Player Journal : What is it’s actual use?

[IndigoWyrd]

So we’ve got this really nifty “Player Journal” which some external sites can parse for data, and may be used by the game for populating some information, but I’m wondering what its actual intended function is, as far as Elite is concerned.

The current patch notes for the patch due tomorrow lists a number of journal-related items, but I’m left wondering why.

Is this largely for external use? Is there some We’re-Not-Ready-to-Talk-About-It internal plan to make use of this data? Is this just page-filler?

 

[FrogsFriend]

It's how the game 'exports' information for third party applications such as Inara, EDSM, EDDB, etc.to use. It's how all the information gets out there.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

So it’s just external, nothing particularly useful to someone like me who doesn’t go outside the game to find out things inside the game that would be helpful to have but not necessary.

Was that a subtle enough hint to put game data in the game?

 

[FrogsFriend]

So it’s just external, nothing particularly useful to someone like me who doesn’t go outside the game to find out things inside the game that would be helpful to have but not necessary.

Was that a subtle enough hint to put game data in the game?

I suppose the data is in the game, it doesn't export anything that you can't see for yourself. The third parties just collate that data from a large number of players and present it in a handy format. FD could try to replicate those tools in-game but allowing talented people to build a wide variety of tools for different and sometimes very specific needs is by far the most efficient way to do it.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I suppose the data is in the game, it doesn't export anything that you can't see for yourself. The third parties just collate that data from a large number of players and present it in a handy format. FD could try to replicate those tools in-game but allowing talented people to build a wide variety of tools for different and sometimes very specific needs is by far the most efficient way to do it.

Some of it is, yes, in one form or another, often scattered across multiple screens, menus and interfaces.

For example, I can find a listing of all the ships I own and where they’re strewn throughout the galaxy, if I put down at a station with a functional ship yard and look at the ship transfer interface.
I can even delve into their outfitting that way, though it can be cumbersome.

I can also retrace my steps through the galaxy by means of a combination of the Galaxy Map and the player information in the Codex, But this can also be cumbersome.

I totally get why there are external sites, I just don’t make use of most of them. Coriolis is nice if I want to plan a new ship build. Inara is a handy quick reference for which special effects compliment my engineering. EDDB has come in handy for tracking down some particularly obscure information regarding some otherwise obscure systems, but this is largely out-if-game stuff for me.

 

[Exeider]

Right now the flow of interaction is one way, until frontier might allow things like item management, remote ordering, or if they add things like bases/carriers that have some kind of process that operates in real time that needs watching, what have you, it serves as simply a data export service. HOWEVER it COULD become something really cool that could have an accompanying app on your phone that you can then use outside of the game to manage things.

But again, frontier would have to allow that and of course have a game mechanic that would require such access. So it has potential, it just depends if frontier wants to go in that direction.

 

[Raumfahrer Spiff]

If you only use one 3rd party service for this game, I would probably suggest Inara, because you get the most diverse use out of it, especially when you link your account to be able to collect and read all the data across your account in one place before turning on the game. Makes planning and executing a variety of tasks and goals a much easier process than flying back and forth between stations and hunting through in-game menus one by one.

But that said, once you use one of these 3rd party tools, you quickly learn how much they augment and improve what your are doing in the game.. so you naturally get curious about using the other apps you hear about to augment the next thing you are doing and so on.. i have around 4-5 websites/apps I use regularly in and out of game (not including reddit/here/discord.)

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Right now the flow of interaction is one way, until frontier might allow things like item management, remote ordering, or if they add things like bases/carriers that have some kind of process that operates in real time that needs watching, what have you, it serves as simply a data export service. HOWEVER it COULD become something really cool that could have an accompanying app on your phone that you can then use outside of the game to manage things.

But again, frontier would have to allow that and of course have a game mechanic that would require such access. So it has potential, it just depends if frontier wants to go in that direction.

Sometime last year I fielded the suggestion to have a Companion App, akin to what Dying Light has - a fairly simplistic mini-game of Give Assignments to your NPC crew while you're not logged in to the main game, and let them earn some rankings and maybe score some micro-materials - like DWE's, or the rare Military Supercapacitor - stuff like that.
I'd throw a couple bucks at it to be able to do something while I'm making a 3 hour car ride to the lake, or a 12 hour ride down to my yacht, or kill an extra 5 minutes in the loo at work.