TUT Gamesaves as Customization Templates

[Trasd]

Gamesaves as Customization Templates A Game Guardian Tutorial

Summary The goal of this tutorial is to equip the average Android user with the skills necessary to customize their own games without the need to completely understand the complexities of the underlying processes. By utilizing existing Gamesaves as templates, you can avoid the time consuming and often difficult legwork of tracking down the data values you wish to modify. With the technique introduced in this tutorial, only a single properly setup saved game should be all that is needed to allow individual game customization by everyone. Unfortunately, this process will not work for all games. The main requirement for this system is that the game should be able to load different saved files without having to exit. Audience This tutorial is written for people who are not happy with the choices made in current Gamesaves and want to do their own customizations, but lack the necessary knowledge. Also, unlike Gamesaves, in many cases existing games can be modified without having to start over. Lets face it, hacking an app's data, especially if you know nothing about memory management or program execution, can be a daunting task. Gamesaves creators can also benefit from this system. Most of the time, only one saved game per app should be all that is needed. The key to creating a saved game that will work with this system is to change as much pertinent data as possible with greatly modified values. Exclusion Though I enumerate the common method used to locate data, this tutorial does not specifically cover Game Guardian's basic features. Before attempting, you should be at least somewhat familiar with the app. You can either check these forums or search the WEB to find any number of excellent Game Guardian tutorials. Motivation Having enjoyed "Aralon: Sword and Shadow" immensely, I couldn't wait to get my hands on "Ravensword2: Shadowlands." I never liked hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers (I prefer adventuring), and since most Android RPGs are just that, I make up for it by slightly increasing my stats. This way fighting can still be a challenge, but it doesn't dominate my game play. As there are no Ravensword Gamesaves customized the way I like and I didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to hack its values from scratch, I came up with a way to exploit existing Gamesaves (or I merely stumbled upon a standard Game Guardian feature not documented anywhere I've looked). Disclaimer Though I am finally learning to program Android, I am far from an expert. If anyone with more knowledge finds a technical mistake, please let me know so I can make the correction - I promise, you won't hurt my feelings. Procedure Game Used for Example: Ravensword2: Shadowlands Game Version: 1.26 Game Guardian Version: 6.0.4 Game Values Modified: Gold, Attribute Points, Talent Points Note: I am using harryk's Ravensword Gamesaves for this tutorial - thanks harryk! I also did some research on these values and discovered all three are 4 bytes.

1. Download and setup harryk's Gamesaves according to the directions
2. Run and setup Game Guardian for your system (for this example, make sure 'More Regions' is selected in 'Set Search Range')
3. Run Ravensword2: Shadowlands
4. Load the first of harrk's 3 minute saved games (it should have the following values: Gold 35000, Stat Points 3000, Talent Points 49)
5. Open Game Guardian by selecting its icon overlay
6. Set the Search Size to 4bytes and search for 35000 (the saved games modded gold amount)
7. Return to the game
8. Find or spend some gold
9. Note your new gold amount, then open Game Guardian's interface again and search for the new gold value
10. Repeat steps 7, 8 and 9, if needed, until you find the game's single 4 byte gold address
11. In Game Guardian's search results, tap the gold value data entry (mine displays a single location)
12. In the Save dialog box, enter 'Gold' for 'Name'
13. Select 'Yes'
14. You can confirm you labeled the address location by selecting the disk icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface, if you want (if you do, make sure you return to Game Guardian's Search Screen by selecting the magnifying glass icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface)
15. Select and confirm 'Clear' in Game Guardian
16. Before leaving Game Guardian, search for 3000 (the saved game's Attribute Points)
17. Return to the game
18. Spend an Attribute Point
19. Note your new Attribute Point value, then reopen Game Guardian's user interface and search for this value (mine took only one search to locate the address)
20. Repeat steps 17, 18 and 19, if needed, until you find the game's single 4 byte Attribute Point address
21. In Game Guardian's search results, tap the Attribute Point's data entry (again, mine displays a single location)
22. In the Save dialog box, enter 'Attribute' for 'Name'
23. Select 'Yes'
24. You can confirm you labeled the address location by selecting the disk icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface, if you want (if you do, make sure you return to Game Guardian's Search Screen by selecting the magnifying glass icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface)
25. Select and confirm 'Clear' in Game Guardian
26. Before leaving Game Guardian, search for 49 (the saved game's Talent Points)
27. Return to the game
28. Spend a Talent Point
29. Note your new Talent Point value, then reopen Game Guardian's user interface and search for this value (mine took only one search to locate the address)
30. Repeat steps 27, 28 and 29, if needed, until you find the game's single 4 byte Talent Point address
31. In Game Guardian's search results, tap the Talent Point's address (again, mine displays a single location)
32. In the Save dialog box, enter 'Talent' for 'Name'
33. Select 'Yes'
34. You can confirm you labeled the address location by selecting the disk icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface, if you want (if you do, make sure you return to Game Guardian's Search Screen by selecting the magnifying glass icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface)
35. Select and confirm 'Clear' in Game Guardian
36. Return to the game
37. Without saving the current game, return to its Main Menu
38. Open your saved game you want to modify (or start a new one, but if you start a new one, I recommend you work past the tutorial)
39. Open Game Guardian by selecting its icon overlay
40. Select the Address Save screen by tapping the disk icon at the top of game Guardian's user interface
41. To change the amount of gold for your game, tap the address location you named 'Gold' then change 'Number' in the Edit dialog box to your desired value
42. Select 'Save'
43. To change the number of Attribute Points for your game, tap the address location you named 'Attribute' then change 'Number' in the Edit dialog box to your desired value
44. Select 'Save'
45. To change the number of Talent Points for your game, tap the address location you named 'Talent' then change 'Number' in the Edit dialog box to your desired value
46. Select 'Save'

Explanation So, what just happened? Though, like I stated earlier, I am not an Android expert, I have worked with PCs for more than 30 years. From the PC's memory management point of view (others with more Android knowledge may need to correct this assumption), we know that once a program is loaded into memory and its addresses "fixed up," they don't change (in most cases - this is an over-simplified explanation). As long as we don't exit the app once we locate the data addresses we want to modify, we can easily load other data and customize their value based on the already known locations. Using modified Gamesaves (this is why saves game creators should change data using greatly modified values), it is much easier to isolate and label data addresses. When we load a different saved game, we can use our labels to change the values at the addresses previously identified. Basically, we are using Gamesaves as templates to label memory addresses that do not change just because we load a different data file. This technique should work for any app that saves its data in an external file that can be loaded without exiting the program. Generic Game Used for Example: Any Game Guardian Version: 6.0.4 Note: This is a generic enumeration of the specific procedure above.

1. Download and setup a modified Gamesaves for the game you want to customize
2. Run and setup Game Guardian for your system and game
3. Run your game
4. Load a modified saved game
5. Find, in game, and note the value you want to modify (the value should have been modified by the saved game to make it easier to locate)
6. Open Game Guardian by selecting its icon overlay
7. Search for the value you noted and want to modify
8. Return to the game
9. Alter the value you searched for in the previous steps, in-game
10. Note your new value, then open Game Guardian's interface again and search for the new value
11. Repeat steps 8, 9 and 10, if needed, until you find the modified value
12. In Game Guardian's search results, tap the value data entry you located
13. In the Save dialog box, enter something memorable for 'Name'
14. Select 'Yes'
15. You can confirm you labeled the address location by selecting the disk icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface, if you want (if you do, make sure you return to Game Guardian's Search Screen by selecting the magnifying glass icon at the top of Game Guardian's interface)
16. Select and confirm 'Clear' in Game Guardian
17. If you need to locate and name more data addresses, repeat steps 5 through 16 for each
18. Return to the game
19. Without saving the current game, return to its Main Menu
20. Open the saved game you want to modify
21. Open Game Guardian by selecting its icon overlay
22. Select the Address Save screen by tapping the disk icon at the top of game Guardian's user interface
23. To customize one of the values you identified previously, tap its named entry
24. Change 'Number' in the Edit dialog box to your desired value
25. Select 'Save'
26. Do the same for any remaining values you want to modify

Gamesaves As I alluded to earlier, when creating a saved game, I recommend you change as much pertinent data as possible with greatly modified values. For this system to work, users must be able to use the saved game's values to easily and uniquely identify the location of each number they want to modify. In other words, Gamesaves made for this technique will be used as a template, not as a playable saved game. I would also recommend a list of the modified values be given along with as much useful information as possible, like the data byte size. This information can be entered into the post introducing the save (along with the normal game hack information). For example: Value Modified: Gold Set to: 35000 Data Size: 4 bytes Value Modified: Attribute Points Set to: 3000 Data Size: 4 bytes If you want one of harryk's saved game's included inventory items, but still want to customize values to your liking, then you can use this same procedure, except you will have to use one of the included Gamesaves and edit its values. Whether or not you can edit inventory items for other games will depend on that game's save game format and your skill level. I was looking at a technique to edit Ravensword's main character appearance, but I'm not sure it is worth the effort. I think I'll leave that as a project for someone else. Restrictions If you find this tutorial usefully, please link to it, print it, and even reference it in other tutorials, but I must insist the text not be modified in any way and most importantly, it not be reproduced on any other WEB site (if you find any errors, please PM me and I will see to the corrections). Game Guardian is a free, wonderful, useful program, therefore d2dyno (the author) should reap any and all benefits of the traffic, if any, this tutorial may generate. Good luck! Please show your support by liking this post! Copyright© 2013 Trasd