SEIV on Steam: where should I place mods?

[Alikiwi]

Gee surprised you didn't get an answer way back then! spaceempires.net has more info to say the least. Steam is a pain... Any Mod should be placed in the main SE IV folder and unzipped. They will create their own folders.

[Suicide Junkie]

More specifically:
Se4\data is where the stock data lives
Se4\ModName\data is where the data for the "modname" mod lives

Se4\savegame for the stock saved games
Se4\ModName\savegame for the mod saved games.

And so on...
When parts are missing from the mod folder, then SE4 uses the stock files and folders as a fallback; most mods don't change everything, so this saves hassle.

The only thing that should ever replace stock files is an official patch, or the imageModPacks, since they are designed to be 100% backwards compatible and do not invalidate savegames or change any mechanics.

[Ed Kolis]

I was having the same trouble installing mods in the Steam version of Civ4; I eventually found out that they had to go here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword

Naturally for SE4 then you would replace that last folder in the path with "Space Empires IV" or whatever Steam calls SE4, and if you're not running a 64 bit machine you don't need the (x86) bit after Program Files!