Question about making a save file unreadable for players

Faurax (33)
Hi, I am building a text-based console game with Dev c++ v. 4.9.9.2.
So far, everything goes well. It saves the game in several save files
for each character (maximum 6 save slots) But when I open the save
files, it's just raw text and number data. Is there a simple way to
make it more unreadable for a normal person. I don't care about
hackers or cheaters but I don't wan it to be too easy to cheat.
Especially not with the standard notepad that comes with windows.

Here´s the codes I use to save and load the save files.

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#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>      // needed for writing or reading to a file (save/load game)

#include "StatusBuffer.h" // external linkage to all strings and integers to
                          // interact with the save files.

using namespace std;


To load the files, I use this lines lines of code:

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// Load the full game file "SaveGame.save"
int GameLoad ()
{
ifstream infile;

   // determines what file to interact with, depending on the saveChoice from Login.cpp
   infile.open(saveChoice.c_str());

if (infile.is_open())
{

// imports file lines to integers and temporaly strings

string NoUse;

/* 001 */  	   getline(infile, name);
/* 002 */  	   getline(infile, swordname);

/* 003 */  	   getline(infile, NoUse); infile >> moneycurrent;

/* 005 */  	   getline(infile, chaptercleard);

/* 006 */  	   getline(infile, NoUse); infile >> healthmax;
/* 007 */  	   getline(infile, NoUse); infile >> manamax;
/* 008 */  	   getline(infile, NoUse); infile >> staminamax;

}
else {cout << "SaveGame() can't open file";}
   infile.close();
}


And to save the files I use these lines of code:

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// Saves the full game file "SaveGame.save"
int GameSave ()
{
ofstream outfile;

   // determines what file to interact with, depending on the saveChoice from Login.cpp
   outfile.open(saveChoice.c_str());

if (outfile.is_open())
{
/* 001 */  	   outfile << name << "\n";
/* 002 */  	   outfile << swordname << "\n";

/* 003 */  	   outfile << moneycurrent << "\n";

/* 005 */  	   outfile << chaptercleard << "\n";

/* 006 */  	   outfile << healthmax << "\n";
/* 007 */  	   outfile << manamax << "\n";
/* 008 */  	   outfile << staminamax << "\n";

}
else {cout << "SaveGame() can't open file";}
//   outfile.close();  // Close the file
}


The number of strings and integers to save and load is: 65 but I dont see the idé of writing them all here when the actual codes around the values looks the same.
Last edited on
anonymous23323124 (1383)
You could encrypt the file. There's a tutorial on XOR encryption on this site:
http://cplusplus.com/forum/articles/38516/
Faurax (33)
I´m looking in to this right now and trying to understand how it works.
Faurax (33)
It all works fine now, thank you all for the answers!
Last edited on
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