Long War for Mac OS/X - pointers / advice?

[Hinmaton]

Thanks, Dubious, but this game came from the App Store, not Steam.

[dubiousintent]

Thanks, Dubious, but this game came from the App Store, not Steam.

The "AppStore" is the retailer. "Steam" is a DRM distribution agent (which also happens to have a retail division). Firaxis is the publisher. They chose to distribute the actual XCOM game content through Steam, for all the various retail versions we know of. Even when you buy it on a CD, you still have to download the content from Steam. Not to say it's impossible that Apple came to some other arrangement with Firaxis, but if so your only remedy is to get help with that from the AppStore. But since I know that someone else got an AppStore version working with LW, I'm reasonably sure somewhere along the line either Steam is involved with the Mac version as well, or the actual distribution mechanism doesn't matter as long as you "disable phone home" and stay "offline". But as we are hampered by very little technical feedback on all the various Mac retail versions, such assumptions are based upon supposition, which is very shaky ground to be sure.

 

At some point you have to decide if you are willing to put the time into educating yourself just to play the game, or move on to another one. That is a personal decision with no "right" or "wrong" answer. It's just an unfortunate fact of life that modding XCOM is a LOT more difficult than any of us are happy about. All we can do is offer advice from lessons learned and the encouragement that it has been done.

 

-Dubious-

Edited January 4, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Mehdi00]

Hi Hinmaton,

 

I have the same problem : unable to install LW on a Mac/Feral version.

 

Did you try to do the changes manually (adding new files, replacing files, deleting files, ...)?

Edited January 7, 2016 by Mehdi00

[MCarraway]

Hey Guys,

I am trying to install an XCOM:EU version of LW, but so far I only found the EW or Windows versions in the files section. Is there a dedicated mac version anyone knows about or can I install in manually with the Long War EU Files?

[wghost81]

XCOM:EU version of LW doesn't support mac/linux game versions. But you can try installing it manually, using LW:EW install script as a reference.

Edited January 23, 2016 by wghost81

[kiman9414]

Im trying to install the long war mod version 1.0 after playing through beta 15 and i've run into a problem where the game keeps failing to find default engine .ini file. The message specifically says:

 

Message

 

Failed to find default engine .ini file to retrieve My Documents subdirectory to use. Force quitting.

 

 

I'm on a mac book pro 10.11.6 El Capitan. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Also, i've been running through the usual install procedure where i change the install-LW-OSX.sh file into a .command file and running it through the terminal system to get it to install on the mac.

Edited November 18, 2016 by kiman9414

[dubiousintent]

First of all, we only sporadically get any Mac experts showing up here. (I'm not one.) The install of LW on a Mac is based upon the Linux install. Everything assumes it is running under Linux rather than Windows.

 

What we have on OS/X installation (El Capitan is OS/X) is in the "Basic Guide to installing mods" article beginning here. That section has a folder tree which shows you where to find the DGC.INI file.

 

The LW installer is a "bash script", so it should not be renamed to a ".command" extension (that I know of) unless you have that extension recognized by bash. Just run it "as is" in the terminal, though you may need to make the edits to it shown in the "Basic guide" first.

 

-Dubious-

[eleve2]

It's been a while...please excuse my bad memory :)

 

Is this the Steam version or the one via the App Store?

 

As I remember, the installation went better when I ran it as sudo. There was a directory the install script had problems with installing new/deleting old files...again, as I remember and it's been a while.

 

Depending on the game version (Steam or App Store) you might have to change the default directories in "install-LW-OSX.sh" so that everything is installed at the right place.

[jasonb0rne]

I have run into a reoccurring problem over and over again. For some reason I keep getting this message from the terminal for installing long war on my mac

Can not find game files. Please specify xew dir location

I have looked in every Read me document and have tried every location, but it doesn't seam to find the xcom: enemy within director for some reason. The game is installed on a flash drive due to space and i'm wondering if that is the main problem. I did how ever input the correct location of the game on my flash drive in the terminal. Also when you say vanilla XEW can that include other DLC from steam or do you have to un-install them before hand.

Any help would be appreciated Thanks

[dubiousintent]

First of all, neither I nor the LW team are Mac users. So we can only guess based upon Linux functionality, which is what underlies OS/X. As a consequence you are going to have to understand any differences between the Mac tools and their Linux equivalents. We don't know them, but some have been mentioned back though this thread, by other Mac users working through the same issues. We do know that where you obtained the game (the retailer) makes a difference, so start by identifying that information: Apple "App Store", gamersgate.co.uk, Steam, etc..

 

Not knowing the extent of your understanding of how OS/X (Linux) works, the following assumes you have little to none.

 

First you are going to have to firmly identify just where your EU files are stored. (See the "Mac OSX offset differences" section of the "Basic Guide to installing mods" article for an example.) For this you will need to be able explore the file structure.

 

The most common mistake people make is pointing the installer to the EW folder (which is a "XEW" subfolder of the EU folder), whereas the install instructions tell you to point to where the XEW folder is found: meaning to the EU folder itself. The script knows that normally the XEW subfolder is found under the folder where the EU game resides. However, we have learned that depending upon the retailer where you obtained the Mac version of the game, those assumptions and paths (folder names) can vary. Where those assumptions are false, you have to understand how they are different and make the adjustment to the script.

 

Second, because you have the game installed to a "secondary drive", you are already further violating those assumptions and will have to understand and edit the install script to tell it the "paths" are on that device. Linux doesn't use "drive letters" like Windows. It use "devices and partitions" instead. The "device name" for each depends upon which type of device it is: IDE, SCSI, IDE Tape, etc (usually as the first two characters of the device name, with the third character identifying the specific device of that type in order, and a partition number on that device in the fourth position). These are usually "mounted" (logically connected) under the "/dev" folder and have names like "/dev/hda1" and "/dev/hdb1" (two "first" partitions on IDE (hard drive) devices "a" & "b". You can use the "df" command to list them and the available space on each. You will have to learn this on your own. There is no simple way around that, but there is plenty of information available online.

 

Even once you do this, we have no reports on how effective using a flash drive for this game will be, but the speeds available below USB 3.0 are significantly slower than most hard drives, which will likely show up as "stuttering". (USB 3.0 speeds require 3.0 support on both ends, computer and storage device, and the proper cable. Even then it can be problematic with external devices.) Disk drive retrieval speed is considered a major bottleneck in game performance, which is why SSD drives are popular. My (expert) advice would be to move something else to the flash drive and put your game on disk.

 

The install script uses "~/" at the beginning of some paths. This is an "alias" for your "home" partition because Linux uses that for things particular to your account. That partition is by default on "/dev/hda", but it can be placed elsewhere by someone who knows what they are doing when they set up your system. You should not change those paths. From the "OS/X mod installation" section of the "Basic Guide to installing mods" article the pathing in the script either uses "~/" as the "prefix" starting point for the path or "/" which is the "root" of the current default device. and partition. YOU will have to change that "root prefix" to instead point to the device where your flash drive is mounted. Typically that will need to be something similar to "/dev/hdb1/Applications/XCOM Enemy Unknown - Elite Edition/Contents/Resources/Data/XEW", where "hdb1" is the device partition of your flash drive.

 

As to your final question about "other DLC": they are not a problem as (last I knew) there were none for EW (which is itself a DLC). The DLC for EU get installed under that games folder, and any for EW would be installed under the XEW folder. The point about "vanilla" refers to "without other unofficial mods not from Steam" because those technically modify the game executable and Steam will then regard the exe as "corrupt" and replace it. Long War itself is a major overhaul of the vanilla game, and similarly makes not attempt to work with other mods. Any LW specific mods have to be installed only after you have successfully confirmed the LW install is working correctly.

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 19, 2017 by dubiousintent