Player Journal - Why is it not accessible from inside the game?

[Red Fox Four]

I know you can use 3rd party programs like EDDiscovery to see this and huge shoutout for making that.

However, why is this information entirely omitted inside the game itself?

Why can't we pull up the log as a menu page on the right/left menus or as see-through menu on your main screen?

Hell, why can't the journal/log be opened by your crewmember, e.g. the gunner, to review locations, destinations, current missions, total profits and so on. Not like the guy playing the gunner in your ship is doing anything whatsoever when outside combat anyways. Even less so in multicrew ships like Keelback, Beluga and other non-combat ships.

Combine reviewing the journal + being able to set travel destinations and perusing the galaxy map and call it a Navigator/Gunner seat instead of just gunner.

So much can be done with this, so why is it not happening?

It's a bit of a declaration of not caring when the developer relies almost entirely on 3rd party modders to enrich the experience of the game.

At least let us access the journal from in-game if nothing else. Not every trusts downloading "random" apps and using those for their gaming sessions.

Anyways, just wanted to put it out there.

Thanks.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

It would mean work, away from Jurassic Park.

 

[c00ky1970]

I think if they could "Humanise" the content, it would be a useful in game tool.

Providing you could interact with it eg. select system mentioned in log and have Galmap target it so you could plot a route or look at commodity data etc.

 

[Mysturji]

Oh, good. Haven't been missing something after all. I kept wondering what this journal was and where it could be found.
Sounds useful though.

 

[Red Fox Four]

Oh, good. Haven't been missing something after all. I kept wondering what this journal was and where it could be found.
Sounds useful though.

Right now "Journal" is really just another word of saying "API". It's just a file that gets updated in one of your folders and you can write programs that interact with that file to visualize information in different ways. That's what EDDiscovery does, as well as many other programs. However all of those programs are 3rd party software you have to download and use outside of the game itself.

Since the information is already there why can't it be visualized IN the game itself ?

Just seems lazy on the developers part to not include this in the game, especially when they call it a Journal / Log which sends a lot of players on a wild goose chase trying to find this Journal in the game, then later find out it's just a type of API for modders.

 

[Snowymonk]

The current implementation is also only for PC. It doesn’t service PS4 or Xbox users.

The PS4 commanders have already started campaigning for an improvement to the current journal.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/412723-My-personal-request-to-FDev-PS4-Player-Journal-access

 

[Arindor]

It would mean work, away from Jurassic Park.

FTT!!

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Right now "Journal" is really just another word of saying "API". It's just a file that gets updated in one of your folders and you can write programs that interact with that file to visualize information in different ways. That's what EDDiscovery does, as well as many other programs. However all of those programs are 3rd party software you have to download and use outside of the game itself.

Since the information is already there why can't it be visualized IN the game itself ?

Just seems lazy on the developers part to not include this in the game, especially when they call it a Journal / Log which sends a lot of players on a wild goose chase trying to find this Journal in the game, then later find out it's just a type of API for modders.

I think the name "Player Journal" is leading you down somewhat of a misleading path.

It's a JSON data file which is generated by a player's actions. You buy or sell goods, and only after this has occurred, a text entry is generated and appended to the file, for example. Which can then be picked up by a 3rd party application, parsed, and used for whatever the application does.

It's purely a data file used for processing by a 3rd party application. In its raw JSON form, it's not particularly handy for a human to read, either. I honestly don't know what use such data would be in-game. Think of it as being like black-box raw data to be consumed at a later time.

I see what you're saying though - but in a way, the data is already being visualised in the game - becuase it's your actions which generate the data. You purchase or sell goods via the game UI - that's represented visually in the game, and is also recorded in the "black box" JSON file as raw data.

Similarly, data like your Lat/Lon/Heading/Altitude is visually represented on your HUD - and also reflected in another JSON file called Status.json which doesn't get appended to that file, but overwritten continuously. Amongst other events, for that file.