01-29-2019, 08:33 PM
Ok so this is my theory on why this type of file might have been used.
I assume that early in development they had some sort of directory tree with all of the assets to make development easier, and whenever they wanted to load these assets they would use file paths as reference. The framework of the fossil fighters game engine ended up not getting built properly to utilize a standard compressed asset archive and instead relied on plain files. When it came time to build the final game it was too big to fit on a nds flash cart because they had not been utilizing a compressed archive. In an attempt to fit the game onto the flash cart they threw all the file binaries into a archive and compressed them as much as they possibly could. I think the reason there is so many pointers and file paths inside is because on boot up the game reassembles arc files back into the original structure including folders and file names and then mounts the reassembled folder. Arc is a very unique type of archive because it appears to be a heavily-compressed archive of an entire directory, rather than your standard form of compressed archive. The reason why this file structure does not reappear in champions or frontier is because it is only there in the first place due to lazy game structure mistakes that were likely learned from after the first game.
I assume that early in development they had some sort of directory tree with all of the assets to make development easier, and whenever they wanted to load these assets they would use file paths as reference. The framework of the fossil fighters game engine ended up not getting built properly to utilize a standard compressed asset archive and instead relied on plain files. When it came time to build the final game it was too big to fit on a nds flash cart because they had not been utilizing a compressed archive. In an attempt to fit the game onto the flash cart they threw all the file binaries into a archive and compressed them as much as they possibly could. I think the reason there is so many pointers and file paths inside is because on boot up the game reassembles arc files back into the original structure including folders and file names and then mounts the reassembled folder. Arc is a very unique type of archive because it appears to be a heavily-compressed archive of an entire directory, rather than your standard form of compressed archive. The reason why this file structure does not reappear in champions or frontier is because it is only there in the first place due to lazy game structure mistakes that were likely learned from after the first game.