How can I enable Civ 5 mods on Mac OS X?

Question

Officially, the Mac OS X version of Civilization V does not support mods. However, from common sense, some discussions I've found online, and Aspyr's poor track record, I'm guessing it is indeed possible to enable the mod browser and mod playing, at least for some mods.

So, is it possible? And if it is, how?

Answer 1

The Mods button is disabled in the MainMenu.lua file. To re-enable this button you will need to navigate to the MainMenu.lua file, open it with a text editor (like TextWrangler) and comment out line 33.

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/sid meier's civilization v/assets/UI/FrontEnd/MainMenu.lua

Assuming you use Steam

The line is:

Controls.ModsButton:SetHide( true );

To comment it out simply add two hyphens like this:

-- Controls.ModsButton:SetHide( true );

This should re-enable the Mods button on the Main Menu.

Some mods work and some do not, it seems rather hit or miss. If you have a xxxx.Civ5Mod file use something like Ez7z to expand the file which will create a folder that you can then put in your MODS folder which should be similar to this: (Depending on which version of Civil you have)

~/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/MODS/ or ~/Documents/Aspyr/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/MODS/ depending on whether you have changed the setting to use the Library instead of Documents.

NOTE: If you are running OS 10.7 (Lion) then Users/<your_name>/Library/ is hidden in Finder. Hold the Alt key down and select the Finder's Go menu. You will see Library as one of the options in that menu.

NOTE 2: Currently, every time you download a new patch for the game it overwrites your MainMenu.lua back to default so you will have to comment out line 33 again.

Answer 2

I was having trouble since I had G&K but I solved it.

I had to update a MainMenu.lua file in a different location than the one given above. Try to one at Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/sid meier civilization v/Civilization V : Gods & Kings/Contents/Home/assets/DLC/Expansion/UI/FrontEnd/MainMenu.lua

When you get to the application Civilization V : Gods & Kings, you still have to right click on it and then go to "Show Package Contents" to get the "Contents" folder.

Once you get to the MainMenu.lua file, follow the directions on editing the it and you should be good to go. I'm on Mountain Lion 10.8.1

Answer 3

Alright, I had trouble with this one but I think I just blew the lid off it.

In Mac OS Lion when you go to the ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/sid meier's civilization v/ folder there's no "assets" folder. All that appears is Civilization.app. You need to right click on Civilization.app and in that menu hit "show package contents"

You'll then see the application folder's parts. Then follow this path:

Contents/Home/Assets/UI/FrontEnd/MainMenu.lua

Then edit the MainMenu.lua file as instructed above and you should be good to go!