Codex Explained - Brief and simple

[Straha Yeagar]

There have been so many posts around the forums from people trying to make sense of various finds, and what the Codex is doing, so here is my simple and brief explanation of how it works...

First, each region has it's own full set of codex entries. When a commander, any commander discovers the first body of a specific type anywhere in a region, that particular body type goes Reported for all other commanders. When a commander personally scans a body that was showing as Reported, of that specific type anywhere in the region, it will show as Confirmed for that particular commander.

Now, some body types has additional variations such as Regular G type stars, Giant G type stars, and Super Giant G type stars. Those show up underneath the main category of G type stars.

Looking at the codex entries in the image below. First thing to notice is that some of the Rumored, Reported, and Confirmed icons are lit up, and others are not. The lit up Reported ones mean that there is a type, or sub-type that has been reported somewhere in the region, that I have not personally found.

First example is the O TYPE STAR. There is a lit up Reported icon with 3 next to it. This means there are three sub-types of O class star that someone else has discovered in the region, but that I have not personally discovered myself. This is indicated by the unlit Confirmed icon with a 0 next to it.

Take for another example, again, the G TYPE STAR. Notice how there is a 2 next to the exclamation point, and a 1 next to the check mark? This means that there are three total sub-types of G class stars. Two of them are still reported, and I have not personally found one of that type, and one is confirmed BY me because I have found one personally. If you look at the first image, there are two reported types and one confirmed type shown.

Look at the L TYPE STAR. The Reported is unlit, and has a 0, while the Confirmed is lit with a 1. This means that there is only one type of L class that has been discovered by any commander, and I have personally found one.

The same above applies to the geological, biological and planetary Codex subsections as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[Konan]

My question is, what good is this? We were told the codes would show our past discoveries. They can lie and say they didn't mean that but it is what they said. MMany times. What good is just listing the types? Possessing who found the first "type" of stellar object does what for a player? Please tell me how this motivates a player to explore? What we wanted and were promised, were our past discoveries listed. The discovery part of the codex is basically useless and another failed effort that was promised by frontier.

 

[Straha Yeagar]

My question is, what good is this? We were told the codes would show our past discoveries. They can lie and say they didn't mean that but it is what they said. MMany times. What good is just listing the types? Possessing who found the first "type" of stellar object does what for a player? Please tell me how this motivates a player to explore? What we wanted and were promised, were our past discoveries listed. The discovery part of the codex is basically useless and another failed effort that was promised by frontier.

I have a feeling there was some drastic miscommunication between players and Frontier. I think Frontier was thinking about and focused more on the in game lore and stories and stuff. Many of us players were more focused on actual discoveries, and not really caring about crashed ships logs, and probe transmissions. We players were thinking of something more along the lines of Elite Galaxy Online web site, EDSM, ED Discovery.

 

[disorganise]

Thanks for the explanation.

Question.... Does this apply as soon as you find it, or when you sell the data (like tags)?


And..... Does this mean that only the first discovered example of each item is listed? TBH, it seemed so bugged in beta 1 that I then avoided it and haven't gotten around to opening it in live yet.

 

[DustyArne]

I have a feeling there was some drastic miscommunication between players and Frontier. I think Frontier was thinking about and focused more on the in game lore and stories and stuff. Many of us players were more focused on actual discoveries, and not really caring about crashed ships logs, and probe transmissions. We players were thinking of something more along the lines of Elite Galaxy Online web site, EDSM, ED Discovery.

For me, 100% this.

But now its ok, i also like to see what has bin discovered in the Galaxy, so i can check it out my self without going to the internet to find out about it.

But to be honest, I was kinda disappointed there wasn't a page in the codex with my own personal discoveries, or discoveries I was about to make.

 

[Dooguk]

Frontier must have known what players thought the CODEX was going to contain, but chose to dodge the issue until release.

 

[Jonny Shiloh]

For me, 100% this.

But now its ok, i also like to see what has bin discovered in the Galaxy, so i can check it out my self without going to the internet to find out about it.

But to be honest, I was kinda disappointed there wasn't a page in the codex with my own personal discoveries, or discoveries I was about to make.

Same here - I was under the impression that the codex was a record of all my discoveries in-game (as others have said, like EGO/EDD/EDSM etc.). Is it absolutely confirmed this isn't what the codex is?

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

Thanks for the explanation.

Question.... Does this apply as soon as you find it, or when you sell the data (like tags)?


And..... Does this mean that only the first discovered example of each item is listed? TBH, it seemed so bugged in beta 1 that I then avoided it and haven't gotten around to opening it in live yet.

It seems to be immediate. Did some scanning in a different region, got some first reported entries, then logged in my alt to check.

On the second point, yes, only the first of each type reported in that region will be named under the reported section, plus the first you find underneath it once you have, (even though the reported number disappears, that system as being first reported still shows within the entry).

 

[Winterwalker]

It seems to be immediate. Did some scanning in a different region, got some first reported entries, then logged in my alt to check.

Yes. You get an alert when you added something to codex and can bind a <not assigned> button to go to it.

On the second point, yes, only the first of each type reported in that region will be named under the reported section, plus the first you find underneath it once you have, (even though the reported number disappears, that system as being first reported still shows within the entry).

Yes. That's how it works. There also seem to be categories of (rumour/confirmed?) biggest, baddest, hottest, coldest confirmations under each category too.

I agree that it would be cool to have a listing of all things in codex, though would take some thought or it would end up looking like the blue "i visited here" dots in the galaxy map or end up as a MASSIVE dbase, with all visits by all players (and must be held on server I think to avoid hacker mismatching).

Happy to have what we have for now, there's a work around with personal bookmarks .. codex management of those in future might be interesting? Perhaps a session summary history in future too?

 

[Factabulous]

Note that Bio seem to be broken at the moment - can't register same bio in different regions. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Composition-Scanner-Not-Being-Added-to-Codex

or it could be broken in some other way, but mainly being reported on bio.

And to all those saying they didn't expect the Codex to work this way : many of us did expect it to work this way, but were ignored. So I get to say 'ha ha, told you so' Expecting a list of the 80k systems (with planets) I found so far - yeah, that was gonna happen

 

[Rat Catcher]

My Codex contains a list of past POI visits, Beacons, crash sites etc. which is about what I was expecting. What doesn't appear to be happening ATM is Bio updates (mentioned earlier) as I visited a site with the 'gourds' which weren't confirmed with their 'proper' name, nor made an appearance in my discoveries - despite scanning many of them

Teething bugs I hope...

 

[Andovar]

So are the rumored ones simply random stuff populated by FD?

 

[Straha Yeagar]

So are the rumored ones simply random stuff populated by FD?

Presumably, since I have not actually seen Rumoured go active in any region for any entry type. Either it has just not been turned on yet, populated by Frontier, or how ever it is supposed to be populated, or....it's bugged.

 

[marx]

As it is, the Codex is more like a tourist's guide, updated in real time. A checklist of places to visit that Commanders have found. Quite good if you're looking for that, or if you're looking for xeno stuff (for unlocks) without having to browse a third party site. As it stands, Frontier's main aim was for players to visit the hand-crafted stuff they placed in the game, and I think it does that pretty well - although I'm surprised that generation ships, INRA bases and such aren't listed on there.

Presumably, since I have not actually seen Rumoured go active in any region for any entry type. Either it has just not been turned on yet, populated by Frontier, or how ever it is supposed to be populated, or....it's bugged.

Or they added so few rumoured stuff that players already found them all. It's quite common in MMOs, and has happened before here as well. Such as Guardian Beacons, for example.

 

[Straha Yeagar]

As it is, the Codex is more like a tourist's guide, updated in real time. A checklist of places to visit that Commanders have found. Quite good if you're looking for that, or if you're looking for xeno stuff (for unlocks) without having to browse a third party site. As it stands, Frontier's main aim was for players to visit the hand-crafted stuff they placed in the game, and I think it does that pretty well - although I'm surprised that generation ships, INRA bases and such aren't listed on there.


Or they added so few rumoured stuff that players already found them all. It's quite common in MMOs, and has happened before here as well. Such as Guardian Beacons, for example.

I would actually kind of disagree on the Codex doing a good job as a tourists guide overall. Even with the Xeno stuff. For the broader player base, it only shows one single location for each thing, the very first one reported. After that, additional finds are not made available to anyone. As it stands, the most of each entry type a commander will have listed there is two, and only if another commander reported it first.

 

[marx]

Good point, and yeah, that is pretty unfortunate. Personally, I expected that at least more than one find will be available to all, but apparently not. Still much better than not having any info available in-game though. However, let's not forget that the Guardian and Thargoid civilisation map filters: if you know where one entry in the region(!) is, you can focus on that easily, and then find others with the galaxy map.

Hm, I guess it's more of a list of personal achievements (more like visits) than a tourist's guide. "Hey, you've seen an ammonia world in this region, great job!"

 

[Straha Yeagar]

Good point, and yeah, that is pretty unfortunate. Personally, I expected that at least more than one find will be available to all, but apparently not. Still much better than not having any info available in-game though. However, let's not forget that the Guardian and Thargoid civilisation map filters: if you know where one entry in the region(!) is, you can focus on that easily, and then find others with the galaxy map.

Hm, I guess it's more of a list of personal achievements (more like visits) than a tourist's guide. "Hey, you've seen an ammonia world in this region, great job!"

Regions are big places. The map filters are a good point, but again, with only one starting point to filter around even that usefulness is limited. As far as it even being a list, I would describe it more as a bunch of lists, each with only one entry allowed

 

[griffrawk]

Feels a bit pointless other than as a general guide to what’s out there in regions. To be fair though, once you’ve seen one black hole, you’ve seen them all so maintaining copious lists in game is an unnecessary burden for the game and not worth reinventing when the 3rd parties do it so well..

Other than that it’s just another first-discovered mechanic that will now remain static for eternity. Even when the rumoured stuff starts appearing it will be a race for those eager cmdrs to bag first. The rest of us will note that a new type of something has appeared and carry on regardless.

Now if visited systems were a bit more visible when zoomed out in the galmap that would be something. At the moment you have to effectively know where you’ve been to see where you’ve been. That 40ly radius is very limiting.

 

[JonesTheFilm]

The discovery part of the Codex is definitely not a personal log of discoveries (which I think is what most people expected/wanted), it seems more like a collecting game.

If you think of each type of star/geological feature/space anomaly/whatever as a collectable card (or stamp ...or train number) then the Codex is the album that tells you what's available. You then have to go out and find the collectables and the 'album' will get filled in as you collect them.

 

[Liberalguy]

Where can I see a list of all the planets I’m tagged as first discovered? Or at least the total number?