Firstly to the complete novice I will explain the whole process from what you need to what you do with it.
To the established modders out there, if you are extracting these .scs files by dragging and dropping the .scs file onto the extractor then read on because this guide will help you extract quicker and more efficiently by only having to double click an icon, no copy and pasting, no drag and dropping and no creating new folders each time an updated patch comes out.
Step 1: Download the scs_extractor or as SCS now call it "THE GAME ARCHIVE EXTRACTOR" from the official scs website > http://www.eurotrucksimulator2.com/mod_tools.php
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(note: this is not to be confused with the scs_unlocker that is designed to open locked mods, this only unlocks the base game.scs and def.scs archives)
Step 2: Extract the downloaded scs_extractor.zip with either Winzip, Winrar or 7zip
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Step 3: move the scs_extractor.exe to your Euro truck sim main program folder
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Now, the location of this folder will vary depending on a few factors from O.S. to how you purchased the game, and also personal setups can differ (as does mine) I will list a few common ones below..
CD-Rom or downloaded from SCS, this is known generally as the "Retail" version but can also be called "Direct download" or "Box" versions, pretty self explanatory really.
Windows O.S.
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C:\Program Files\Euro Truck Simulator 2
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C:\Program Files (x86)\Euro Truck Simulator 2
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C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\Common\Euro Truck Simulator 2
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C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\Common\Euro Truck Simulator 2
Ok so now we have the scs_extractor.exe in the right folder, and it will work completely fine from there, it's just that if you dragged either the base.scs or the def.scs onto it now then you'd end up with a very messy, cluttered and confusing Euro Truck Simulator 2 folder and seeing as it is the main game directory that wouldn't be very good and could cause problems when deleting or moving things as you may inadvertently delete or move the wrong thing and break your game.
So lets get onto making it an efficient process, ok established modders you can wake up and pay attention now, MinecraftMarioGuy53! put your phone away and listen!
Firstly create a folder wherever you wish the base and def to be extracted too, this could be anywhere you like, even on another internal HDD or SSD if you have one, that part is up to you and down to personal preference just make a note of the file path (left click on the header address bar of your created folder and copy the address as text to your clipboard, I'd advise opening a notepad document and pasting it there for use in a bit)
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Now go back into your Euro Truck Simulator 2 folder and right click and drag the scs_extractor.exe and click "create shortcuts here" repeat this again so that you now have the scs_extractor.exe and also two shortcuts in your Euro Truck Simulator 2 folder.
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Rename the first shortcut BASE_EXTRACTOR or something easily recognizable to you (I call mine €_BASE_EXTRACTOR because it then presents itself at the top of the list in the folder due to it being higher placed than alphabetically or numerically named files, and well it's a Euro innit)
Rename the second shortcut DEF_EXTRACTOR (or €_DEF_EXTRACTOR if you like)
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Ok now we need to right click on the first shortcut and add some information to the Target field.
For the sake of my example and to keep it simple I am going to say that my Euro Truck Simulator 2 folder is located in C:\Program Files\Euro Truck Simulator 2 and that my folder that I created earlier (as explained above) is located in My Documents folder and named "Extracted ETS2" - C:\Users\Reef\Documents\Extracted ETS2 also within that Extracted ETS2 folder I will have a further two folders, one named base and the other named def.
Right then, right click on the first shortcut (BASE_EXTRACTOR) and click "properties" and in the Target field you will need to add the following paying close attention to spaces and speech marks ( " )
To better explain what we enter into the Target field I will split it into it's three basic parts, remember that each part will need to be separated by a space (in other words a space either side of the middle part)
The first part is the folder address of where you have Euro Truck Sim and also the extactor.exe
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"C:\Program Files\Euro Truck Simulator 2\scs_extractor.exe"
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base.scs
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"C:\Users\<your user name>\Documents\Extracted ETS2\base"
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"C:\Program Files\Euro Truck Simulator 2\scs_extractor.exe" base.scs "C:\Users\<your user name>\Documents\Extracted ETS2\base"
Ok then click apply and then repeat the above steps on the second shortcut only this time where you see the word "base" replace it with the word "def"
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"C:\Program Files\Euro Truck Simulator 2\scs_extractor.exe" def.scs "C:\Users\<your user name>\Documents\Extracted ETS2\def"
click apply for that one and then that's it, you're done.
Now every time the game has an updated patch just go to the Euro Truck Simulator 2 folder and double click each of the shortcuts, just be sure to either move, rename or delete the previous extracted files from your Extracted ETS2 folder first.
Thanks for reading, I hope it makes sense to you and I hope it's of help to some of you too, any errors then let me know and I'll edit it.
Any questions or comments then feel free to ask below.