I'm afraid I can't comment too specifically on your second paragraph, seeing how I owe it to a rather helpful friend who gave me some good hints to this game, but suffice it to say, you'll need to revise your battle strategy if you've been standing your ground and slugging away at the opponents up till then -- the opponents are indeed meant to be significantly tougher, to the point where brute-force levelling won't actually cut it. the 25-gem seed thing may be a hack, or it may be an older version of this game -- if you read around on this thread, you'll find that the developers of Pocket Army are VERY active and responsive, and always finetuning the game, fixing bugs, and generally being helpful with players encountering trouble (right down to fixing individual savefiles where there are issues). Their responsiveness to suggestions causes the gaming mechanics to change very quickly, because they're always trying to balance the difficulty and challenge according to user feedback (sounds like I just spouted a whole paragraph of advertising, but I speak the truth -- really >___>). ---- As for the Game Center leaderboard thing, here's what I understand: Game Center is a database offered by Apple which automatically sources some number or statistic on your local savefile as a "score", and then uploads it to the leaderboard. The database appears particularly resilient letting high scores be overwritten, unless it's with a higher number -- I've never seen someone's all-time leaderboard score drop. IAP hacking involves making the game think you're making real purchases. Thus, while it's modifying the local savefile, it's doing it through what the game thinks is "normal" (just that the developers are getting no money). This is different from directly rewriting the savefile with a hex editor or something -- doing that can let you input impossibly high statistics that the game won't let you normally access (e.g. hitting Level 255 when the game normally stops you from levelling once you hit Level 100 via exp gain -- or a high score that exceeds the normal number of points available for you to get during normal gameplay). Basically, you just need to trick the game into uploading some sort of number onto the leaderboards -- if you're actually modifying the savefile directly rather than using an IAP cracker to trick the game into thinking you're making actual purchases, then I think changing your score would be relatively easy (because by the time you're directly modifying the local savefile, you already know how to tweak the in-game numbers). There's little that developers can do once hacked scores have been put on Game Center -- from what I've previously read, they'll need Apple to change the leaderboards directly, because developers don't have that sort of access to the leaderboards given that it's Apple's database. ---- TL/DR: think about it -- IAP hacking requires interfering with and tricking the AppStore, a system which actually checks for your monetary credentials. Game Center most likely just sources a number from your local savefile, no passwords or extra security involved on Apple's end -- the latter sounds much easier circumvent from a technical perspective, rather than to construct an IAP cracking program that bypasses the password/credentials check.
Thanks for your idea. We have found the way to fix this bug, But I don't know why it still occurs in this version. We are fixing it again now.
Don't worry, DBC. I will try to punish the hackers not only for you, but also for the real PA gamers. I'm sorry for this inconvenience. >""<
I'm a little shocked that someone with the gaming credentials you list could (and frankly would) post the above. I wrote an actual response, but the above-bolded is so ignorant (in the literal sense) that I'm just going to leave it at that. If my tone sounds angry, I am. Developers like PE (and many, MANY other quality dev teams) have been dealing with this hacking crap for as long as the App Store has existed, and your insulting tone is not appreciated, especially based on such a woefully uninformed view of the issue coming from someone with the credentials you list. Try to help, or don't, but get informed either way. As for the strategy piece, undead.exe graciously covered that, so I'll leave it there. Peace, DBC
You're doing the best you can, along with many, many other developers facing the same BS issues. The Arena is great! BTW, your continued anti-hacking efforts seem to be paying off, I'll PM you when I get a minute... DBC
Wow, who took a pee in your morning coffee? Take a chill pill man. I'm just saying that so many other game developers somehow manage to keep their games secure. I payed shat loads of money for gems, all to find out that it wont get me further then top 350-ish on the top list. I spoke to my good friend and programmer about this issue and he claims that he could easy fix and patch this security issue, and from what I understand this hack has been possible ever since PA was released. So tell me, do YOU think it's responsible to leave this security issue unfixed for so long in a real-world-money game?
Reading above indicates that they're already looking at the issue, and from their past track record with responding to user feedback, I think it's unlikely that Andre and his team haven't been tracking this issue for some time. If the fix is supposed to be quite easy, might I suggest getting the basic gist of the solution from your friend and sending it to Andre? There are a few key assumptions you and I differ on, and one of them is how easily the issue should be fixed. The leaderboards are determined by your EXP, and as I mentioned above, I think that should be an easy figure to mess with once you get deep enough into the save file itself (think Action Replay, or other game cheating devices). Anyway, here's where I think we'll have to agree to disagree: on the basis that Andre's track record supports the notion that they've been dealing with this issue for some time, we don't think it's remotely fair to label the Pocket Army team as irresponsible. I don't believe in other games being kept secure so much as other games not drawing the attention of leaderboard hackers, and your assertion that it's irresponsible to leave the issue unfixed for so long assumes that it's as easily fixed as your friend suggests (a view which I do not agree with given Andre's struggles with the fix and my aforementioned hypotheses across my last two posts). Again, feel free to disagree -- I'm well aware you operate under different assumptions to my own, and I have no intention of disrespecting that. Like DBC, however, I'm of the same view that it's unfair to call Pocket Army's developers irresponsible.
Have I mentioned lately how much more patient and gracious you are than I? Gotta love the internet, right? DBC
So, I spoke to my friend on skype tonight. He says that he need an actual peek at the code to advice such a patch. But he also said something along with: “They probably store game data and stats in a cache or a temp file which isn’t removed when the game sessions is closed, if the file is left on the file system it would be easy to manipulate the cache file to contain whatever stats you like. If this is the issue then there’s features included in Apples SDK that avoids this problem all together” That’s roughly the solution. I am not a programmer, I just look at all the other iOS games which does not have this problem. Off course I am angry, I am a premium paying customer, If I knew this security issue existed I would have never bought gems. If the developer is having problem securing their product perhaps they should consult someone that knows how to fix it, just to get it done fast. Oh and also, now there have started to pop up level 200 players in game center. *yawn* Anyhow, I appreciate the time you took to write such extensive posts, compared to that other douchie CryingBoyRoy or whatever his face is. The game developer should hire you as their spokes person, because you do it well. PS, I finished campaign 190 and killed the end boss a few hours ago
How far are people making it in the Arena? I messed around and went to Wave 23 or 24, mostly to see what I could do without troops or potions, and I'm wondering if I've got the time to finish it... or is it endless? BTW, apologies for not accepting invites atm... I've got well over 200 friends, so I'm full up for the time being... DBC
Huh. I wonder if you face a boss every 20 Waves? Thanks for the info. It looks like this will be another task I put off until graduation... As for your achievement question, I'm hoping someone better informed can confirm or correct my impression, but I'm not entirely sure you can see them anywhere. IAH, it's one thing I wish would have made it into the game by now, unless they're there and I just haven't found them... GC has the level thing (obviously), but I have yet to find the in-game achievements listed. Maybe it's something those of us who enjoy the game can suggest to Andre and the crew? I don't know how hard it is to transfer the information, but the achievements are already there in-game, soooo... Anyone else got better info than I? DBC
The Arena is endless. And you can meet Abaddon on wave 20, if you try the best, you will meet Lucifer on wave 40.
I like this game, but do not think the damage distribution is fair later on in the game. I am on Campaign 170 and it is one of the Dark haired demons. I can throw all my skills at it, including Ultimate revenge, and it barely damages him, yet he throws it once and i die if i am not on 100% full health ? I already used the Cloud felix, and even after i killed his army, it is him me and all my remaining fully upgraded Samurai, i just can't kill him - I have the Inferno sword , armor and shield and bought a lot of seeds (HP,Def and ATK), so there is something not balanced correctly here. Despite this all, still love the game
I was all prepared to have to start again from the beginning as I played this for ages on my iPod touch a few months ago but then I got an ipad and didn't want to start all over again, until today I thought what the hell I might as well start over so I re downloaded the game and ping! To my surprise my stats and everything is already there.
This is a great game, nice job! The only thing I don't really like is the difference in boss dificulty. I could pretty much just stand in front of Abbadon the whole battle, but if I so choose, I can just dodge his every attack. Lucifer, on the other hand, I can only defeat when I burn through like 10+ potions. Any friends I bring in are dead in 1-2 hits. The best solution I can think of for this would be to either make Abbadon tougher(faster or stronger attacks), make Lucifer weaker(slower or weaker attacks), or make a new boss somewhere between them. Of course, the game would be fine without the changes; like I said it's a great game already.
Andre U And your Team did a Great Job with adding the Arena I Love your Game again! The New quests are Perfect And keep me motivate to Play your Game das After Day! Thx so much for doing such a gret game, which I Love Since the First day
