Barnacles Meta^3 Sheet (WIP) - ideas and feedback needed!

[NetSlayer]

Hello CMDRs

The moment I saw barnacles in an elite trailer, I made a sheet.

Barnacles Meta^2

It was initially designed to manually record systems within the Pleiades nebula.
There were strange search criteria back then, people wanted to see what kind of planets exhibited the near perfect darkness as found in the trailer.
People also wanted data on celestial bodies to determine which were easiest to search, which had a perpetual dark side etc.
There are a lot of peculiar stories I could share about the early days of that sheet.

Once a barnacle was found by Octo, the sheet changed rapidly to compare barnacle locations.
I had a lot of help along the way as detailed:

Spoiler

CMDR JOHN STOUTBEARD Co-editor, Organised barnacles sheets, formulas and data

CMDR GAIUS Contributing data, edits sheet.

CMDR RIZAL72 Edits sheet. Head of UA Thread

CMDR DOMMAARRAA Edits sheet. Lead Editor of "The Monster" Sheet

CMDR VAELEL Major contributor for presentations and indexing

CMDR AYAL Eliminated multiple 'empty' systems. Contributed Meta data

CMDR YIGGY Corrected data for Pleiades sector HR-W D1-79

CMDR OZRIC Supplied Meta Data for various systems, Corrections

CMDR TAKEMIKAZUCHI Supplied Meta Data for various systems

CMDR EBER KAIN Supplied HR-W D1-79, HR-W D1-74, KC-V C2-14 data

CMDR VALIANT CRICK Supplied HR [1172, 1183] HR-W D1-41, HIP [17034, 17694] data

CMDR ALEXVII Supplied Electra, HIP [17862,17892], LX-T B3-0 data

CMDR STARBEAVER Main Contributor for California systems data

CMDR PANPIPER Skilled Barnacle hunter and top barnacle biology consultant

CMDR ABISH Valued contributor of planetary/system data and updated barnacle ripe code

CMDR DUTCH FOSTER Valued Contributor of system and stellar data

CMDR HOWLING_WOLF7 Futureproofed shortname format and helped automate Barnacle Locations, through API calls

CMDR VALL Created the EDSM API script, made script compatible with arrayformula to help with automation!

CANONN R&D Collective effort on EDSM API interactions and scripting

The above is extremely simplified but needless to say, it's grown a lot since then.

Apparently too much for google sheets to handle.
After struggling with automation, scripting and edsmAPI calls...
The sheet encountered some series of errors, causing multiple inconvenient downtimes.
To fix this, all of the analytical sheets have broken.
These will be moved onto a separate sheet and delivered as a separate suite of tools with better presentation.

Thankfully the issue is resolved now but there is a big change due.

Up until this point, features have been added by request from enthusiastic barnacle hunters.
Now I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and ask:

What you would like to see when it comes to barnacles?
What tools would you like to have available other than sheets?

An example of the current tools (being moved):
Compare Barnacle Locations - Compare the celestial bodies on which barnacles are found.
LifeCycle Calculations - Using Panpiper's in-depth knowledge of Barnacle Life cycles, gain knowledge on the "Ripe" status of Meta Alloys, [+3 to int]
Barnacle Mats - What other materials does the barnacle dispense?
Duplicate Checker - determine duplicates by insane math calculations

Discuss below. As always any feedback is greatly appreciated! o7

 

[PanPiper.]

Great work Netslayer. I'll also drop a link for this thread into my barny meta alloy thread , get them to send some feedback on what they would like to see too.

Off the top of my head, filtering quickly one systems barnacles i do often.
Having the materials visible for when material gathering is useful too.

Maybe a way to see the differences with Allripes vs Cyclic barnacle types. Since the type of barnacle is system wide, all are cyclic or allripe in a system.
They have temperature range differences, comparing the system info may show other links between the two groups.
( Leaving a 3rd type for the Megabarnacle aka Forest. and the 2 other single barnacles nearby. They have high temp range like cyclic but allripe, until more sites or examples are found. )

Considering Allripe types only found in Pleiades so far, but may appear elsewhere later would be a fair assumption.

I'll add more when i think of things, but back to the game, searching for more science!.

 

[Faster than Jesus [VR]]

Do you think it might be better to switch to a database at this point?

 

[NetSlayer]

Yes

Do you think it might be better to switch to a database at this point?

I've always thought this since it began expanding after the first barnacle was found.
It's being pulled into a database warehouse in development, along with many other science sheets.

However this takes great amounts effort and time.
The main part of the sheet is submitting to a viewable list of records, google sheets offers convenience and a temporary solution this way.
Also it has served as a resource to teach others how to make science sheets that use various complex formulas.

Until canonn finish the database warehouse, it will remain in sheet form/possibly web form until further notice.

 

[Faster than Jesus [VR]]

Yep, the amount of emergent data from Elite is immense, so that makes sense.

I'd love to be involved but have a terrible habit of flaking on these initiatives. Can't wait to see what's produced though.