Numgun, you just asked everyone if they are too lazy to unzip a file.

As a modder, are you too lazy to rezip a folder?

edit stuff in-zip?

You'd just have an unzipped version that you would compress into the zip but still have it be there.
(What I mean is:
Folder A.rte is zipped into Folder A.zip.
Folder A.zip is created but Folder A.rte is still there, ready to be edited and re-compressed.)

Most of the games content is derived from third-party or module-ized media distributed through a series of compressed archives. Apparently there is a frequent occurrence of one decompressor being favored over the others by the game engine. Not only that, but the nature of extractable archives mean that certain file structures may or may not be obeyed once the content is extracted.

So here is my suggestion: Data should consider utilizing his RTE module system in ways other games and software handle compressed archives. Blizzard has the MPQ system, and I wlll use that one as an example. Look at any Blizzard game for Windows. Its content is hidden by something called an MPQ file.

This file is just a compressed archive like any other, except it is in a proprietary format. The game can read from this MPQ even when the files are compressed, it saves space (although honestly not an issue for CC), and allows modularization of content. I think this is an idea Data should consider implementing.

The primary reason for this is ease of use. I realize most of you say "Eric! All you have to do is decompress a file!" But how many threads have we seen on "omg cannot install mods?" I've seen enough since I've been here to think it is justified.

Another reason for this that has come to my attention during this writing is file security. Something that has always been a hot topic in this forum is copying, modifying, or changing other peoples source files and re-releasing derivative work. Allowing a content creator to leave their files compressed and utilize the security features of a compressed format permits people to license their work as they see fit--and be guaranteed that this license will likely be utilized.

Anyway, tl;dr Data should make a way for the engine to read compressed archives as RTE modules because it would be easier to use and provide file security.