game Data/Scenarios/AoI II/Art/Units - paste them all here

8. Why all of the Unit folders do you ask? This is the simplest and quickest way to fx these issues. Again this solves 99% of your problems


Following Steps 1 to 8 will fix 99% of your issues - the whole process takes no kore them 20 mins (why - well there always seems to be Unit Folders missing but steps 6-8 makes this a no brainer


9. Finally - some Unit Folders are missing specific files, usually .wav files but they can do anything.... use SPOTLIGHT - it will find a file name you are looking for immediately, look for the path, find the file, copy it, look at the error message, its tells you where to place the missing file, all done


So far, no joke, I've got many many Scenarios and Mods running, all ok.. I don't see any reason that> the biggest obstacle you will now find are some files compacted by .exe - meaning you cant open them on a Mac, if you have access ta PC you will need a Windows version of Civ3 Complete (only about $5 for download now) to unpack it, then copy the folder to a USB stick (or if you are using Parrallels or Fusion drag and drop) and follow steps 1-9

If anyone gets stuck drop me a line

 

Thanks for all the tips above, everyone.

For anyone interested in getting the Age of Imperialism mod up and running on a Mac, SGT_Rob has put together a useful list of missing files and how to replace them, in this thread here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=11594869#post11594869

Cheers!