Tahoe and NAM?

[arielle 0]

Hi... I ended up on here after starting to watching a Youtube tutorial that starts off with the guy saying to download the NAM mod. An hour later and I still have the youtube video paused lol. I just got the EA Play subscription a couple days ago. I also just got my mac last week lol. I don't know much about gaming and computers and all that... I've gone from website to website, started watching a different video lol, tried using ai for help, I've read a few different posts in here but am honestly still confused and also wondering if it's because I've updated my macbook to Tahoe?? 

tl; dr pertinent details
~macbook air, m1 and tahoe 26.0.1
~trying to download the NAM mod.... if i even need it?? it sounds like i do? 
~playing on Steam version, using EA play subscription

TY to anyone who is kind enough to offer me some help! 

[matias93 7,535]

Hi Arielle, welcome to Simtropolis!

Using mods for SimCity 4 is very recommendable, as they massively expand the game capabilities and depth, and some of them can directly be seen as necessary bugfixes for errors that couldn't be resolved by Maxis in the original releases.

Now, playing the game on macOS is, let's say complicated. The native port of the game, made by Aspyr, is quite buggy, for example crashing when more than a number of plugins are installed (this is fixable though, by merging plugins). And, more inconveniently, since Catalina, macOS blocks any form of code injection into applications, which means that no DLL mods are available to mac users, and those are some of the most important ones for bugfixing purposes. Your alternative, to resolve this issue, is to run the Windows version of the game in some form of virtualisation, either a virtual machine or a compatibility layer like Wine; for this latter option, which is much simpler than the VM, you can even find pre-made installers, like this one: https://www.portingkit.com/game/1491. If you don't want to make a redundant buy, here's a guide to configure your laptop to use Wine and run the game from any reseller: 

On the other hand, if you want to give it a try on the native macOS version of the game, the current NAM 49 should be fully able to install and run in your laptop, and as the installer is a Java executable, you shouldn't have the need to use something like File Juicer to extract the files from a Windows installer executable. You can download the NAM from https://www.sc4nam.com/download-the-NAM/.

Personally, and regardless of if you use the Aspyr macOS port or the Windows version over Wine, I think that, since you are just starting to experiment with modding this game, it would be a good idea to start by installing NAM Lite, which is a significantly reduced alternative installation with all of the bugfixes and just a few of the most essential addons included. Then, when you feel more confident and in control of the new elements, you can jump into the full installer, and even then, it will allow you to decide what components to install.

All that said, happy gaming, and just chime here if you have any other doubts!

[rsc204 21,806]

So before starting out, make sure you’ve the latest ‘Apple Silicon’ version, it’s an Opt-in Beta still on Steam:

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/763242-access-the-apple-silicon-update-for-steam-users/

Thereafter verify that SC4 is working fine before trying to install NAM.

The NAM installer uses Java, so as to retain compatibility for multiple OSes. But that also means you must have Java installed on your Mac or the installer won’t run. After that installation shouldn’t be terribly difficult, just select the options as required and install. Note that the Network Addon Mod folder should be installed in Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins, otherwise the game won’t see it when loading.

If part of this process is not working, please explain where it failed and any errors or behaviour that occurs. This would help us narrow down the problem.