Mods on the Mac

[DJ Kell]

I had a rough time with getting mods for the Mac version of SimCity4 to work properly when they were created for the PC version; so, I feel like I should just ask before I get my hopes up: Do the mods made for the PC version work for the Mac version as well? I haven't invested any time in browsing or downloading but what I've seen is enough to get my interest up.

With SC4, the mods would work with either version, but you needed certain updates and add-ons that were released for the PC version only to get them to display correctly. Any such problems with Civ3?

-Kell

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by DJ Kell
I had a rough time with getting mods for the Mac version of SimCity4 to work properly when they were created for the PC version; so, I feel like I should just ask before I get my hopes up: Do the mods made for the PC version work for the Mac version as well? I haven't invested any time in browsing or downloading but what I've seen is enough to get my interest up.

With SC4, the mods would work with either version, but you needed certain updates and add-ons that were released for the PC version only to get them to display correctly. Any such problems with Civ3?

-Kell

Just make sure they're compatible w/ Civ3 v. 1.29 and be patched to v. 1.29b2. There are PTW & Conquests mods out there that are not compatible w/ the mac version of Civ3.

 

[AlanH]

Also, some are delivered in the form of PC self extracting installers that will not run on a Mac. Double Your Pleasure is an example - see current thread in this forum. You need a PC or a PC emulator to get the files out of these before you can install them on the Mac.

PS Welcome to the MacFanatics corner

 

[DJ Kell]

ok... one more thing: where does one acquire the 1.29b2 update? MacSoft is only listing a 1.21 on their support page, which I have already.

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by DJ Kell
ok... one more thing: where does one acquire the 1.29b2 update? MacSoft is only listing a 1.21 on their support page, which I have already.

Right here.

 

[DJ Kell]

*Sigh of Contentment*

The most helpful message board community ever. Thanks!
-Kell

 

[AlanH]

You may not have seen the latest development on Double Your Pleasure in the other thread. It turns out that Stuffit Expander can unstuff the DyP files from the .exe installer ... at least Expander version 8.0.2 that I have here does. My drag'n'drop installer then sticks all the files in the right place and bingo! I haven't tried this with any other mod file installers for Civ3 or any other games, but it's worth giving it a go.

 

[civ3lovah]

does anyone know of a mod or a cheat that enables me to skip adead to the modern age? thanks bunchs yall

 

[AlanH]

Welcome.

Maybe you can use the scenario editor to create a game that starts later. If you mean you want to skip forward in an existing game in progress, I'm pretty sure I'd have heard if there was anything for the Mac, and I haven't. Dunno what the save file editors for PC can do.

 

[Trixter]

Originally posted by AlanH
Maybe you can use the scenario editor to create a game that starts later.

Looking into the future again, are we, AlanH?
Mhm... maybe it'd be possible if one were to make all techs in the first two/three ages optional or move them to the ancient age altogether. But then you'd also have to make a lot of things cheaper (in shields) to build to compensate for the missing infrastructure you'd start with. Same holds for amount of research needed for each tech. Also I don't know if there's a way to change the time between turns or even if this isn't hard-coded into the app.

Nevertheless I'm interested in any ideas concerning this.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Trixter

Looking into the future again, are we, AlanH?

Nope! Speaking out of turn as usual
I wrote that in supreme ignorance about the range of capability of the editor and the mod makers, plus a certain naivete about what civ3lovah really wants - a game (s)he can start with a settler and a couple of modern units and an unknown map? Or a ready-made advanced situation from which to play forward.

I've seen what the DyP team have done, and it seems to be possible to rejig an awful lot of the game even for version 1.29. From there, I just made some probably over-optimistic (as usual) leaps of faith, wrapped up in a single sentence.

If you were able to edit the tech tree and units, surely you could make the units in the ancient age into infantry and tanks as such, and make them dependent on renamed techs that replace the ancient tech tree, and so on. Units are just data - names, graphics and text-driven characteristics. You could make transition to eras three and four dependent on techs that aren't achievable in some way to avoid getting into designing them ... or not? I don't know how much is hard coded into the game - probably the turn dates and years per turn (I happen to know they are soft coded in PTW), but they are just numbers. Higher level games regularly end with cavalry victories against muskets or rifles in the 1100-1200 AD range, which isn't very realistic. So I guess you might still be prepared to drop nukes from a great height in 1000 BC.

So ... yeah! I'll shut up!

 

[Trixter]

Well, you could certainly delete all but the modern advances, rename the eras and distribute the remaining advances between the new eras. The only problem would be the crappy look of the tech tree, cause all of the connecting lines in the tech-viewer are integrated by using one picture for each era. Then techs are placed by assigning the right era and giving coordinates within the corresponding pic. You could also add new techs to create a somewhat richer tech tree at that point, but adding techs and making sure the correct text is added to the correct file (for the civilopedia) is a real PITA.
If there was a way to do all that easily, modding the tech-tree would be much more attractive to me.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Trixter
but adding techs and making sure the correct text is added to the correct file (for the civilopedia) is a real PITA.
If there was a way to do all that easily, modding the tech-tree would be much more attractive to me.

Is this a request for a WYSIWYG tech tree editor?

 

[Trixter]

It's more like a: "if you were to accidentally come along such an editor one day, which, also purely by accident (^^) of course, were to work on a Mac and decided to give a copy to everyone just because you're such a nice fellow, I would definitly want to try it... (before returning to work on your monument in your shrine )"
Other than that just ignore me...

 

[AlanH]

If I ever stumble drunkenly across such a thing you'll be the first to hear about it