Elite Observatory - Search your journal for potentially interesting objects, or notify you of new ones on the fly while exploring!

[space voyager]

o7
in the december january update, FDev plan to change the FSS process, i jumped on the occasion and asked in the relevant thread to have Geo/Bio/Guardian signals in the journal.log,
maybe if other explorers ask the same thing...

WHERE DO WE ASK? You whistle and I'll jump!

Edit: I should read the whole thing before writting... So, the info on signals AND their nature is already in there. Is it possible to have them added to the search engine?

 

[Vithigar]

What do you mean by "the search engine"?

If you mean using them as part of Elite Observatory's criteria, no. They aren't part of the FSS scan event. You only get them added to the journal after probing the planet with the DSS, and by the time you're that close pretty much everything Elite Observatory does is redundant.

 

[Vithigar]

Actually while things are active here and it's in the front of my mind I'll post a little update as to the status of Elite Observatory's development.

Things have been a bit quiet here lately as I've been kept busy with other things IRL. On top of that I'm also a developer as a full time job, so coming home from work only to stare at even more code is not always the most appealing idea in the world. Though I will say working on EO is much more pleasant than what I have to work with professionally (we have a legacy codebase built with Powerbuilder). Fortunately since the last release there have been very few reports of any bugs,* which is exactly the situation I was hoping for before I start adding more major features.
That brings me to my point, the next big thing I want to work on is Frontier authentication and using the companion API to query journal data for console user! I'm giving myself lots of time to poke at getting that working, but I'd say you can expect if before the new year.

That's right, I'm bumping console support up the list. Console users rejoice!

That won't be the only thing added in the next major update, but it's the headliner.

*There is one issue where the window sometimes gets stuck off screen and can't easily be brought back, but there are workarounds and a real fix will be in the next release.

 

[space voyager]

What do you mean by "the search engine"?

If you mean using them as part of Elite Observatory's criteria, no. They aren't part of the FSS scan event. You only get them added to the journal after probing the planet with the DSS, and by the time you're that close pretty much everything Elite Observatory does is redundant.

Ah ok. I thought the existence of bio sites could be somehow read as they are revealed by the fss scan already - you see the number of geo and bio sites, so I presumed that has to be written somewhere. Well, too bad.

 

[Baxder]

For starters, this is awesome. Thank you!

I'm afraid I am completely ignorant when it comes to coding of any kind, and my head kinda hurts trying to figure out custom criteria. I would love to know if a world is terraformable, and if a system is undiscovered. Can I get some help?

Spoiler: My attempt

I tried to cobble something together from the example file. It didn't work:
<ObservatoryCriteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">TerraformState</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Terraformable</Description>
</Criteria>

<</ObservatoryCriteria>

 

[Deleted member 240115]

The easiest way to do that would be to run EDMC and the habzone plugin for it. I don't think Elite Observatory handles those criteria.

EDMC will tell you if a system is logged at edsm.net or not. Now that's not an absolute guarantee the system is undiscovered, but it helps.

The habzone plugin will tell you at what distances from the central star you can expect to find terraformables, ammonia worlds and water worlds, so you don't have to waste FSS scanning time on stuff that isn't high value.

You could register an account on Inara.cz and edsm.net and share data back to the community when running EDMC. You also could install the IGAU plugin ( https://github.com/Elite-IGAU/ATEL-EDMC/releases ) and help contribute to a public data catalog of unique discoveries in the galaxy.

Personally, I run EDMC to collect and ship data. EDDiscovery to show me FSS/System Scan data (planets, moons, high value bodies, etc), and I have elite observatory running in the background to voice alert me in case there are "odd" bodies or jumponium rich bodies in a system

For starters, this is awesome. Thank you!

I'm afraid I am completely ignorant when it comes to coding of any kind, and my head kinda hurts trying to figure out custom criteria. I would love to know if a world is terraformable, and if a system is undiscovered. Can I get some help?

Spoiler: My attempt

I tried to cobble something together from the example file. It didn't work:
<ObservatoryCriteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">TerraformState</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Terraformable</Description>
</Criteria>

<</ObservatoryCriteria>

 

[Deleted member 240115]

As for your criteria, here's a line out of my journal for a terraformable I discovered:

{ "timestamp":"2019-09-29T10:22:59Z", "event":"Scan", "ScanType":"Detailed", "BodyName":"Eupaild KN-Q d6-7 3", "BodyID":15, "Parents":[ {"Star":0} ], "StarSystem":"Eupaild KN-Q d6-7", "SystemAddress":255223389
115, "DistanceFromArrivalLS":625.034912, "TidalLock":false, "TerraformState":"Terraformable", "PlanetClass":"Water world", "Atmosphere":"nitrogen atmosphere", "AtmosphereType":"Nitrogen", "AtmosphereCompositio
n":[ { "Name":"Nitrogen", "Percent":73.275581 }, { "Name":"Oxygen", "Percent":24.468891 }, { "Name":"Water", "Percent":2.228855 } ], "Volcanism":"", "MassEM":0.328622, "Radius":4334882.000000, "SurfaceGravity"
:6.970296, "SurfaceTemperature":344.518799, "SurfacePressure":63552.277344, "Landable":false, "Composition":{ "Ice":0.000000, "Rock":0.672827, "Metal":0.327174 }, "SemiMajorAxis":187312422912.000000, "Eccentri
city":0.000471, "OrbitalInclination":0.116233, "Periapsis":137.455017, "OrbitalPeriod":41535692.000000, "RotationPeriod":125699.304688, "AxialTilt":-0.470603, "WasDiscovered":false, "WasMapped":false }

What you have appears correct, as far as the journal is concerned.

 

[Vithigar]

You can indeed check the terraformable state of a scanned body. In fact the snippet you posted looks fine except for a couple of issues with not forming the xml properly. You have two closing criteria tags, remove the first, and you have doubled the "<" on the final closing tag. Fix those two issues and give it another try.

As for discovery of systems, Urania Minora is correct about that one. Elite Observatory does not currently check the discovered status at a system level.

 

[Baxder]

Thanks! I'll give that edit a go today. I use another app that does let you know if bodies are discovered, and "Wasdiscovered" is a tag listed in the example xml. Would there be a way to apply that to stars only in the custom criteria? I apologize if my use of "systems" was incorrect. I also apologize for my complete lack of coding ability that prompts what must be elementary questions like this, and really appreciate the help.

That other app is EDGPS https://github.com/ComputerMaster1st/EdGPS. Observatory will replace it if I can get these two items sorted.

Spoiler: Something like this? I'll look up a honk entry and update...

HONK
<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">Star</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">Wasdiscovered</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Undiscovered System</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>"StarSystem"; "Bodies"</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

 

[Vithigar]

You could check for a (stellar mass × wasdiscovered) value greater than zero. Planets have no stellar mass value, so the check will do nothing for non-star objects.

 

[Vithigar]

Spoiler: Like this?

HONK
<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">{Systems primary star}</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">Wasdiscovered</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Undiscovered System</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>{System}; {Number of bodies, if possible}</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

Uh... no. Not even a little. That said I did make a small mistake in that you want to check for it to be equal zero, not greater, to find undiscovered stars.

Like this:

<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
    <Operation Operator="Multiply">
        <FirstValue Type="EventData">StellarMass</FirstValue>
        <SecondValue Type="EventData">WasDiscovered</SecondValue>
    </Operation>
    <Description>Undiscovered Star</Description>
</Criteria>

 

[Baxder]

Uh... no. Not even a little. That said I did make a small mistake in that you want to check for it to be equal zero, not greater, to find undiscovered stars.

Hey, I'm trying here. I also edited it since your quote.

Spoiler: Updated Version. Probably still wrong.

<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">Star</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">Wasdiscovered</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Undiscovered System</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>"StarSystem"</item>
<item>"Bodies"</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

Thanks again for that solution, but is there a way to narrow it to the system's primary star? I borrowed the ["Star":0] from the journal data above in my attempt to do so, assuming it was the system's primary, and that the Discovery Scanner entry would label it as such. I can't find an actual journal entry and am at work so I can't look at my own.
(<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">Star</FirstValue>)

Would body count work in the detail section? (<Item>"StarSystem"</item> <item>"Bodies"</Item>)
Source for the "Bodies" entry (Again, no actual journals to reference): https://elite-journal.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Exploration/

Also, is there a way to get something like body count in the description so it gets announced?

I again apologize for my ignorance and appreciate your patience. I'd like to be able to write my own criteria and am encouraged that the examples are making more sense to me.

 

[Vithigar]

"Star" is not a value for EventData that Elite Observatory recognizes. The documentation in the sample file lists everything you can use. If you've deleted/edited the sample file you can also find it here.

I don't currently expose BodyID (what that "Star":0 value is referencing) as a value that can be read by custom criteria. On top of that, the primary star is not always guaranteed to be BodyID 0 in the first place. It will be BodyID 1 in binary systems, and possibly even higher in sufficiently convoluted higher order multi-star relationships. That said, adding BodyID wouldn't be difficult, so I might bundle it into the next release regardless, just in case someone such as yourself finds it useful.

Bodycount is not currently available but is certainly something I can add though.

 

[Baxder]

Stick to the parameters. Got it. I'll keep an eye out for updates, and will keep poking at the custom criteria to see what I can figure out. Thanks again!

 

[Baxder]

OK. I'm up way too late working this out, but I now have custom criteria that will call out unmapped high-value bodies (AW, WW, ELW, and all terraformables), in addition to the undiscovered stars. This was a lot of fun!

Spoiler: :D

<ObservatoryCriteria>
<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">TerraformState</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Terraformable</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>PlanetClass:</Item>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">PlanetClass:Ammonia World</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Ammonia World</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">PlanetClass:Water World</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="Add">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">TerraformState</FirstValue>
<SecondValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</SecondValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Water World</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">PlanetClass:Earthlike body</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Earthlike</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="Multiply">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">StellarMass</FirstValue>
<SecondValue Type="EventData">WasDiscovered</SecondValue>
</Operation>
<Description>Undiscovered Star</Description>
</Criteria>

</ObservatoryCriteria>

 

[Deleted member 240115]

Sweet. IGAU is also working to enable these discoveries to be shared to our Discovery catalog. Nice work!

I'll pass this along, and start testing it soon. Quite a few of us use EDMC so there's some overlap in functionality there, however the more tools that can share discovery data the better!

o7!

OK. I'm up way too late working this out, but I now have custom criteria that will call out unmapped high-value bodies (AW, WW, ELW, and all terraformables), in addition to the undiscovered stars. This was a lot of fun!

Spoiler: :D

<ObservatoryCriteria>
<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">TerraformState</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Terraformable</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>PlanetClass:</Item>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">PlanetClass:Ammonia World</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Ammonia World</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">PlanetClass:Water World</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="Add">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">TerraformState</FirstValue>
<SecondValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</SecondValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Water World</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="And">
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="1">
<Operation Operator="None">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">PlanetClass:Earthlike World</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="Add">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">WasMapped</FirstValue>
</Operation>
</Criteria>
<Description>Unmapped Earthlike</Description>
<Detail>
<Item>DistanceFromArrivalLS</Item>
</Detail>
</Criteria>

<Criteria Comparator="Equal" Value="0">
<Operation Operator="Multiply">
<FirstValue Type="EventData">StellarMass</FirstValue>
<SecondValue Type="EventData">WasDiscovered</SecondValue>
</Operation>
<Description>Undiscovered Star</Description>
</Criteria>

</ObservatoryCriteria>

 

[Vithigar]

Very nice!

 

[Baxder]

Sweet. IGAU is also working to enable these discoveries to be shared to our Discovery catalog. Nice work!

I'll pass this along, and start testing it soon. Quite a few of us use EDMC so there's some overlap in functionality there, however the more tools that can share discovery data the better!

o7!

Awesome! I'm glad my fledgling efforts can help your endeavors! I'm not the first to come up with such a tool. Check out EDGPS; it's the reason I wanted to add this functionality, and will likely be much more helpful.

 

[Vithigar]

In response to your pre-edit post, which is what ended up in my email, I'll just confirm that yes, the original purpose of Elite Observatory was primarily photographic opportunities. That is still what its core purpose is, and what I am generally most concerned with, it has just also developed some auxiliary functions in the meantime which I certainly don't intend to discourage.

 

[Baxder]

That's what I love about it. I'm spoiled by EDGPS allowing me to get my exploration on without having to open the sysmap, and the ability to combine the two functions is great. Not to mention that I prefer Observatory's voice and it has a much nicer interface, options and so on, so it's an improvement even without the photo op's.