Mods:Tips And Tricks
From Civilization V Wiki
The approach to modding in Civilization 5 is considerably different than in Civilization 4 and as such there are common mistakes made when getting started with modding. Here are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind when getting started with your mods.
Common Mistakes
Do NOT add, replace, or delete any file that is directly in the Civilization 5 game folder! This will cause many issues relating to game crashes, multiplayer and even Steam Updates. Steam will periodically update the game and may or may not know which files have been modified locally. All mods are located in "<My Documents>/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization V/MODS/". These files will not be touched by Steam and using the built-in package management system will ensure that your game runs smoothly in multiplayer and in regular single player games.
Do NOT name your files the same name as a file that exists in the Civ5 game folder! There is currently a limitation in ModBuddy in which it will treat all files as "import=true". What this means is that any files that are named the same will REPLACE the files that are in the game folder while the mod is activated. If, for example, you wanted to only add a single civilization and your xml file was named "Civ5Civilizations.xml", bad things will happen. A future update of ModBuddy will ensure that "import=false" by default.
"Civ5DebugDatabase.db" is your friend! While developing and testing your mod, frequently browse the contents of "Civ5DebugDatabase.db". This will give you an exact representation of all of the game infos with the current mods activated. This is very quick way of answering questions such as "Was my civ really added? Did this city state truly get deleted?" etc.
Viewing the Debug Database
The moment mods are activated in game, a dump of the current game database is stored in Civ5DebugDatabase.db. This is extremely useful when determining if your game rules were actually applied and answering questions such as "Was my civ really added? Was this city state truly deleted?".
The first thing you're going to need is an application to view this data. The SQLite Manager addon for Firefox is highly recommended. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5817
Once installed, you can open SQLite Manager by opening Firefox and going to Tools->SQLite Manager.
This is where the fun begins! At the top menu in the application, go to Database->Connect Database
Navigate to <My Documents>/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/cache/. Now, making sure that the file type drop down is set to "All Files", select CIV5CoreDatabase.db
Have fun! As a precaution, any files in the cache folder are subject to getting deleted and replaced while the game is being run so if you wish to make data changes, do so in the respective XML or SQL files and not directly in this file.
The most important piece of advice
Last but certainly not least, the most important thing to keep in mind when modding is to *be extensible*! Think about how your mod will be used in conjunction with other mods. Think about ways in which you can alter your rules and code in such a way that plays nicely with other mods. The mix-and-match possibilities are endless!
