If you want to mod on the game, the best is to work with the svn version, so you always have the latest files (and you can notify us when something is going wrong with your mod). Here's the process to get the SVN version http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/TortoiseSVN_Guide After that, creating a civ requires two main steps. One is modelling, texturing and animating new units and buildings. That requires that you know your way around with blender. Once you're able to make textured blender models, you can probably ask help of an artist to get it exported to the game. The third main thing is that you need a template for each unit with their gameplay values (armour, health, attack strength, speed, size ...). That's all told how to do more or less in the wiki. If you find out something new that could be handy for a newbie modding, you're also welcome to add it to the wiki. But as it's such a big task, if you really want an original civ (with original buildings and units), you probably need to be part of a team.