Discussion The Visited Stars cache

Just a question of clarification. Does the import to (not the replacement of) the star cache still work? Where is the best place to get a list of all visited systems to add to the import file? Even if I need to write a program to format the import file, I am fine with that.

I am about to do some exploring and would like to make a copy of my star cache, then import all the explored stars of all cmdrs, explore a bit, replace the star cache with my backed up version. then re-import the stars that I recently explored.
 
Personally i think if a star is visited it should be global, after many reinstallations if my pcs and forgetting the file its getting annoying that its stored on my side rather than on my server save, so far visited adleast 300k different systems since i started playing however i can only see about 10k due to it being saved locally, this is ine of the main contributions to why the galaxy will never be explored properly and why the "secrets such as raxxla" if any wont be found, fdev have been told repeatedly there needs to be a global cache for this data however refuse to even acknowledge it.... 3306 i can open a galaxy map and scroll to a star 60k+ away and see the main star class plot routes to stars never been visited by anyone but cant even see if someone's been there or not in close proximity? Doesnt even make sense to be honest
 
I can confirm that ImportStars is broken and doesn't work. It's in a curious way though: the game takes the file and creates the empty output file, but doesn't put anything into it. As if it would start to convert the system names and then fails and times out on the very first one.
Earlier on, if memory it could be slow to work (one system per frame perhaps?), but now it doesn't work at all. So I'm still left without my earlier systems.
 
first up apologies, i've not read this whole thread sorry.
right now that's done with can someone explain the process i'm supposed to go through to achieve moving the visited stars cache from another computer?
i'm told "It is possible to transfer the original file over - information on that can be found here" yet when i read the op it doesn't look so much like a transfer as it does look like manually creating a database to merge.
the entirety of the instructions on how to achieve the "transfer" from what i can see is "If you write a file named ImportStars.txt into the same folder, with one star system name per line, then start the game..." so it can be imported... is there a way i'm supposed to be exporting it first?
 
... to achieve moving the visited stars cache from another computer?
If you want the same cache you can just copy the mentioned file from the old to the new machine?
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\<userid>\VisitedStarsCache.dat
 
Most of us have been advised by support to file a bug report. ImportStars.txt, as you described ( one system per line) is SUPPOSED to be working, however with the new visitedstars cache updates it is not.

Not aware of any mechanism to export an old visited stars cache file to a list of systems. If you send data to EDSM, you could compile a list of systems you've sent to EDSM, which should be of help, however, to reiterate, there's no mechanic at this time to import that data to a current game installation. If you aren't on EDSM, you should be if you care about having a good record of your exploration efforts.

You can upload your game journal to EDSM, and it will process them. (if you aren't already participating on EDSM)
it's not "old", unless 3 months is now considered old :/ thanks i'll try that perhaps. it's a sad reflection on the state of things that frontier support think this is fine..


If you want the same cache you can just copy the mentioned file from the old to the new machine?
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\<userid>\VisitedStarsCache.dat
copying the file would overwrite... i didn't notice this was an issue until i'd been out on another few expeditions :/
 
Well, 5 months later and I can confirm this is still broken. Elite creates the cache .DAT file but never puts anything in it, no matter what is in ImportStars.txt and even with a new cache file after deleting the old. Nothing else happens, and there are no stars when filtering the Galmap. I've noticed the file is now called RecentlyVisitedStars.dat vs the old VisitedStarsCache.dat. I'm assuming this is part of why this is borked, but it would be nice if someone at Fdev fixed it.
 
An issue was opened on 30 Dec: Issue Tracker (frontierstore.net) , but no action yet. This is still broken, and the issue has been in "Confirming" state since. Doesn't look like anyone at fdev is at the wheel on this one.

Problem is it isnt broken, it's as designed by their peer to peer networking, they don't store our system logs on their side which is terrible but unfortunately I can see why, howmany cmdrs vrs howmuch systems and jumps etc would it take before their servers would implode.... In other words an effective way of cutting out upgrade costs....
 
Problem is it isnt broken, it's as designed by their peer to peer networking, they don't store our system logs on their side which is terrible but unfortunately I can see why, howmany cmdrs vrs howmuch systems and jumps etc would it take before their servers would implode.... In other words an effective way of cutting out upgrade costs....

This feature has existed for years... I don't believe that peer to peer networking has anything to do with importing a .txt file into the game. Nor does this have anything to do with upgrading anything...
 
This feature has existed for years... I don't believe that peer to peer networking has anything to do with importing a .txt file into the game. Nor does this have anything to do with upgrading anything...
Yes it does, if they stored your exploration data server side we wouldn't need to save and reboot a text file every system build, reinstall etc etc, something that they could have done but chose not to and these are most likely the reasons why as it would create more data on their servers and more traffic.
 
Yes it does, if they stored your exploration data server side we wouldn't need to save and reboot a text file every system build, reinstall etc etc, something that they could have done but chose not to and these are most likely the reasons why as it would create more data on their servers and more traffic.

I'm not asking them or expecting them to store anything server side. No one NEEDS to save and reboot a text file (whatever that means). The current process doesn't save anything on their servers. I don't think you understand how this works.
 
I'm not asking them or expecting them to store anything server side. No one NEEDS to save and reboot a text file (whatever that means). The current process doesn't save anything on their servers. I don't think you understand how this works.

OK... I dont think you understand what I mean, if you want to see what i mean reinstall Windows/Build a new pc/install game on another computer etc etc etc without saving and bringing accross the text file, now go into the galaxy map and see that your blue "Visited stars" are all gone as you didn't carry over your locally saved exploration data, this is 2021 its an online game, what im saying is this data being stored locally is a bit silly and just for lowering server side handling, what other big full online games force you to keep your progress locally?

For instance someone was on the forums a while back as their computer kicked the bucket, they had travelled to tons of systems that now all show up as never visited on their star map, yes they can still see the internal system however not being displayed as a blue blip you would lets say never be able to find a system you visited months ago without scouring the area system by system until you see the planetary symbol pop up.

This issue/non server side saving of cmdr visited data is what i am referring to and has been like this since the game released.
 
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