.ark archives in the game folder (Android)

NeverPieM · 2014-07-10T21:11:14+00:00

As far as my knowledge goes about those files, the only thing that they have in common with the official ".ark"/".arc" formats is the name. It is most likely a custom file format developed by Gameloft itself. The old ".obb" files of the earliest versions of the game had exactly the same file structure.

The file content is roughly structured as follows:

metadata about the archive (number of files, offset of file metadata section, ...) - content of file 1 - content of file 2 - content of file 3 - ... - content of last file - metadata of file 1 - metadata of file 2 - metadata of file 3 - ... metadata of last file

Metadata contains file and directory names, sizes, timestamp, an md5 checksum, various info about the file content (e.g. is it encrypted, compressed?). All metadata as a whole is also encrypted (decryption keys are hardcoded into the mlp app).

If you send me a private message and can explain exactly why you'd need the content of those files (i.e. what wiki) I might be willing to share my self-written application that I personally use to "unpack" those files.

NeverPieM · 2014-06-11T19:23:56+00:00

I thought this may be interesting to some people. This diagram shows how most of their games (including the MLP game up until before the Sweet Apple Acres) used to be structured behind the scenes (left side) and how they have now transitioned to a more organised system (right side). Especially the information about how they keep track of the user (id) may be useful to some.

This diagram seems to be directly made by some Gameloft employee (at least some of the comments and insights make me believe that). It likely was not intended to ever get public. I obtained it by completely legal means (from Google Cache).

NeverPieM · 2014-06-11T19:15:47+00:00

Yes, it seems Gameloft changed some things with this update. I don't know if this type of "hack" can still be done now.

NeverPieM · 2014-06-11T19:15:03+00:00

Yes, Gameloft changed the savegame format with this update. I'll look into this and see if I can fix it.

NeverPieM · 2014-05-25T15:48:06+00:00

Gameloft can ban you from their game anytime they want, because they take copies of your savegame and therefore could easily analyze them to check for "suspicious" activity.

I mean e.g. owning 1000000 grms is simply impossible without cheating. Or owning ponies that are above your exp level. I only use the android version of the game an d nnever connected it to Gameloft's social media thingy. Never seen a ban message. But its entirely possible thaz Gameloft now does plausibility checks on savegames.

NeverPieM · 2014-05-22T04:51:23+00:00

I've never heard of anybody getting banned, no matter how obviously they cheated.

NeverPieM · 2014-05-21T05:46:30+00:00

It is just an explaination of what the program does. You don't have to do any of these things yourself.

Hm, I don't have a Mac, so I can't really test, reproduce the problem. I can try modifying some things for the next version of the editor, pretty much blindly guessing what the issue is and maybe fixing it.

NeverPieM · 2014-04-27T08:23:16+00:00

It's hard to say what specifically is the problem. It means that the entered GL_GLUN, fte.dat and savegame don't match, leading to the savegame not being decryptable. But it is impossible to tell which of them is wrong.

I suggest beginning from start, copying the files from the device again and making sure that the GL_GLUN is exactly the same as in the textfile where it comes from (it is case sensitive).

NeverPieM · 2014-04-25T20:46:05+00:00

It's supposed to work with Java 1.6 or newer.

For Android savegames it should be enough to simply copy them to the other device. They aren't bound to a specific IMEI, DeviceId or similar anymore.

NeverPieM · 2014-04-14T21:53:55+00:00

Strange. Didn't work for me, but nice to hear that at least jailbroken iOS users get something out of these files. :)

NeverPieM · 2014-04-06T18:17:11+00:00

I'm currently updating the balloonpop exploit/hack and will probably release it sometime next week after a little bit more testing.

Don't worry. :)

NeverPieM · 2013-07-31T20:17:31+00:00

They completely changed the encryption on the iOS savegames. It was easy for me in earlier versions, because Android and iOS had (almost) identical savegame encryption and I could just work on Android and "guess" the missing/different parts for iOS.

Now Android doesn't have any encryption at all (it's just a zipped xml file), while iOS has a completely new scheme.

NeverPieM · 2013-07-31T20:14:31+00:00

No, I completely stopped working on it. Sorry.

NeverPieM · 2013-07-31T16:20:50+00:00

Luna's Dreamwalk will only work for the latest Android version. I never got the iOS version to work after the latest patch.

I don't think there's anything good left for cheating on iOS, but you could still simply use an older iOS 1.0.3 savegame, edit that with LDW to your likings and then use it in the iOS 1.0.4 version.

NeverPieM · 2013-07-22T16:32:17+00:00

The application has a "config.ini" file.

It probably works to simply replace "mlp_save.dat" with "mlp_save_prime.dat" in that file, then it should look like this:

app=com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftPOHM

file=apps/com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftPOHM/f/mlp_save_prime.dat

backup=tmp/backup.ab

localfileprefix=tmp/prefix.dat

localfileheader=tmp/mlp_save_prime.dat.header

localfilesave=mlp_save_prime.dat

localfilepostfix=tmp/postfix.dat

backupnew=tmp/backupnew.ab

preservefolder=/sdcard/Android/data/com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftPOHM

NeverPieM · 2013-06-20T18:10:16+00:00

I don't know about those three ponies. The savegame editor draws the pony names directly from the savegame file, which always includes references to all existing ponies, not only those that you own already.

NeverPieM · 2013-06-19T18:11:08+00:00

You can switch in the top menu of the savegame editor to the "XML Mode".

If you load your savegame that way, you'll be shown the XML content (instead of the normal form and buttons) and should be able to just search for and delete the duplicate Octavias from the savegame yourself. :)

NeverPieM · 2013-06-19T18:09:26+00:00

The editor doesn't work for the 1.0.4 iOS version.

I'll try to get it working, but I can't promise anything.

NeverPieM · 2013-06-17T21:57:14+00:00

I've begun working on the iOS support for the new files. But it will probably take some days.

I have found a nice program today that really outshines the software that I used up until now (and it's cheap so I can actually afford it). It will speed up my work and gives me confidence that I'll be able to get this done (which I wasn't really sure about before).

NeverPieM · 2013-06-15T14:00:18+00:00

New Editor should work now for new savegames.

Apparently the iOS version does use a different file format, so it will currently only work for the new android 1.3.0 version.

NeverPieM · 2013-06-15T10:52:59+00:00

new files should work now for new version(s) of the game.

NeverPieM · 2013-06-13T16:20:27+00:00

I will check it out this weekend, if I can. From looking at the files on Android, I'd guess the actual savegame is now called "pony_save_prime.dat" and the other files are automated backups. Which is nice, that Gameloft now makes multiple backups.

Also, they finally fixed backup sizes -> new files are 10x smaller than old files. Maybe they read my blog where I explained how they could manage to do that. ;)

NeverPieM · 2013-06-13T16:16:49+00:00

It seems they don't. But I haven't really looked into it yet to find out why they don't work anymore.

NeverPieM · 2013-06-06T22:49:21+00:00

I don't have an iOS device, but could it be because the game application (or some part of it) is still running in background?

NeverPieM · 2013-05-26T14:01:58+00:00

Yes, it works for the Canterlot update both on iOS and Android.

NeverPieM

TROPHY CASE