Civ5 Modding Tutorials

Getting started

Get a tour.

If you have no idea about modding and what are Lua and Xml, you should give a look at Civ5 Modding Explained.

Read the guide.

The best introduction to civ5 modding is still the Kael's Guide. However it was written a long time ago and some information is obsolete or missing.

Import your files into VFS.

The main change since Kael wrote his guide is about the VFS (Virtual File System). Forgetting to import files into the VFS is the common source of problems for beginners.

Get the right tools for the job.

See Civ5 Useful Programs. You should have installed the SDK of course, but it is also strongly recommended that you get a tool to search in all civ5 files at once, to compensate for the lack of documentation. You may also need additional softwares to extract and read the textures, test and debug your mod, etc.

Modify your ini files.

See Debugging#Configuration.

Tutorials

See also the Modding tutorials section on the forums.
Also note that the XML and Lua sections each contain specific tutorials, articles and extensive documentation.

General

• Modding Limits and Issues
• Create and use DDS textures
• Adding custom data and using them in Lua
• Localization Syntax
• Localization Tutorial
• Debugging

Common tasks

• New Leaders (2D images)
• New Resources
• New Resources (with 3D textures)
• New Buildings
• New Specialists
• New Units

Specific topics

• Converting civ4 units for civ5: 1. importing the mesh and creating the unit
• Converting civ4 units for civ5: 2. using civ5 animations
• Importing civ5 units into Blender
• Civilization-specific techs
• Culture buildings - vanilla and G&K cross compatibility
• Adding a City State
• Text icons and markups
• VFS