MattG's Observatory plugins
- Thread starter MattG
- Start date
Yep, they're on my to-do list but I keep putting them off. There's a number of small but signifcant differences in the Horizons bios that make them less trivial than expected to add. It's probably the most requested feature though, so I need to make some time for it.
So this is semi-known, but raises it's own question.
The problem here is that this species must be "near a nebula". I thought (and had read elsewhere) that this distance was within 100LY. However, for the big nebula (rather than planetary nebula), the center points are only community guesstimates. To account for this, I allow 150LY on big nebula - but this system is 180LY away from the supposed center so it still doesn't flag the Electricae.
I have a (slow going) project to get better estimates for the nebulae positions, but if I use the new estimated position, this system is still just under 150LY away. This means either the new center point is incorrect in some way, or the radius for larger nebula is over 100LY, or that there's another nebula closer that I've missed. I'll investigate more.
When Odyssey was new, I tested out a few planetary nebulae and a couple of large ones for the Electricae Radialem, and they were all 100 ly. Since that tends to be the distance used for most nebula-related stuff, I left things at that. Note how I said most: even before, there were a few exceptions, and some of them looked suspiciously like typos. (Like how Anomalies tend to spawn within 10 ly, but E-03s in Izanami are 100 ly, or large fauna around nebulae tend to be 100 ly, but the Bullet Molluscs near NGC 3199 are in 1,000 ly IIRC, and so on) Could be the case here too. (Normally, I'd also suspect that an unnoticed planetary nebula might be lurking nearby, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this one.)
Looking at the EDAstro maps, some of the Electricae's spheres seem a bit suspiciously large. However, it's not very precise at this scale, and people are much more likely to look at more systems around a large nebula than they'd be around the small planetary ones. Then there's popularity to consider - more popular destinations are more likely to have more people uploading data. So, in the end, the best way to make certain is to go there and do a proper survey.
A pity I didn't know about this a few weeks ago, I was near there.
Just for fun: The green thing to the left is the reported system. The blue thing in the middle are the Radialem from EDAstro, the green thing on the right are the Pluma from EDAstro. Even considering the picture being wrongly overlayed by a few pixels this looks like way outside the previous reported area.
Maybe there's a planetary nebula nearby?
Okay, so I'm finally ready to try this. Obeservatory is installed and it came with a folder with three plugins: botanist, explorer and herald. When I run ObservatoryCore, I see three entries: Botanist, Explorer and Core. Is this all I need? I don't see Herald.Go here, and download ObservatorySetup.exe.
Run it.
Releases · Xjph/ObservatoryCore
Elite Observatory: Extensible tool for processing Elite Dangerous journals - Xjph/ObservatoryCoregithub.com
Run Observatory.
In whatever folder you put Observatory, there will be a plugins folder.
Put plugins there.
Close Observatory
Run Observatory again.
Click Read All once and wait until it finishes.
At least that's how I do it
My goal is to have the mod alert me when I may be in a system with something worth chasing down. I have it running on a second screen in a system I am working but haven't seen it do anything yet.
Should it? Or does it only kick in after I FSS a new system? Is there anything I need to do to 'activate' it? What's the boot order? Get into the game then start Observatory?
Lastly, is there a YT video demonstrating any of this? I have yet to find one.
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Start it when you run ED, it will have a pop up or voice warning you can set to alert you to interesting finds. Don't forget the other plugins if you want something they can show you that the base plugins can't. Doesn't matter what order you start it in, it scans the data being sent to the journal.
Those are the base plugins that come with Observatory. You might have Herald also installed - click the Core tab and look for Herald in there, it doesn't have an output window but has configuration options (including enabling it).
If you want my plugins, you can download them here. To install a plugin, you can do it 2 ways:
- download the .eop for the plugin, close Observatory and then double click the .eop - this will install it and re-run Observatory
- or, download the .eop then hit Core -> Open Plugin Folder in Observatory. Drag the .eop into that folder and then close + reopen Observatory
Most popular of my plugins are BioInsights, which will tell you about (Odyssey) biologicals on a planet and Evaluator which will tell you about valuable bodies and attempt to route you to them in an efficient manner.
For BioInsights, it will say "Read All Required" in window initially - it needs to build a database of what you've seen when first installed (and sometimes after an upgrade), so hit Read All and it'll process your history. It might take a minute or 2 as all plugins will process that history.
You should also review settings for any installed plugin, to tweak how they work.
Check the settings. I personally use Herald for voice notifications (there's also in-built voice option too) and the popup windows. Also, make sure you hit the "Start monitor" button, or it doesn't do anything - in fact, if you click Core you should see settings for "try to re-load current system" and "start monitor on odyssey launch" - tick both of those, this will auto-start Observatory when you run it, and will help plugins to load details of current system.
It's better to open Observatory before Elite - but jumping to a new system will generally kick things off anyway
None that I'm aware of. I will write documentation for my plugins eventually, but happy to answer questions here or on Observatory discord (here).
RE: YT demonstrations, now that Drew Wagar is back doing newbie play throughs and said he will be looking at showing off 3rd party apps, I have suggested he look specifically at Elite Observatory. Hopefully he saw my message.
Source: https://youtu.be/UVQMGDivDYc?si=vVEbacGH2-hSqNcA&t=1105
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I have the plug-ins installed and will see how they act once the game is booted. BioInsights ran through my Codex right away and populated it.
What, exactly, is in the "Seen" column? I see bios listed there on the moon I am presently on that I did not see when I DSSed the body. Is that telling me that the conditions are about right for those marked with a red X, but they just don't happen to be there? The legend says "cannot be present on body".
Also, under the BioInsights tab in Core, the default values for Bodies With Value Over is 20 million and Bodies with Individual Value is set at 15 million. Those seem very high... is it taking into account First Footfall etc?
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First footfall means the values for the bio's are multiplied by a factor of 5, the values displayed in the plugin show the base value, so a base value of 20m will return 100m if it is a first footfall planet. The question is always one of value for time spent, I rarely drop into a body unless there is bio in the mid teens and first footfall, so having a high value eliminates most of the bodies I don't consider worth visiting, I won't drop in for bacteria worth a base of 1m and FF of 5m, just not worth the time. of course this changes if bioinsights indicates it's previously undiscovered in that region, I have a few in the ingame codex under my name now, that's always nice!
Oh yes the "seen" column will be marked with a tick if you scan the bio with your composition scanner or sample it, the sampled column will only be marked if you sample it, it just tells you what bio's you have already done on that body.
Okay, just to clarify:
In the BioInsights tab under Core, "Bodies With Value Over" is referring to a planet or moon with a value threshold? It's a little confusing if so since I don't expect BioInsights to tell me about astronomical bodies... or is it referring to the total value of all bios on that planet / moon?
As for "Bodies with Individual Biological Value Over" set at 15,000,000... so that's anything with a base value of 3,000,000 and then multiplied by 5 for FF?
Now, are these simply toggles for voice announcements? I ask because even if it's set at 15 million, I still see bios listed in the BioInsights plug-in with base values lower than that the 3 million needed to reach 15 million with FF.
Apologies for being dense, I just want to make sure I'm using this tool to its full potential.
And, btw, I used it last night and LOVED it! No more Aurasus and Campestris! Thank you, Matt!
I always used to go chasing everything down because what if the Fonticula is a valuable one? And then once I've taken the time to find and scan the first one, only to find out is Campestris yet again, well, why waste the effort I've put in? And so I go chase down two more samples of a low value bio.
First bioinsights doesn't tell you about the body value, it tells you about the bio value, that's entirely separate from the body value. The plugin "Evaluator" tells you about body values, so under the setting for bioinsights that's entirely bio value. And no that's not the value multiplied by 5, if it tells you the value over 15,000,000, that's the value less the multiplier. If it tells you a value of 15,000,000, if the body is a first footfall the actual value after sampling all the bio will be min 75,000,000. If someone else has already been there, got first footfall and sampled some but not all of the bio the unsampled bio will be 5 times the base value but the sampled bios will be base value, but the plugin can't determine which bio's have been sampled by someone else so it always uses the base value. So the 5x bonus is determined by whether someone has already sampled a bio, not on first footfall. For instance i might land and sample the Tectonica on a moon and get 19m x5, but not bother with the bacteria, which is 1m base. So your samples should you choose to do it will be the base 19m for the tectonic and 1m x5 for the bacteria, around 24m. I hope that's clear for you.
If you get the evaluator plugin that will have it's own popup or message and settings you can adjust that will tell you whether or not the body meets the value for mapping, and will then list the planets/moons in the best order for scanning, that is an entirely separate function from bioinsights. I set my base mapping value at 1m because it's easier and faster and I don't have to land to do it.
I think varonica covered most of your questions but I'll just reiterate a couple of points. Firstly, all values in BioInsights are based off base value - it does not consider the x5 bonus for First Logged. (A future plugin will do this instead, and keep a total of your unsold data).
Also, at the moment the "valuable" body / species options are pessimistic. This means if there's 2 bios predicted but only 1 bio on the body, it will assume it's the lower value bio and not flag it. This is intentional as it's a good way to (pretty much) ensure that if you bother to land then it's worthwhile.
I am considering adding an option for optimistic alerts where it will tell you if a body has the potential to exceed a set value.
When I play, I've tweaked the Individual threshold to 12,000,000 (instead of 15,000,000) as it tends to throw in a few more bodies with Recepta.