I've had trouble e-mailing it to you so I've posted it here.
When you create your account, here's the example mod i made for you.
i don't know much, but what i do know is pretty much in it.

Okay. Seems to work, I'll mess with it later to see if changes reflect or not.

Which files are essential to keep the accessories.xml file functional? I will be working with the default as a base (as in, I don't want the apoc GUI/HUD).

No problem, that's what i made it for.
there are still some apoc files floating around in the hud, but those should be the only ones. (Special thanks to the APOC creator and contributors)

backup the accessories.xml file before you change it.

some "weapons" in accessories are needed for other weapons to work (such as muzzle flash). also, some weapons are needed for the bot weapon sets in TankAIs.xml and TankAIWeaponSets.xml . So be sure to double check those files and see if you're renaming or removing one that they are trying to buy/use.

you can change their weapons, you just can't delete or rename them unless you edit the bot files. ( tankaiweaonsets.xml is an include file for tankais.xml )

try a file search for all files in the /example directory that contain the word "example". it does not seem to be a word that's used in the other mods or in the xml tags so you should be able to tell what is necessary for your mod name to load properly.

later on i might hit models since i have 2 versions of 3DS Max (3.1 and 7) so maybe later on we can collaborate on something.

_________
CLUCK!

ps: thanks to whoever gave me the UNCOOKED rank. I love it!

I still don't get it. And I've worked with this sort of thing for at least 15 years.

As a test, I replaced the accessories.xml file you provided with the default one. It causes zero effect. Makes me suspect that there's some sort of cache going on preventing the loading of changed/new files. I'm running Win XP/SP2, is the Windows build broken in some way?

not that I am aware of.

No the file reading is very basic, and not cached in any large ways.
The mods are only stored in 2 locations.
The install-path's \scorched3d\data\globalmods\
and the usermods in C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\.scorched3d\mods

If you are only changing small pieces at a time, then create a new
mod-folder for them. The game reads what is new, and fills in the
blanks with the default.
ftp://advguild.myftp.org/DATA/Scorched-v41/template.rar
A blank mod in it's own folder will give you a place to start, adding
in and changing what you choose.

It's own modinfo file and target-practice loader will help make
sure you are loading the changes, not calling back to the main
mod all the time.

he tried importing the s3m before going to the zip and just placing that in the globalmods.

could the s3m be over-riding the ziped directory?

That's a thought - perhaps I'll try a clean install, then run your example from the zip again. I bet you may be right on that. It's just frustrating, you know? I have a lot of programming experience...when I can get past this, I should be good to go. I'll post here sometime...today, I guess, since it's 1 AM EST/6 AM GMT. No time to check it now, though.

Yes. It's possibly a good idea to check the usermods folders for old files,
S3m imports are placed there.

While S3m's are the official transport package for scorched3d, they
aren't used due to simple lack of understanding. Untill this last
version v42, not many even knew the they existed.
the Mod-Archives are stored as RAR at the moment simply
because it was smaller and more familiar to the public.
I did have them stored as S3m's before that, but kept getting
messeges almost daily.. asking what type of winzip extractor
opened s3m files...

besides the fact that s3m used to be a music file type used by Screamtracker....