I have tried to make CivHack as intuitive as possible, and this is aided by a familiar Gadtools GUI. An explanation of how to make selections and work the interface are unnecessary (yes!).

Loading the program
This is simply a matter of double-clicking on the CivHack icon. CivHack may also be started from a CLI by typing:

cd {dirname}
(Run) CivHack
Where {dirname} is the name of the directory where CivHack can be found.
When launched from Workbench, you have the added option of adjusting the tooltypes. Currently, 2 different tooltypes are supported:

SAVEPATH : This is the path that, by default, CivHack will look in for your saved games. It is not necessary to use quote marks, even if the path has spaces in it.

FONT : This is the font that will be used to render all text in the GUI. You should give the name of the font file and not the size at it will be automatically scaled to 8 points. Eg:

FONT=ibm.font
FONT=newtopaz.font
FONT=futurac.font
These tooltypes will have been set to the choices you made during installation.

Upon loading, you will be presented with the GUI.The GUI upon loading The next thing you will need to do is load in a saved game.

Loading a saved game.
To load a saved game, simply click on the "Load" button in the bottom right corner of the window. An ASL file requester will open, at the path specified in the SAVEPATH tooltype and will only show files that match the pattern #?.sve. Civilization saved game files are named "CIVIL#.sve" where the # represents a save slot, from 0 to 9.
Select a file and click the OK button. The game will be loaded into memory and the GUI updated. All versions of Civilization games are supported, including the recently released CivAGA and CivECS on CD, and previous versions. I am not sure about save files from the PC version.

Altering leader names, dates and treasuries
Once updated, the gadgets in the window will have filled with information about the various civilisations in the game.Once a game is loaded, the GUI will look something like this
Each row of gadgets represents information for one civilisation and each column shows data about the civilisation. From left to right, the columns are:

The contents of all gadgets may be changed so to change the name of the leader of the Romans, simply locate the Romam leader and type a new name in the box. The same goes for the treasuries.
The year gadget shows the current game date and can also be changed - useful if you are in a space race and the game is about to end. Specifying a negative date will result in a BC year (Eg: 1804=1804 AD, -300 = 300 BC)
Perhaps the most interseting value to change is the value in the "Your Civ" box. This number corresponds to the civilisation number in the leftmost column and represents the civilisation that you control. In the shown GUI, I control Civ nmuber 5 - you can see my name in the leader box. Changing this number allows you to take control of ANY of the other civilisations present in the game. This opens up new ways of playing the game, my favourite is to build up a strong, large empire, save the game and loade in to CivHack. There, I change the year to 0 AD and take control of the weakest civilisation. Upon reloading, I try to topple my old civilisation which is now being run by the computer. It is a great way of rejuventating old saved games.
It is important to note that Civilization only allows a maximum of 30000 for the treasury a civilisation. This is a restriction in the file structure, not of CivHack. If you enter a larger number, it will be reduced to the maximum upon saving.

The changes that you will find most useful are year changing and treasury changing (good for boosting your performance AND hindering your enemies) as these have an effect on the way the game plays. The other changes are cosmetic, but can provide amusement.

Renaming a Civilisation
You will notice there is not a string gadget containing the civilisation names. This is because there is not one string, but two for each civilisation - a noun and an adjective. Those of you with dodgy grammar need not be afraid, all will be explained.

Clicking on the button labelled "Rename Civ" in a civilisation's row will open up a small window with two string inputs and two buttons. The buttons, "Okay" and "Cancel", are to keep and forget changes made respectively.
The Civilisation Rename window The two string gadgets are for the noun and adjective, both are labelled. The noun is the name of the civilisation, used in sentences such as "Empire of the Romans" and "A. Furmanski, leader of the Romans" - here Romans is the noun. Adjectives are descriptors and are used by the game in phrases like "Roman Trireme" and "Roman empire" - here Roman is an adjective.
For some civilisations, the noun and the adjective are the same - French and French, German and German, Chinese and Chinese. In most cases, the noun will be simply the plural of the adjective. Here are some examples:
Noun Adjective
Romans Roman
French French
Greeks Greek
Americans American
Some custom civilisations may be
Scottish/Scotts Scottish
Welsh Welsh
Craps Crap
Amigas Amigan
Foreigners Foreign

If you are unsure, plug the noun and adjective into the following sentence. If it the grammar is good, then the words are okay.
"I am the ruler of the {noun} and I am sailing in my {adjective} trireme."

Saving to the same slot
To save all changes to the same save slot as was loaded from, simply click on the "Save" button in the main GUI. THIS WILL OVERWRITE THE OLD SAVE SLOT AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET BACK THE OLD SETTINGS. A requester will pop up, warning you you of this. Clicking on "Overwrite" will overwrite the old saved game.
Until you are confident with using CivHack, and the effect changes can have, I recommend you either save to a new slot or backup the old save file. I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOST DATA THAT ARISES FROM THE USE OR MISUSE OF CIVHACK.

Saving to a new save slot
This feature allows you to save to a save game slot other than the one you loaded from. This adds security as there is no chance of you overwriting the old saved game. To save to a new slot, click the "Save As" button.
Once selected, an ASL path requester will open at the path you loaded from. You should then select the path that you want to save to. NOTE: CIVHACK ALLOWS YOU TO SAVE TO AND LOAD FROM ANY LOCATION ON ANY DISK. CIVILIZATION ON ALLOWS SAVED GAME FILES TO BE KEPT IN THE ROOT OF A DISK. With this in mind, it is very highly recommended that you save to the root of a device ("Devicename:" with no path after the colon) or else Civilization will not be able to find your game.
Selecting which slot to save to
A small window will open containing a slider gadget and two buttons. Use the slider to select a slot number, from 0 to 9 and click "Okay" to save or "Cancel" to abort the save.
Each .sve file has a .map file associated with it (CIVIL1.sve and CIVIL1.map). Each saved game comprises of both these files and, for it to work, Civilization must also be able to locate the .map file in the same location as the .sve file. CIVHACK WILL NOT SAVE A .SVE FILE IF IT CANNOT COPY THE .MAP FILE FROM THE ORIGINAL SLOT. For example: if you load CIVIL0.sve and want to save to CIVIL3.sve, CivHack must also be able to copy CIVIL0.map to CIVIL3.map else it will fail. You will be informed of this, should it occur. (This requester has only been known to appear when the .sve files were moved from one device to another without the .map files.) CivHack does not save without the .map because without it, the save game will not work.
A requester will also appear should you choose a save slot which is already occupied. You will be given the option of overwriting the slot or cancelling the save.

Quitting CivHack
When you have decided you have finished cheating, click the "Quit" button in the main GUI to leave the program. You will be warned that all changes will be lost and given a chance to change your mind.

That concludes the in-depth control functions of CivHack. Now follows a brief step-by-step guide to using CivHack.

  • 1. Load CivHack
  • 2. Load a saved game
  • 3. Make changes - treasury, leaders, year, your civ and civ names
  • 4. Save changes:
    • a) Choose "Save" to overwrite old file
    • b) Choose "Save as" to save to a new slot
      • i. Choose path to save to
      • ii. Choose slot number
      • iii. Click "Okay"
  • 5. Reload save file into Civilization
  • 6. Enjoy the benfits!

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