Managing save data

So I've been making games for a long time but only recently have I come close to completing one. With that came something I'm not too familiar with - Save data.

Back when I used MMF, arrays were the answer. Seemed simple enough. Collect item, set x,y on the array to a value, then save and load as needed. So I did that, and It worked like a charm..for the first 20 some things I wanted to record. Now it's getting cumbersome. My game has items, item locations, player location, area names, player stats, bosses killed/remaining, and a few other things that all need to be recorded. All of which I must memorize or write down the cell coordinates to.

It's practical considering the small scale of my game, but what happens when I want to make an RPG or something? The amount of data that must be saved for a game like that is just too much to manually code, especially when each cell is referred to as x,y,z.

I suppose INI files would make this a bit easier..but it's essentially the same thing, am I wrong? Also, unless you find a way to encrypt the INI file anyone can open it up and change what they will, provided the group or w/e is already there.

I would just use the built in Save function, but then I feel limited by using it, and it messes with some of the plugins I use.

So yeah. Your thoughts? How do you save your games?

Yeah array is best for saving coordinates IMHO, and ini is probably best for organizing strings, and stats. As far as encryption, or anti hacking goes... ehh the more the merrier.

I mean if its worth hacking then that's a good sign that its worth playing.

But if you have to there's a few ways to slow them down at least. If you have a server you could have the game save its data to the server. You could also come up with your own encryption. There's probably a few mods for Python that could help for both of those.

What would be nice is if someone came up with an encryption plug.

The "Superarray plugin" 'S' makes it possible to just save an array to a binary decrypted format.