I made this guide in order to make (hopefully) more easier the modding process for this fantastic game.

The update fixed a "bug" (well, technically it's not a bug) that it involved the middleware license which expired, thus preventing the game from running. Luckily IFFY fixed the issue quickly.
Along this fix though, IFFY changed the way the game handled its files. Instead of keeping everything unpacked in the good old fashioned folders (in which we could easily access the gamefiles), our beloved SH decided to compress everything in a proprietary .bra format.


As soon I noticed this I looked for a solution and thankfully the modding scene already worked with this format, so we have already the tool needed to read .bra files.


While we have the tool at hands to work with, it's not the most user friendly out of here, as it's a command line tool.

Although the tool has a basic GUI (Graphical User Interface), it is very limited, preventing the advanced features.



I am NOT in any way the maker of the tool we will use to unpack/repack the .bra archive, I just found them while looking for a way to access this format.

I also take no responsability for any issues that could arise, from using this tool to messing with the game files, you (the reader) are doing this on your own volition!

We need to download two files:

1) The QuickBMS generic files extractor and reimporter 0.8.0 (quickbms) which you can find here http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm ;

2) The script file needed for the tool, which you can find here http://aluigi.altervista.org/bms/coyote_console.bms .

For n°2, simply copy the script and paste it into a .txt, save and rename the txt into .bms

...or download both files from here: http://www111.zippyshare.com/v/DHkZqWxN/file.html

As I explained earlier, you can either use the GUI, which will make things easier and starighforward, but you will be forced to extract EVERY SINGLE FILE from the .bra of your choice (don't be fooled by the .bra size, the "Sound" one took me over 20 minutes in order to extract every single file inside of it), while with the command line method you can list, look at the files, filter them and extract only those you want to work with, making both unpacking and repacking WAY MORE FASTER.


First, let's start with the "easier" method:


1) Click on quickbms.exe (or quickbms_4gb_files.exe, but this shouldn't be needed in FFF:ADF case, since no .bra file is over 4gb) and select the "Script.bms file"




2) Select the .bra file you want to extract (I just copied the bra files inside the tool folder)




3) Make a new folder in which you will save the extracted files




4) The tool will start extracting them




and will ask to press enter upon finishing the extraction process, closing right after.

As you can see in my example, I have fully extracted the Game.bra content



Now feel free to mod the gamefiles at your heart content.



After you did so, DELETE the unmodified/unneded/untouched files (see my screenshot in which I removed the unneeded files)



Click on reimport.bat, select the Script.bms, the .bra file (in my case it's Game.bra) and the folder containing the files you edited




and let the tool make its repacking work.

That's all for the "easier" method! I tried to make it as simple as possible even with lame screenshots, I hope they will be useful for the "not so" power users.

Now I'll explain how to list, filter, and extract only the files you are interest in. This makes unpacking and repacking way faster than the first method, but requires a bit of command line work.


if you don't know how to use the cmd command, simply hold the shift button on your keyboard and right click on the tool's main folder, then select "open comand window" (or something like that)





Now you have two options: either continue following my tutorial, or read the quickbms.txt which lists EVERY available action you can execute with this tool (something i highly recommend to do anyway).

In my example I will still use the Game.bra file.

First, let's check all the files inside the Game.bra file, in order to do so let's type this inside the command window:

quickbms -l Script.bms Game.bra (where game.bra is the .bra of your choice)



Let's break down the command we gave to the tool:

"quickbms" because we are calling the executable;

with "-l" we asked the tool to list all the files inside the .bra;

with "Script.bms" we asked the tool to open the Script file;

with "Game.bra" (and/or the bra you are interested in) we asked the tool to open that file in which the tool will look into and lists us the files inside of it.

If done correctly, you should have a pretty big list of files inside the command window, like this






Now, let's say that we want only to extract and edit the .dds file. We will type this inside the tool:


quickbms -f *.dds* Script.bms Game.bra Game




The program will ask you to make a new folder, simply type Y and press enter.

Let's break again the command we have given to the to the tool:

"quickbms" because we are calling the executable;

with "-f" and *.xxx* (where .xxx is the extension file you are interested into) we re telling the program to extract all the files with a (in my case) .dds extension;

again, with "Script.bms" we are calling the script file;

...again, with "Game.bra (where game.bra is the .bra file you are interested into) we are calling the Game.bra file

with "Game" we are telling the tool to make a new folder in which it will extract the files (you can use whatever name, I use the same as the .bra for consistency purposes.

As you can see, the tool extracted only fhe files with the specified extension (.dds in my case)



The repacking process is the same as the "Easy" method, so just follow that one.

Well, this should cover the most important aspects of the unpacking/repacking process, I hope this guide will be of help for someone and that my bad english won't stop you for reading further (also, feel free to tell me any typo/grammar errors or whatever is useful for improving it) :) .

With that said, happy modding! \o/