My personal request to FDev - PS4 Player Journal access....

[stormyuk]

With all the talks of bug and major issues with 3.0 I thought I would open an older, lighter issue, and its a fringe issue, totally accept that off the bat.

When I first heard about Elite Dangerous coming to PS4, one of the first things I did was buy it on PC (I have no idea why I hadn't done this way earlier than knowing it was coming to PS4, probably because I don't game on the PC anymore). I also wanted to test out the DS4 with Elite Dangerous, the PC let me do that.

When using the PC I heard about EDDiscovery which lets you interrogate the supported PC log files that Elite Dangerous creates, and it basically logs pretty much everything your CMDR and ship does. I'd call it pretty amazing, but I am nerd who likes that kind of stuff.

So when the game finally dropped, I kinda realised the journal would be goodbye from me. I have missed it, always wanted it somehow and always hoped somehow FDev could make it happen. A few suggestions on the suggestion forum have been made, none really gained any traction. Its probably such a niche request for a niche game that it might never. I get that too. (I wont be Mr "My life is ruined, no PS4 player journal" o7 Duck).

I have heard a few reasons why this cannot be done, and they are all pretty reasonable reasons.

I guess my question, are you there Lloyd? Is there a way for this log to be made available to the players on PS4? A menu option in the game where we can export it? A menu option in game where we can email it to our registered PSN id account? A log available via frontier web site where we need to log in to download? Some official way, that Sony will allow to do it?

I would love to be able to import my PS4 journal into EDDiscovery on the PC. I would actually pay money for this too FDev, if required.

 

[SpaceMachine]

I think most of us would be happy to pay money for this.

I would love a companion app of some sort with UDP transfer.

Also, when I next have a corrupted save because of a wonky update, I wouldn't lose all my data...

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Second this! Can you guys think of a list of other PS4 games that offer similar services?

 

[Old Duck]

I would like this as well. I have a feeling it's way more complicated to pull off on a Playstation than a PC due to the sandboxed nature (OS level, not gameplay) of "apps" on a console.

What if much of EDDiscovery functionality was built into ED? I think that would be doable on a console, since data would not be shared with 3rd parties. I'd love to have a journal of my adventures - what I've discovered, when I discovered it, etc. There are pieces of this in the game already (visited planets, our stats panel). It just needs a lot of polish and some added features.

I'm going to be very active in the "Focused Feedback" of Q4 exploration improvements, because I believe our request, be it your OP or the in-game variant, would logically be part of that update.

 

[SpaceMachine]

I have just one title on PS4 that supports external apps - Project Cars.

I use an app called vHUD as a second dashboard. It also uploads lap-times and provides rival times to beat.

Stuff like this is entirely do-able on PS4.

 

[stormyuk]

Second this! Can you guys think of a list of other PS4 games that offer similar services?

Games I can think of which have data logs outside of the PS4 itself include but are not limited to Rockstar Games (Red Dead Redemption, GTA5, LA Noire [back on PS3]), Bioware (Mass Effect), Bungie (Destiny). They are slightly different as you don't have access to the raw log, but you have access to your in system progress, achievements, activities, time played etc etc.

So there are obviously legitimate ways companies can use the Sony data via PSN links, it must be getting this data from the game plus your PSN id.

I guess I am asking for this and more, or even just a PSN verified / frontier way to download the journal, I don't expect fancy external apps which will take more developer time. Just get me the journal.

 

[TWitko]

I would love to be able to import my PS4 journal into EDDiscovery on the PC. I would actually pay money for this too FDev, if required.

Yes, yes, Y E S .. ! ...... Stormy - thank you (and Rep) for this and ...... Frontier .. PLEASE !

I would like this as well. I have a feeling it's way more complicated to pull off on a Playstation than a PC due to the sandboxed nature (OS level, not gameplay) of "apps" on a console.

as we can export (share) our photos and videos, why not to add Share option to another simple text file ? I believe it's possible (from technical perspective) the question is if there is "goodwill" (either on Sony or FD side).

If Sony is "dog in the manger" I believe FD could give us option to access our data from their servers.

And yes, I'd be more then happy to pay for it (as extra feature in game or standalone app ..)

TW

 

[Mr Fad]

If it's what I'm thinking of all the data is also stored server side so they could probably just create the log and send us a weekly email containing it for us to manually upload to the site.

 

[TWitko]

Even I've spent several hours by creating my own poor logbook in Excel already, I'm willing to throw it away into garbage immediately and start to use journal file

Spoiler

TW

 

[CMDR Lukas Vance]

Would love this. Never going to happen.

I saved a copy of the game file and tried to read it just too see if there was anything I could get out of there but no luck.

 

[stormyuk]

Would love this. Never going to happen.

I saved a copy of the game file and tried to read it just too see if there was anything I could get out of there but no luck.

Positive vibes, man, positive. I believe it is technically possible, not by mining data files but by Frontier being clever with our data, other games developers as I have mentioned do something very similar so I don't think its a massive leap. Its our/their data (held by FDev), and as long as we are using our logins to access that data I don't see an issue.

I totally accept its not easy, I don't think its impossible though. I could be talking bobbins also.

 

[Old Duck]

Games I can think of which have data logs outside of the PS4 itself include but are not limited to Rockstar Games (Red Dead Redemption, GTA5, LA Noire [back on PS3]), Bioware (Mass Effect), Bungie (Destiny). They are slightly different as you don't have access to the raw log, but you have access to your in system progress, achievements, activities, time played etc etc.

The only game I have in that list is Mass Effect 2 & 3. Please explain this data log you speak of, because I have no idea what you're talking about (I'm not using a sarcastic voice, I truly am unaware).

 

[stormyuk]

The only game I have in that list is Mass Effect 2 & 3. Please explain this data log you speak of, because I have no idea what you're talking about (I'm not using a sarcastic voice, I truly am unaware).

You can log into the Bioware site, link your PSN id to your Bioware account and see a load of in game stats, actually Dragon Age: Inquisition also lets you do this, Bioware again. Mass effects one of the poorer ones to be honest but it works, GTA is better imo.

What it does prove is external sites, are getting access to your game data, outside of the closed PS4 architecture. Which is what my point really is. Its not access to a "raw" logfile but it is access to your game data (stored externally?) / PSN data.

You actually got in-game content for linking your Dragon Age account. I think you did for Mass effect too. I think Ubisoft do something similar, as do EA for other games (not just Bioware).

 

[CMDR Lukas Vance]

I totally accept its not easy, I don't think its impossible though. I could be talking bobbins also.

You say negative vibes, I say realistic vibes ;-)

It probably is technically possible. I don't think there is a precedent though as everything you mention is something either displayed in game, or going to Sony's ecosystem. At the very least there would be Development time and or some kind of agreement with Sony, which are very unlikely IMHO. Just look as the fiasco with Sony adding ED as a PSVR game available right now as an example of the relationship between Frontier and Sony.

I don't mean to rag on your idea mate, as I said I would love this and build my own spreadsheets for the data but every time people report bugs that are clearly not bugs, or ask for features that we aren't likely to get it just distracts FDev when they should be focusing on fixing the multitudes of things that are wrong in the game.

Edit: sorry just read your post above, it seems there may be some precedent. I still say it won't happen though. I'll add this to my "if it ever happens I'll fly to Colonia in my sidewinder" list ;-)

 

[stormyuk]

Yeh, to be honest I don't honestly expect we will get it. I can dream, its good to dream now and again. It would as I say be something I would pay for and a few other by the looks of things, so might not be totally wasted development time.

I also don't agree I am distracting anyone, Lloyd doesn't programme Elite Dangerous, he doesn't fix bugs, he's a producer. He can ask the questions and get the answers (or not). No development time is lost, if the simple answer is NO.

FDev do clearly like the Journal, they put a lot of time into it already. Just not for us peasants to use.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/401661-Journal-Documentation-for-v3-0

 

[Old Duck]

You can log into the Bioware site, link your PSN id to your bioware account and see a load of in game stats, actually Dragon Age: Inquisition also lets you do this, Bioware again. Mass effects one of the poor ones to be honest but it works, GTA is better imo. What it does prove is external sites, are getting access to your game data, outside of the close PS4 architecture.

Okay, I understand now. I play some games that have an option to create an external account, but I've never done so. I believe Overwatch is one such game, and I think Fortnite has this option as well. In fact, Frontier is probably the only external account I have set up right now.

These 3rd party keep this data on their servers, I bet. Frontier does things differently, as their journal data is stored locally in a file on the PC. They could store this data in the cloud if they choose to. I'm pretty sure that's the only way to do it, as I know of no mechanism to save and download such journal / log data directly from local PS4 storage.

I also don't agree I am distracting anyone

You're distracting me, LOL

 

[CMDR Lukas Vance]

Yeh, to be honest I don't honestly expect we will get it. I can dream, its good to dream now and again. It would as I say be something I would pay for and a few other by the looks of things, so might not be totally wasted development time.

I also don't agree I am distracting anyone, Lloyd doesn't programme Elite Dangerous, he doesn't fix bugs, he's a producer. He can ask the questions and get the answers (or not). No development time is lost, if the simple answer is NO.

FDev do clearly like the Journal, they put a lot of time into it already. Just not for us peasants to use.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/401661-Journal-Documentation-for-v3-0

I think we'll have to agree to disagree with the distraction ;-)

I also have a dream; my dream is that one day, when Frontier finally cease to "sell" Elite Dangerous they will open source the server technology and code base to allow the Universe to live on. This will be a PC only, and I'll need to buy a PC in order to play it. You may think that is more or less ridiculous than your dream!

 

[TWitko]

I'm pretty sure that's the only way to do it, as I know of no mechanism to save and download such journal / log data directly from local PS4 storage.

Honestly I don't believe (*) there is anything like "journal file" stored somewhere locally on PS4 in current version.

The original purpose of "journal file" was to be able to "debug" in case of nonstandard game behaviour or crash - to get as much as possible information and understand what's wrong .. there is literally every player's activity recorded. It's awesome to see what information are stored there (description of journal file its publicly available). The fact, some smart people got idea to use those "debug"data to create something extra - like user database (Eddb etc), commander's log etc .. was "side effect" and bonus only ...

TW

* I may be totally wrong

 

[PauloG01]

I dont think that would be difficult to make, the PS4 game is already connected with Frontier store, you purchase the game extras out off PSN store, off course you must first buy the Frontier points on PSN, but still there is some kind o connection.
In Battlefield Hardpoint you could customize you avatar and some game details on battlenet that are almost immediately available in the game, so that sort of interaction already happens on PS4.

 

[Lloyd Morgan-Moore]

Thanks for all of the input everyone, I've passed this suggestion on internally. (With the usual caveat of not being able to promise anything )