DotP 2015 Announced

[thefiremind]

Hello gentlemen !
As everyone already noticed, MTG 2015's files are encrypted in .ZED format so i wonder if someone is working on decryption now and is this possible at all ? If i understood correctly this thing might have a password protection which might be hidden somewhere in EXE (or somewhere), does anyone have any info on this so far ?

As far as my knowledge goes, they encrypted DATA_000.ZED and left the other 2 ZED files unencrypted. Unfortunately, I have no clue about how to even attempt to decrypt it (not to mention we would probably need an updated DLL for signature check disabling). I'm afraid the only one here who would be able to do something is Rick, but he said he will probably work on it next month.

[yaizkazani]

So it seems that we have to wait a little and hope that we wont have to spend money to unlock cards and feed greedy devs.

PS i wonder what will happen if we'll replace original files with files from a person who have unlocked all cards ? ( i bet there is some checks, but we should try, right ? )

[NEMESiS]

What are you guys using to open up ZED files? So we only need a "ZED Disabler" to add our own content unless we want to mod the original files correct? Either way, I noticed Avacyn was using Banishing Stroke and Entreat the Angels. May be we can use the frame this time around?

[thefiremind]

What are you guys using to open up ZED files?

A hex editor. If you open MOVIES_000 you'll find something intelligible at the beginning, that's not the case for DATA_000 hence why the hypothesis that it's encrypted.

So we only need a "ZED Disabler" to add our own content unless we want to mod the original files correct?

If we can't open DATA_000 we can't know (and mimic) the directory structure, the new XML format, etc...

I noticed Avacyn was using Banishing Stroke and Entreat the Angels. May be we can use the frame this time around?

The executable contains the terms ELDRAZI and MIRACLE close to each other, this makes me think it's the same as DotP2014 (only the miracle frame is recognized, as for Eldrazi it has always been a mystery since it was the default for colorless non-artifact cards already).

[NEMESiS]

Can you give me a link to the hex editor you use? I think it would be funny if they just put that file there so we would be chasing our tails while the real file is stored somewhere else.

[thefiremind]

Can you give me a link to the hex editor you use?

I use XVI32, but any one is fine.

I think it would be funny if they just put that file there so we would be chasing our tails while the real file is stored somewhere else.

And where would the cards be? In AUDIO_000? They don't care about us so much to put 320 MB of useless data in their game...

EDIT: One thing worth noticing: if I hex-edit the header inside MOVIES_000, the starting movies still play fine, as if I didn't change anything. Only if I hex-edit the "body" I can see what happens (the first "BIK" after the header is the header of the Alienware movie, if I change it to "AIK" the game freezes when it's time to play that movie). Does this mean that there's no signature check on MOVIES_000? No big deal since it's not even encrypted, but still...

[NEMESiS]

Can you give me a link to the hex editor you use?

I use XVI32, but any one is fine.

I think it would be funny if they just put that file there so we would be chasing our tails while the real file is stored somewhere else.

And where would the cards be? In AUDIO_000? They don't care about us so much to put 320 MB of useless data in their game...

EDIT: One thing worth noticing: if I hex-edit the header inside MOVIES_000, the starting movies still play fine, as if I didn't change anything. Only if I hex-edit the "body" I can see what happens (the first "BIK" after the header is the header of the Alienware movie, if I change it to "AIK" the game freezes when it's time to play that movie). Does this mean that there's no signature check on MOVIES_000? No big deal since it's not even encrypted, but still...

They cared enough to change the files and possibly encrypt them. When I get home I will take a look at the files see I can find. Thanks for the link.

[sweetLu]

I'm telling ya, they had to protect those microtransactions. The response on the official forums is astounding though. So much negativity. I wonder if any of this will actually reflect in sales or if they will make any changes next year.

[GrovyleXShinyCelebi]

Hey everyone, just got DOTP 2015. Noticed that the files are all in ZED format. Was worried this might happen given the fact that the game is more like Magic Online/an MMO this time around. At least we don't have to play it online-only, then there would be almost no hope for modding.

I wish I knew how to use a hex editor though, so I could help poke around a bit and hopefully stumble on a way to open the game data. It's alright, I can play the game normally until someone figures something out. No rush

[Randomage]

I know I won't buy a copy of 2015 for my GF, I was planning to play it with her, but 2014 it is for us. Jeez.

[RiiakShiNal]

I use a couple of different Hex editors, Hex Workshop (not free) & HxD (free). Another possibility for DATA_000.ZED is that it is compressed in some new way rather than encrypted. The reason I say this is that it is pretty pointless to compress Audio and Video since the codecs used to encode them already compress them (generally) so compression would not be of much if any benefit, but for text data it can be a huge space saver.

Though, I do think being encrypted is more likely than a new compression scheme. I haven't really had any time to play around with the files yet as I've been spending most of my time working (recently got a new job), but I'm going to try playing around with them some this weekend.

[NeoAnderson]

Hi guys, it's long time since my last post, i just take a look to the new files format, .zed extension, these files seems to be encrypted containers, i found some tools to read and create zed files. One of these tool is the follow one. https://www.zedencrypt.com/download

The main problem is about the encryption key, i think without understand which is that key these files cannot be decrypted.

[thefiremind]

Hi guys, it's long time since my last post, i just take a look to the new files format, .zed extension, these files seems to be encrypted containers, i found some tools to read and create zed files. One of these tool is the follow one. https://www.zedencrypt.com/download

The main problem is about the encryption key, i think without understand which is that key these files cannot be decrypted.

I don't think they used third-party software, and the reason is that I can't see any unusual DLL shipped with the game. Maybe NEMESiS is right saying that they are toying with us, and the ZED extension has that purpose?

[RiiakShiNal]

Hi guys, it's long time since my last post, i just take a look to the new files format, .zed extension, these files seems to be encrypted containers, i found some tools to read and create zed files. One of these tool is the follow one. https://www.zedencrypt.com/download

The main problem is about the encryption key, i think without understand which is that key these files cannot be decrypted.

I don't think they used third-party software, and the reason is that I can't see any unusual DLL shipped with the game. Maybe NEMESiS is right saying that they are toying with us, and the ZED extension has that purpose?

I am inclined to believe that the .zed extension is not related to the Zed! software as there is no dll for it and I doubt it was statically linked in (given the file sizes and most companies don't want to allow for that as it's slightly less advertising for them). Though someone could still try downloading the Zed! software and see if it will even read the file (may not allow access to what's in it, but should still be able to recognize and load it, if it is truly a Zed! container).

[sweetLu]

Spreading Seas is in the game this year so if we can mod it, it looks like we'll have some more card options this year. A lot of people are complaining about which lands the game chooses to auto-tap first. I can only guess that the changes they made to include dual lands and Spreading Seas messed up the auto-tap code.