Just an idea I had when writing the docs for mods and patches to make installation easier.
Similar to the way we handle our savegames, it would be nice if you could provide zipped mods and patches. Based on Marzo's keyring mod and the zip it is downloadable. Keep the same structure, read the cfg from the zip, and have Exult make the necesary directories to store the quicksave and savegames.
For example
path to backgate\mods\
keyring.zip
\keyring
\keyring\saves
keyring\gamedat
If it needs changes, allow a keyring.cfg to overrule the one in the zip.
Maybe have the zip have a another file ending name, e.g. keyring.mod or so. Still keep the support for unzipped mods.
Same for patches, just that you don't need to overrule anything.