SEIV on Steam: where should I place mods?

[Dogboy]

I bought my son a copy of SEIV for a game I'm setting up with friends. I bought it through steam, and we cannot find the se4.exe file. The se4 icon just activates steam. This is not true of my computer, where my steam-bought SEIV just installed a directory with the se4.exe file.

Has anyone had this problem? Where should I put mod folders? We're planning to play Atrocites' Star Trek Mod.

Thanks!

[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!

[Dogboy]

I just figured Mods out. Fairly easy.

The SEIV Delux version from Steam has many mods in the Extras subdirectory, including the PvK_Balance_Mod that I'd like to use.

Unzip PvK_Balance_Mod into the se4 subdirectory and change the path.txt file as instructed in the readme.txt, namely replacing:

Using Mod Directory := None

with:

Using Mod Directory := PvK_Balance

Now, run the .exe from the se4 subdirectory. There is no indication that the mod has been used, e.g., on the splash screen. But, points for racial traits have changed -- e.g., Deeply Religious has increased in cost to 2000 race points.