What I share with you is a modpack that I have been using and maintaining under Linux for quite some time. It significantly improves gameplay without severely changing the base game, and it should be compatible with Enhanced UI. All you need is Brave New World, and this will work OOTB (it even works with Steam via flatpak). You can download it here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/v9c21j56o7ya58n/mp_modspack-lin.rar
Enhancements
- InfoAddict
- Artificial Unintelligence Lite
- Pontoon Bridge
- Granary Includes Bison
- Unlimited Experience from Barbarians
- Great Admiral Aquaculture
- Great People Do Not Ignore Borders
- Remove Ban Luxury from World Congress / United Nations
- Food of The Gods Pantheon Belief for Cocoa
Fun Additions
- Doom Guy
- Historical Religions
- Medieval Heresies
- Strange Religions
New Civilizations
- The Ainu
- The Goths
- The Harappa
- The Hyksos
- The Khazar Khaganate
I have found that these mods make Civ5 a good deal more interesting and engaging, and fix some issues which I believe Firaxis overlooked, without drastically altering the feel of the game. I have played many, many hours of Civ5 with this modpack under both single and multi player, and the only issue I've come across is Civ5 hanging when quitting to desktop, but that's intermittent, and I've noticed that issue on Linux without modpacks as well. The additional civilizations are included because I find them notably complete, unique, and they're representative of some historical topics I've studied academically. The only one which could be considered OP is the Ainu, but they're really fun to play, and - in terms of gameplay - are like a neat hybrid of the Celts and Indonesia. They don't have a tendency to expand too much, so I've never found them to be an overwhelming opponent (though I usually play no higher or lower than King).
Installation
Extract the archive to the proper path in your Steam Civ5 installation directory: ../Steam/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization V/steamassets/assets/dlc
Then you should see a folder named mp_modspack present in the dlc folder, and you can start the game to enjoy these mods as if they were part of the base game. I have used the modpack under both standard and flatpak installations of Steam without issue.
Backstory
Long-time Civilization player here (since Civ3), and like most of you, I first started playing on Windows. Over the years, I steadily moved away from Microsoft products, and have been doing most of my computing under Linux for a long time now. The only reason I have kept around a Windows install is to enjoy the Civilization series to the fullest extent. As WINE, and Steam compatibility with Linux, have gotten better and better, I have found less of a reason to boot into Windows at all. The only thing I was really missing in regard to Civ, was being able to create and use those multiplayer modpacks under Civ5 on Linux.
Then I came across an issue report on GitHub which recommended that Linux users simply change all directories + filenames + extensions in and including the MP_MODSPACK directory to lowercase, and that everything would work (save for mods that rely on .dll modifications). Lo and behold, this turned out to be true. I made a modpack under Windows (without mods that utilize .dll files), lowercased everything, slapped the pack on a flash drive, and put it under the relevant directory of my Steam install under Linux. Now I could finally enjoy the convenience of modpacks on Linux. After some time, I thought I would finally share this.
Additional notes
- All mods included are up to date
- If you would like to try this under Windows or Mac OS X, here's the pack without every file lowercased: https://www.mediafire.com/file/03rn6emx02pgcyu/MP_MODSPACK-win.rar
Enjoy!
Enhancements
- InfoAddict
- Artificial Unintelligence Lite
- Pontoon Bridge
- Granary Includes Bison
- Unlimited Experience from Barbarians
- Great Admiral Aquaculture
- Great People Do Not Ignore Borders
- Remove Ban Luxury from World Congress / United Nations
- Food of The Gods Pantheon Belief for Cocoa
Fun Additions
- Doom Guy
- Historical Religions
- Medieval Heresies
- Strange Religions
New Civilizations
- The Ainu
- The Goths
- The Harappa
- The Hyksos
- The Khazar Khaganate
I have found that these mods make Civ5 a good deal more interesting and engaging, and fix some issues which I believe Firaxis overlooked, without drastically altering the feel of the game. I have played many, many hours of Civ5 with this modpack under both single and multi player, and the only issue I've come across is Civ5 hanging when quitting to desktop, but that's intermittent, and I've noticed that issue on Linux without modpacks as well. The additional civilizations are included because I find them notably complete, unique, and they're representative of some historical topics I've studied academically. The only one which could be considered OP is the Ainu, but they're really fun to play, and - in terms of gameplay - are like a neat hybrid of the Celts and Indonesia. They don't have a tendency to expand too much, so I've never found them to be an overwhelming opponent (though I usually play no higher or lower than King).
Installation
Extract the archive to the proper path in your Steam Civ5 installation directory: ../Steam/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization V/steamassets/assets/dlc
Then you should see a folder named mp_modspack present in the dlc folder, and you can start the game to enjoy these mods as if they were part of the base game. I have used the modpack under both standard and flatpak installations of Steam without issue.
Backstory
Long-time Civilization player here (since Civ3), and like most of you, I first started playing on Windows. Over the years, I steadily moved away from Microsoft products, and have been doing most of my computing under Linux for a long time now. The only reason I have kept around a Windows install is to enjoy the Civilization series to the fullest extent. As WINE, and Steam compatibility with Linux, have gotten better and better, I have found less of a reason to boot into Windows at all. The only thing I was really missing in regard to Civ, was being able to create and use those multiplayer modpacks under Civ5 on Linux.
Then I came across an issue report on GitHub which recommended that Linux users simply change all directories + filenames + extensions in and including the MP_MODSPACK directory to lowercase, and that everything would work (save for mods that rely on .dll modifications). Lo and behold, this turned out to be true. I made a modpack under Windows (without mods that utilize .dll files), lowercased everything, slapped the pack on a flash drive, and put it under the relevant directory of my Steam install under Linux. Now I could finally enjoy the convenience of modpacks on Linux. After some time, I thought I would finally share this.
Additional notes
- All mods included are up to date
- If you would like to try this under Windows or Mac OS X, here's the pack without every file lowercased: https://www.mediafire.com/file/03rn6emx02pgcyu/MP_MODSPACK-win.rar
Enjoy!
