Abandoned Sneak Peek - Surface Navigation

[Khelder]

Hold on here. You don't need data from the game client to pinpoint a location on a planet, all you really need is the coordinates of that location. Therefore, the coordinates of the ship when you land is all you'd need to place a marker that is no different to the way the planetary stations are marked. I understand that you can't record the current coordinates while you're flying since the numbers can change by hundreds every second. In this manner, you would have to physically visit a specific spot in order to mark it. If the coordinates of the ship when it is parked on the ground were stored in the netlog file, we wouldn't be having this conversation and we would be enjoying a very useful addon.

I'm getting a little confused.

If you're suggesting that all we need is to be able to read our parked location when we land, then the Journal already supplies that through with the "Touchdown" event:

{ "timestamp":"2016-07-22T10:38:46Z", "event":"Touchdown", "Latitude":63.468872, "Longitude":157.599380 }

The problem is, knowing the end location isn't navigation. That would be like suggesting we don't need a GPS in our car because we know the address of where we're going. A navigation system needs to direct you to that location and to do that it needs to know (at a reasonably steady rate) where you currently are in relation to the destination.

The Surface Navigation module uses constant positional updates to provide such guidance and mapping.

 

[Khelder]

We DO encourage community created content, but this content takes the form of artwork, fan group logos, gameplay vids, etc. These are fan-driven pieces that allow players to express themselves or their appreciation of the world they are creating for themselves within the galaxy. I don’t believe we ever expressed apps as being a piece of ‘content’...

Thank you for making that clear Frontier.​

 

[jgm]

Thank you for making that clear Frontier.​

May I ask who gave you that response?

 

[Tryst]

I'm getting a little confused.

If you're suggesting that all we need is to be able to read our parked location when we land, then the Journal already supplies that through with the "Touchdown" event:

{ "timestamp":"2016-07-22T10:38:46Z", "event":"Touchdown", "Latitude":63.468872, "Longitude":157.599380 }

The problem is, knowing the end location isn't navigation. That would be like suggesting we don't need a GPS in our car because we know the address of where we're going. A navigation system needs to direct you to that location and to do that it needs to know (at a reasonably steady rate) where you currently are in relation to the destination.

The Surface Navigation module uses constant positional updates to provide such guidance and mapping.

If you have a set location, surely that is a fixed point and can then be markered. If a small boat owner in the middle of the ocean sets off a smoke signal that can be seen from many miles away, the lifeboats don't need navigation aids to head for that smoke signal. the beacon tells you where to go, not the navigation. I can see a beacon for a planetary base and where it is long before any numbers appear on my HUD to give me the planetary coordinates. I can practically make out where it is on the planet by the position of the centre of the circle when the planet itself is little more than a few dots on the screen.

 

[Khelder]

May I ask who gave you that response?

Frontier Licensing

 

[Khelder]

If you have a set location, surely that is a fixed point and can then be markered. If a small boat owner in the middle of the ocean sets off a smoke signal that can be seen from many miles away, the lifeboats don't need navigation aids to head for that smoke signal. the beacon tells you where to go, not the navigation. I can see a beacon for a planetary base and where it is long before any numbers appear on my HUD to give me the planetary coordinates. I can practically make out where it is on the planet by the position of the centre of the circle when the planet itself is little more than a few dots on the screen.

If Frontier were to do it themselves, yes, I would see a marker as being similar to a planetary settlement. But we have no way of setting those for ourselves.

 

[Khelder]

This application is no longer under development. Thank you all who showed support.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

We DO encourage community created content, but this content takes the form of artwork, fan group logos, gameplay vids, etc. These are fan-driven pieces that allow players to express themselves or their appreciation of the world they are creating for themselves within the galaxy. I don’t believe we ever expressed apps as being a piece of ‘content’...

Thank you for making that clear Frontier.​

This application is no longer under development. Thank you all who showed support.

Well damn.

As someone who develops a 3rd party app, I think their attitude stinks, frankly.

Sad to see your app go the way of the dodo. It would have been awesome to use it.

Frankly, I think you've embarrassed FDEV with this app - showing what could be done in-game if they actually had any intention of spending time on exploration content rather than spending an entire season on how many different ways an explosion could happen. :/

Regards o7

 

[Alec Turner]

Just popping in here to pay my respects. This was a brilliant piece of work which should have been encouraged, nurtured and supported but alas (and somewhat predictably) appears to have been treated with disdain. I'm sorry that some of us predicted this would happen, it would have been nice to have been proved wrong.

o7

 

[Globusdiablo]

This application is no longer under development. Thank you all who showed support.

Cheer up, Khelder. You know what they say. Some things in life are bad,

Spoiler

They can really make you mad.
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle,
Don't grumble, give a whistle!
And this'll help things turn out for the best
And
Always look on the bright side of life!
Always look on the bright side of life
If life seems jolly rotten,
There's something you've forgotten!
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing,
When you're feeling in the dumps,
Don't be silly chumps,
Just purse your lips and whistle -- that's the thing!
And always look on the bright side of life
Come on!
Always look on the bright side of life
For life is quite absurd,
And death's the final word.
You must always face the curtain with a bow!
Forget about your sin -- give the audience a grin,
Enjoy it, it's the last chance anyhow!
So always look on the bright side of death!
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
Life's a piece of ,
When you look at it.
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true,
You'll see it's all a show,
Keep 'em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you!
And always look on the bright side of life

Always look on the bright side of life

Come on guys, cheer up

Always look on the bright side of life

Always look on the bright side of life

Worse things happen at sea you know

Always look on the bright side of life

I mean, what have you got to lose?
you know, you come from nothing
you're going back to nothing
what have you lost? Nothing!

Always look on the bright side of life

[video=youtube;SJUhlRoBL8M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M[/video]

See you in the void Commander.

 

[Flimley]

Sorry Khelder. That's a real pity, as I find surface navagation very frustrating.
....I travelled to view the alien crash site for the first time last week, and it took me way too long to line up the latitude and longtitude correctly. Admittedly I don't practise this ever. And It finally occurred to me that an imperial capital ship was hovering directly above it. It was daytime on the planet surface and the crash site looked pretty duff, It deflated me after all the wongling around I had done to locate it. ...and then, the capital ship blew me up as I wanted to look at that too. ......
Anyway, good luck chum.

Flimley

 

[BACKER #-4112]

This application is no longer under development. Thank you all who showed support.

I'm really disappointed to read this, especially after the amount of time you must have put into developing it.
I was really hoping to see this make its way into the game, either as a third party app or implemented by FD.

Thank you for showing us one of the many possibilities that could enhance the way we play this game.

You have my respect.

 

[Osbo89]

This application is no longer under development. Thank you all who showed support.

Respect to you for show us what ED should have done and the fact that ED and you could have made some money out of this by selling your program in the store as I'm sure a lot of CMR's would have bought the addon..

 

[Gimi]

We DO encourage community created content, but this content takes the form of artwork, fan group logos, gameplay vids, etc. These are fan-driven pieces that allow players to express themselves or their appreciation of the world they are creating for themselves within the galaxy. I don’t believe we ever expressed apps as being a piece of ‘content’...

Thank you for making that clear Frontier.​

Hmm. Something does not add up here. That statement goes against the whole purpose of the Commanders Journal and the format it's published in, which requires 3rd party apps to make it useful/readable.

I can understand if FDEV are restrictive when it comes to allowing commercial 3rd party apps based on their IP. Likewise, I can understand if they object to memory scraping or anything that touches the client directly. But then that should be their message. Not what they told you.

I wonder if FDEV Licensing has worded that a little awkwardly. Clarification is needed here.

 

[Alec Turner]

I wonder if FDEV Licensing has worded that a little awkwardly. Clarification is needed here.

How can I put this diplomatically ... errr ... in order to judge FD's response accurately I think we'd need to see the correspondance from Khelder that this is a reply to. The emboldened "DO" and the rather haughty "I don't believe we ever bla bla bla" bit suggest to me that Khelder may have been coming towards the tail end of his tether when he wrote whatever it was that provoked this response. I could be wrong of course and I apologise in advance for jumping to conclusions.

:x

 

[Gimi]

How can I put this diplomatically ... errr ... in order to judge FD's response accurately I think we'd need to see the correspondance from Khelder that this is a reply to. The emboldened "DO" and the rather haughty "I don't believe we ever bla bla bla" bit suggest to me that Khelder may have been coming towards the tail end of his tether when he wrote whatever it was that provoked this response. I could be wrong of course and I apologise in advance for jumping to conclusions.

:x

I agree, but even taking that there is a lot we don't know into account the statement seems very odd given we have the Commander Journal now.
I had genuinely hoped that Khelder would be allowed to proceed with his project, but my hopes were not high given that FDEV stopped the apps that were memory scraping trade data back in 2014/15.
(I understand why FDEV stopped them though)

As it stands, leaving that statement from FDEV hanging is not good, as I suspect that it is either badly worded or taken out of context. So a clarification would be nice.

 

[Komemiute]

Well, this is a big bummer. I'm so sorry Kelder. : /

For what it's worth, you're the people's champion.
You're always going to have a friend in me!

 

[bAdbUd]

Well that's a shame, this looked to have great potential.

 

[Khelder]

Hmm. Something does not add up here. That statement goes against the whole purpose of the Commanders Journal and the format it's published in, which requires 3rd party apps to make it useful/readable.

I can understand if FDEV are restrictive when it comes to allowing commercial 3rd party apps based on their IP. Likewise, I can understand if they object to memory scraping or anything that touches the client directly. But then that should be their message. Not what they told you.

I wonder if FDEV Licensing has worded that a little awkwardly. Clarification is needed here.

CLARIFICATION

Frontier made it very clear to me that they believe that memory reading violates the EULA and is not allowed. In fact, the remainer of the paragraph which I quoted goes along those lines. It was not my intention to suggest that the quote in question was the reason for refusing to grant a licence to this application.

I do not know if the statement made was badly worded or if that is the true feelings of Frontier. I will say that I personally found it particularly hurtful. It is certainly not my only issue with the overall response, though.

I have been thinking of posting a more detailed summary of things on my forum. Not that there's much point in doing that. Until then, I hope this clarification suffices.

 

[Gimi]

CLARIFICATION

Frontier made it very clear to me that they believe that memory reading violates the EULA and is not allowed. In fact, the remainer of the paragraph which I quoted goes along those lines. It was not my intention to suggest that the quote in question was the reason for refusing to grant a licence to this application.

I do not know if the statement made was badly worded or if that is the true feelings of Frontier. I will say that I personally found it particularly hurtful. It is certainly not my only issue with the overall response, though.

I have been thinking of posting a more detailed summary of things on my forum. Not that there's much point in doing that. Until then, I hope this clarification suffices.

Thank you for the clarification Khelder. I'm sad to see this go. You did some impressive work.

Their view on "memory reading" is what I expected, and I can understand it.
But even with your clarification, I still find the statement you quoted odd.
FDEV seem very supportive of third party apps that use the journal and the old iOS API. That was the whole point of the journal.
So that part makes no sense.

Your effort is on a different level though, and I imagine that you are overlapping quite few items on their todo list.
My wish would be that they would push the last 10 sets "position, course and speed" to a file like the commanders journal (separate file) once every second or two, I imagine that would be all you need. I have no idea if it's feasible or what the load on the computer would be though, and also how time critical the data is.

I do hope we get a clarification from FDEV on the quote though.