*.ARE files started showing up in save folders

Giolon

I've noticed that my game save folders have started to be filled with various *.ARE files, e.g. ARE200.ARE, ARE3339.ARE, etc. I know that these are area files for the game engine, but why did they start showing up all of a sudden? I have been transferring my game saves between PC and iPad to play on both platforms at various times, and for a while PC was on 2011-2012 but the iPad was still on 2009. Would that have something to do with it?

Would there be any downside to deleting these files?

lunar

I noticed that Ipad saves have those files too. I think on ipad, game saves the areas you have visited seperately, and also I have seen store files, like highedge.sto. I transferred my save game from ipad to pc and that's how I noticed them. At that point, loading a game on ipad had started to take more than a few seconds, like ten seconds or such. I suspected all those files are the culprit so I deleted all area files in my save and transferred back to the ipad.

Nothing changed. Areas were still the same and loading times remained long. I think the main save files (.gam and .sav) are so big near the end of the game that it causes slower save/loads. Those area files are so small when compared and did not have any impact upon their removal. (Always store the originals save game, just in case)

Darkcloud

This might be a new system to allow updates to already visited areas.