Game Library .Dat Files

I put this question out to those of you who actually know something about programming.

As quite a few mods/expansions/patches use a .dat file in the Arcanum root folder rather than the module folder, because it's necessary for certain kinds of files and for files intended to affect the whole game, there are often conflicts between these game library type .dat files. Modders might include a .dat file for the root folder with an identical name as others, such as multiple users releasing an arcanum5.dat, or files in this directory might be overwritten by one another even if the names don't conflict, as entries from these game library .dat files are added to the TIG file in order, with the higher numbered files taking precedence. For example, a file from A:WIP might be overwritten in the TIG file by one from one of Drog's .dat files with a higher number, even though that file rroyo wrote might be necessary for his mod to work.

How difficult would it be to change the way Arcanum builds the TIG file (i.e. loads resources)? Or, barring a mod of the actual game itself, would it be difficult to make a file manager so that a user could pick to load the gamelib .dat files that go with a specific mod, or with an expansion/patch like rroyo's or Drog's?