What is Mod Buddy? How do I get a "Mod ID"?

[OranHarken]

New to modding civilization games. I am trying to make a simple mod to add a new Colonist, Cargo and Spacecraft type to the game. I can't work any further on it until I can test to see if what I have done works however and I can't get my mod into the game.

Before you ask, yes, I have told the game to Import and On Mod Activation in the MODINFO file. However I do not have a Mod ID serial number because I do not know how to generate one, nor do I know how to get it into the steamworkshop. I think that is the problem I am having.

Well I keep hearing about "Mod Buddy" but no one has said exactly how it will help me and I cannot find it either. This is the first time I have ever attempted modding a game that uses the steam workshop.

 

[Nutty]

You don't have to use ModBuddy. It's possible to make mods without it; note you can leave the md5 keys out of the Files section. You can simply use another mod's ID, and change a few of the hexadecimal characters (0-9,A-F). It's totally random.

However, you won't be able to upload your mod to the Workshop without ModBuddy, but you can certainly distribute it on CivFanatics.

To get ModBuddy, open Steam, go to Library > Tools, and download the CivBE SDK.

So something else must be wrong with your mod. It'd be much easier if you zip it up and attach it to a post so we don't have to guess what might be wrong.

 

[OranHarken]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am going to try a few more things and then upload it if they do not work.

 

[OranHarken]

View attachment Expanded Seeding Options (v1).7z

Everything but my attempt to replace the effectively non-option Fusion Reactor spacecraft with a Thorium Reactor option worked. I did not figure it would be as easy as that but it was worth a try. Tell me what I should have done differently.

To be honest I am more interested in replacing starting options than adding a slew of new ones. This game has terrible balance out of the box. I also want to replace the Soldier from the Arsenal option with Rangers. I don't know about you but if I was travelling to a new world I would bring wilderness snipers, not rank and file grunts.