Steam mod problems

[krogen]

Hello,

I have Civilization 4 + Warlords + BtS, all from Steam. I have problems when using mods. So far, I have tried Wolf Revolution and Merged Mod 0.87, both with the same result. What happens is, when I launch a mod the user interface completely disappears. Everything else seems to be ok (example, new nations and leaders display correctly in the menu when creating a game). Also, if I try to go to the game options ('escape' -> options), the options menu doesn't pop up.

Everything works just fine without mods.

Here is a screenshot of what I am talking about.

http://img339.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nouserinterfacevn1.jpg

Thanks so much for help.

 

[phungus420]

I'm wondering if this is a problem with WolfRev and Merged, or if it is caused by the BUG mod. Have you tried the BUG mod and seen what happens (if not please do)?

Also as the creater of WolfRev, I'd really apreciate any insight from anyone who has any ideas. This is the seconed person that's reported this bug (loss of interface), with no custom assets, or any other thing that could cause this. I'm at a loss here, because I obviously can't reproduce this bug on my end, but would like very much to fix it.

 

[krogen]

I just downloaded the bug mod and it works just fine.

I tried running WolfRev with it but the result is the same - missing interface.

Did the other person have a Steam version of Civilization? My guess is that Steam is the problem. I'm not sure how the retail installation directory looks like, but from a quick search around the forum I found out that the Steam Civilization directory is different.

In my Steam games folder I have: (C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common)
sid meier's civilization iv [folder]
sid meier's civilization iv warlords [folder]
sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword [folder]

In the sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword folder:
(C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword)
Assets [folder]
CvGameCoreDLL [folder]
Mods [folder]
Resource [folder]
Warlords [folder]
Miles [folder]
PublicMaps [folder]
Shaders [folder]
[some DLLs and other files, no BTS exe]
Beyond the Sword [folder]

Inside the Beyond the Sword folder there are:
Assets [folder] (!)
CvGameCoreDLL [folder] (!)
Mods [folder] (!)
Resource [folder] (!)
Mods (!)
...and pretty much all others that I mentioned above in the sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword folder. Now, in this folder there is an EXE for BTS, and the Mods folder in here is a "real" mods folder (i.e., WolfRevolution is found here... if I was to place it in the other mods folder, the game will not see it).

The reason why I think Steam might be a problem is that during the installation of WolfRevolution the installer creates a shortcut, its path is:
"C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword\Beyond the Sword\Civ4BeyondSword.exe" mod=\WolfRevolution

When I try to run it, I get a window pop up saying:
"Mods\WolfRevolution \ is an invalid directory, ignoring"

And then Civilization BtS loads without the mod.

Notice the space in \WolfRevolution \. Weird? The only way I can run WolfRevolution is by loading it through the game, shortcut does not work. Actually, I also tried setting up "launch options" to "mod=\WolfRevolution" in Steam and that worked, too, but with the same result [not interface].

But maybe I'm just digging to deep and Steam isn't at fault here.

Thanks for help.

 

[The_J]

It could be a problem with the length of the path.
You get problems, if the path-name is longer than 128 signs, and this install-path has more than 130 signs (this is no civ-problem, it's an OS-problem).
The install-path with BUG is short enough, the other names are too long.
Because you can't change the install-path of civ, the name of the other mods have to be cut, and also the paths to the interface-changes (i forgot the name of the file, but the modders will know their own mods).

 

[krogen]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I just tried reinstalling Steam, but this time instead of installing it to Program Files, I put it directly into C. (i.e., C:\Steam) This makes the path a bit shorter, but I ended up with the same result.

Still,
C:\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword\Beyond the Sword
is by no means short.

I tried renaming the folder names but then Steam can't launch [find?] the game.

 

[SadBloke]

You don't need to use STEAM to load the game. Just launch it from the .exe directly.

 

[krogen]

The .exe's are somehow tied to Steam. Clicking on them directly results in the same launch process as through Steam.

 

[GoodGame]

Have you tried running the programs with Steam in Offline mode?

 

[phungus420]

I'm wondering if using a "fixed" .exe would make this mod work. I'm at a loss as to why steam users can't play WolfRevolution, but most people have no problem with it.

 

[krogen]

I'm wondering if using a "fixed" .exe would make this mod work. I'm at a loss as to why steam users can't play WolfRevolution, but most people have no problem with it.

IT WORKED!

I downloaded a no-cd crack and launched the game from it. Loaded up WolfRevolution, UI is there!

I haven't checked if everything works fine 100%, but so far so good.

Thanks so much.

 

[SadBloke]

Yep, worked, but like you I haven't gotten around to testing it extensively. Would appear that it's something to do with the particulars of the STEAM version though.

 

[richarnd]

I can confirm that Krogen's solution works. Unfortunate that it's necessary, but it does work.

That seems to indicate that the problem doesn't have anything to do with Steam's directory structure or even the Steam software itself, but is due to some change made to the steam version of the BTS exe itself. That's surprising - what change could have been made that would break mods, yet be trivial enough that running a replacement exe would have no effect on the game's ability to run?

It may not even be necessary to run a hacked exe - its possible that replacing the steam exe with the retail exe would work - though of course that would probably require a CD, which steam users do not have.