Installation guide; Divide et Impera for Mac OS

[Chim]

Dear fellow Mac users,

As modification fans, you must have stumbled on this article on the installation of mods for the Mac version of Rome 2.
If you follow this guide step by step your attempt at making DeI (Divide et Impera) or any mod work for you will fail!

This is how it's done:

Step one; Follow the official guide (Guide link)
The guide itself isn't necessarily wrong but the writer did omit an important detail. You will need to add the word 'mod' in front of the .pack text string in your user.script file mentioned in the guide highlighted above. As such:
mod _divide_et_impera_release_1.pack;
mod _divide_et_impera_release_2.pack;

Step two: Change DeI's .pack files to executables
Open Finder, find the applications folder en the utilities subfolder within. Now open Terminal from within that subfolder.

With Terminal open, type: chmod +x with a space at the end. Do NOT press enter yet.
Drag one of the DeI.pack files (from the Rome 2 data folder if you followed step one properly) into terminal and hit enter. You should see that the icon of the .pack file has changed into an .exec icon in the data folder.

Repeat this step for the other DeI.pack file.

Step three: Launch the game, enjoy the mod
Launch the game through Steam and enjoy the mod. (DeI has it's own homescreen in the game. When you do not see this homescreen, do not panic! You should be able to select DeI as a homescreen at the bottom right by clicking the arrows until it appears.)

Good luck!

[Delicate Strawberry]

Out of curiosity, why do you need to use Terminal? I've been getting mods to work with just the script. Does it do anything different?

[Chim]

For some reason my Macbook Air recognised the .pack files as documents. Just changing the user.script.txt did not work for me. I had to get my laptop to recognise them as executables before the mod appeared to work ingame.

I also believe that some other mods are already recognised as executable .pack files, hence they do work by just adding them to the .txt file.

[Delicate Strawberry]

Do the scripts work for you? Like the reforms and supply system? They don't for me, and maybe your method would fix that.

Edit: Even the grand campaign?

[Chim]

I am yet to try the mod itself! :O Was busy writing this guide and now my stomach craves for breakfast.

[Delicate Strawberry]

Haha, very valid reasons. I look forward to your results.

[Chim]

You can imagine my frustration finding out I cannot start a grand campaign...

[Delicate Strawberry]

Been there. There must be some way to work it out. At least I'm not the only one. The mini campaigns are very playable, but there is the odd random thing that doesn't make sense, such as sea sickness not going away, or being told I need supplies despite the supply system not being there...

[Chim]

Do other mods with custom scripts work for you? It could be that there's some sort of miscommunication between the added scripts and the vanilla scripts. (Or some sort of miscommunication altogether where the mod cannot access all of the base game files or mechanics?)

I will try adding the base .pack strings to my user.script.txt Do they start with something else in the windows version of the game instead of 'mod'?

[Delicate Strawberry]

I think they have before, I'm trying to remember what I've used before. I'm pretty sure they did work though.

No idea, I've never fully worked it out. It seems to be pretty random for me if certain mods work. I've noticed with the steamworkshop downloader, it's pretty random if those work. Sometimes mods work after numerous attempts at starting them, it's strange.

[Chim]

Adding all the base .packs to the script didn't result in anything palpable unfortunately. I have never modded the Total War games after Medieval 2, I have therefore no knowledge on how scripts and files are interwoven. In Medieval 2 the position of the loading bar where it crashes says something about the category that makes it crash.

Maybe I can find a way to turn on error logging for Rome 2.

[Delicate Strawberry]

I tried to disable the scripts altogether, but I'm not sure I did it right, and it crashed completely. It's such an odd issue, why does nothing else get affected?

[Chim]

The older version of DEI does work for me apparently. Meaning that I can launch a grand campaign. Could it be that the new supply system for instance makes use of a specific windows type scripting tool? (Python, framework?)

Perhaps our salvation lies in installing mac versions of such software?

[Delicate Strawberry]

Possibly. My campaigns worked before the reform script was fixed in 1.05, and to be honest I actually hadn't noticed it was missing because I was playing as Egypt, but when it was added it stopped working. It could be a combination of both, but some other scripting seems to work, like the actual pop ups for the supply system, which is strange.

[Massicio2]

FYI, you don't need to make the pack files executable using terminal. Ive even taken a mod that was for someone reason downloaded as an .exe even after unarchiving and simply removed the .exe to be a .pack file and it worked.

[Chim]

I have tried many things today but I am afraid I lack the knowledge to find a true fix. I hope someone more knowledgable takes up our cause.

[Massicio2]

Most likely they'll have to find a work around or rescripted with a different, ubiquitous, program. In the meantime I wonder if they may try to remove one of the features to try and achieve a playable campaign and then further try and find ways to isolate and resolve the incompatibility.

[Delicate Strawberry]

Hey guys, check the update 1.1b fix, and see what happens, I got the grand campaign to start twice out of three attempts. Worth a look.

[Dresden]

If someone could give this a try and let me know if it helps on Mac at all:

Open part 2 of the mod (if you have the TWC standalone). Delete the vfx folder and try loading a grand campaign. Then, delete the terrain folder and try loading it.

[Delicate Strawberry]

I couldn't manage to get anything working to open the files, dunno why. Has anyone else managed?