VisitedStars cache and ImportStars.txt

[Mika L]

That sucks. I think your visited-star list is indeed beyond rescue.
It's bad enough that FD store crucial info somewhere that many users won't think to back up (AppData), but they've taken that one step further and placed it in the Local part of AppData rather than Roaming. I can't find any official MS guidance on the purpose of those folders (and the LocalLow one) but in my experience, the vast majority of apps only put ephemeral data into Local and more important stuff into Roaming.

Someone should write a pinned post listing all the game file folders PC players should back up regularly.

 

[varonica]

I'm pretty sure it still hold visited stars from when I first started playing and I am well above that limit.

Yeah just checked, Eol Prou CL-O d6-1174, which I visited in 2016, is still in my visited stars list, since way back then I have visited over 50k systems.

 

[Northpin]

They also should do away with the stupid requirement to have visited a system before you can open its system map. If no one has been there yet they can just show a blank system map instead. But it's ridiculous that the system map of any populated bubble system can't be accessed if you have't been there, it should all be in the ship computer.

It's kinda not.
You get system exploration data either by visiting and fss-ing the system or by purchasing exploration data in the system map. The last bit is valid for populated systems in within 20ly (or was it 40ly?)

 

[Neilski]

Yeah just checked, Eol Prou CL-O d6-1174, which I visited in 2016, is still in my visited stars list, since way back then I have visited over 50k systems.

Yes but would that still be the case if you rebuilt your cache with this code? (Having made a copy of course!) I've got less to lose than you so I'll probably give this a try soon.

 

[Amargosa]

It's kinda not.
You get system exploration data either by visiting and fss-ing the system or by purchasing exploration data in the system map. The last bit is valid for populated systems in within 20ly (or was it 40ly?)

Exploration isn't dependent on system map access at all. They'll still all show up as "unexplored" if you have access to the map but didn't explore any of them.
You can enter a system, then leave and destroy your ship to lose your exploration data for that system, you'll still have access to that system's map, but with everything showing as "unexplored" again. That's how it should be by default.

 

[Maolagin]

It's kinda not.
You get system exploration data either by visiting and fss-ing the system or by purchasing exploration data in the system map. The last bit is valid for populated systems in within 20ly (or was it 40ly?)

Indeed. It's a fascinating concept, but at least mostly consistently applied, that humanity has interstellar travel but very very limited means to move information across interstellar distances. Being willing to buy cartography data about populated systems practically next door is part and parcel with the endless supply of faction reps willing to pay high prices to ferry data between systems. Nevertheless, in such a setting it does make a kind of sense that the nav computer comes preprogrammed with system maps only for the most important core systems.

 

[Northpin]

Indeed. It's a fascinating concept, but at least mostly consistently applied, that humanity has interstellar travel but very very limited means to move information across interstellar distances. Being willing to buy cartography data about populated systems practically next door is part and parcel with the endless supply of faction reps willing to pay high prices to ferry data between systems. Nevertheless, in such a setting it does make a kind of sense that the nav computer comes preprogrammed with system maps only for the most important core systems.

Yes, this is consistent with lore (IMO) - there is no FTL coms and the only things that are FTL capable are our fsd_equiped_ships - which means we need to personally visit a system for exploration data and dock with a station for trade data - or we can purchase those bits of Info from the Sysmap which acts like an information broker.
Also consistent with the data courier missions, although a special case can be made for the extra security offered by ship delivery of said data as opposed of using a transmission that can be intercepted/decoded.

But then again it is inconsistent with the lore since apparently the Imperial Senate was able to hold realtime telepresence meetings, Palin is effortlessly able to reach us 5000ly out in the black when we (more or less intentionally) unlock his services and not at last, we have instantaneous telepresence anywhere in the galaxy even from bubble to the Beagle Point

 

[Mika L]

Yes, this is consistent with lore (IMO) - there is no FTL coms and the only things that are FTL capable are our fsd_equiped_ships - which means we need to personally visit a system for exploration data and dock with a station for trade data - or we can purchase those bits of Info from the Sysmap which acts like an information broker.
Also consistent with the data courier missions, although a special case can be made for the extra security offered by ship delivery of said data as opposed of using a transmission that can be intercepted/decoded.

But then again it is inconsistent with the lore since apparently the Imperial Senate was able to hold realtime telepresence meetings, Palin is effortlessly able to reach us 5000ly out in the black when we (more or less intentionally) unlock his services and not at last, we have instantaneous telepresence anywhere in the galaxy even from bubble to the Beagle Point

There is already quite a lot of FTL communication: There is GalNet, which sends news articles with pictures to anywhere in the galaxy, and the Pilots' Federation knows instantly when I have passed a threshold for a promotion in any of their ranks, regardless of where in the galaxy I am. So I think the ships should be able to download system maps from Universal Cartographics, if they can receive GalNet news articles and promotion notifications. I understand that it would make buying cartographic data less meaningful to minor factions if they could download it directly from UC. But I think it's weird when they pay large sums for mapping data of planets that have been mapped by thousands of commanders before me.

 

[Northpin]

There is already quite a lot of FTL communication: There is GalNet, which sends news articles with pictures to anywhere in the galaxy, and the Pilots' Federation knows instantly when I have passed a threshold for a promotion in any of their ranks, regardless of where in the galaxy I am. So I think the ships should be able to download system maps from Universal Cartographics, if they can receive GalNet news articles and promotion notifications. I understand that it would make buying cartographic data less meaningful to minor factions if they could download it directly from UC. But I think it's weird when they pay large sums for mapping data of planets that have been mapped by thousands of commanders before me.

This goes pretty much along the why my perma accelerating ship is stuck at 300m/s in the vacuum of space and to why i'm not able to kill an enemy ship at 100km away when my lasers/rails/missiles will travel through a medium that will not limit their ability to cover distances.


And if we talk about consistency, why on Earth i'm able to get insta First Footfall discovery the moment i disembark, but i have to reach an Universal Cartographics office to sell my exploration data (or a Vista Genomics one)

 

[Mika L]

This goes pretty much along the why my perma accelerating ship is stuck at 300m/s in the vacuum of space and to why i'm not able to kill an enemy ship at 100km away when my lasers/rails/missiles will travel through a medium that will not limit their ability to cover distances.


And if we talk about consistency, why on Earth i'm able to get insta First Footfall discovery the moment i disembark, but i have to reach an Universal Cartographics office to sell my exploration data (or a Vista Genomics one)

Yeah, those are compromises in realism that have been made in favor of gameplay. But I think the First Footfall tag could be given when selling data at UC, just like the First Mapped by and Discovered by -tags.

But I would like it if I could buy system maps of any systems that are known to UC. I would also like to filter out fully discovered systems in galaxy map, so that I could travel only to systems where there is still something undiscovered.

 

[Northpin]

But I would like it if I could buy system maps of any systems that are known to UC. I would also like to filter out fully discovered systems in galaxy map, so that I could travel only to systems where there is still something undiscovered.

That's where the Visited Star Cache comes into play.
And i really wish it was something stored on FDev servers and not on our client machines.

 

[Numenor1379]

Sorry for the necro on this, but I'm trying to get this to work for my old PS4 data I've managed to dig up from EDSM and merge at least part of it onto my new PC system.

I've downloaded the .exe, put both the ImportStars.txt and VisitedStarCache.dat into the binaries file, tried to run the .exe.... and nothing happens.

What am I missing?

 

[varonica]

Sorry for the necro on this, but I'm trying to get this to work for my old PS4 data I've managed to dig up from EDSM and merge at least part of it onto my new PC system.

I've downloaded the .exe, put both the ImportStars.txt and VisitedStarCache.dat into the binaries file, tried to run the .exe.... and nothing happens.

What am I missing?

That FDEV disabled the method of merging the caches to stop people building up a database of other peoples visitedtsarscache maybe?

 

[Neilski]

That FDEV disabled the method of merging the caches to stop people building up a database of other peoples visitedtsarscache maybe?

Hmm, is that a real thing or a guess? I thought I had read somewhere here that it worked for another player recently.

 

[varonica]

Hmm, is that a real thing or a guess? I thought I had read somewhere here that it worked for another player recently.

There was a time way back when you could just chain visitedstarcaches together endlessly, they were available on various websites, they stopped that because it was against the spirit of the game, you could still try and join them, but the visited stars cache was being limited in length by the number of systems the player had actually visited in game, in other words if you visited 3,000 systems in game and joined 2 visitedstars caches, yours and a friends, it would only allow a max of 3,000 entries so it would discard any entries past 3,000.

I read that also yes and I am not sure of the details, but I'm pretty sure the method in this thread no longer works due to FDEV making changes to the visitedstarscache to prevent people making combined caches.

If Numenort1379 is trying to join two caches that are combined total larger than his current visited stars that definitely won't work, if this is a new PC account and he is trying to merge old data from a PS4 account then it will be over the number of systems he has actually visited.

 

[Numenor1379]

There was a time way back when you could just chain visitedstarcaches together endlessly, they were available on various websites, they stopped that because it was against the spirit of the game, you could still try and join them, but the visited stars cache was being limited in length by the number of systems the player had actually visited in game, in other words if you visited 3,000 systems in game and joined 2 visitedstars caches, yours and a friends, it would only allow a max of 3,000 entries so it would discard any entries past 3,000.

I read that also yes and I am not sure of the details, but I'm pretty sure the method in this thread no longer works due to FDEV making changes to the visitedstarscache to prevent people making combined caches.

If Numenort1379 is trying to join two caches that are combined total larger than his current visited stars that definitely won't work, if this is a new PC account and he is trying to merge old data from a PS4 account then it will be over the number of systems he has actually visited.

It is actually a transfered account, so the in-game visited stars still includes all my old PS4 numbers.

I was trying to merge in the file from my old PS4 EDSM account and put that into my new PC account but I am unable to get the .exe to do anything.

 

[yianniv]

Sorry for the necro on this, but I'm trying to get this to work for my old PS4 data I've managed to dig up from EDSM and merge at least part of it onto my new PC system.

I've downloaded the .exe, put both the ImportStars.txt and VisitedStarCache.dat into the binaries file, tried to run the .exe.... and nothing happens.

What am I missing?

Just to be certain it's not Windows Defender blocking it, right click on the exe, and in Properties see if it gives you the option to Unblock it (towards the bottom). If yes, select it, press OK and retry.

 

[Numenor1379]

Just to be certain it's not Windows Defender blocking it, right click on the exe, and in Properties see if it gives you the option to Unblock it (towards the bottom). If yes, select it, press OK and retry.

Doesn't look like it. I don't see anything saying it's blocked, and it's got full permissions on the security tab. I've even tried running as Administrator with it. I double-click the VisitedStarCacheMerger.exe and a window pops up for a split second then goes away, doesn't even load the content. Then nothing happens.

 

[yianniv]

Doesn't look like it. I don't see anything saying it's blocked, and it's got full permissions on the security tab. I've even tried running as Administrator with it. I double-click the VisitedStarCacheMerger.exe and a window pops up for a split second then goes away, doesn't even load the content. Then nothing happens.

Ah, OK. I interpreted "nothing happens" literally. Unblock would be in the General tab, anyway. Sorry.

 

[Neilski]

Doesn't look like it. I don't see anything saying it's blocked, and it's got full permissions on the security tab. I've even tried running as Administrator with it. I double-click the VisitedStarCacheMerger.exe and a window pops up for a split second then goes away, doesn't even load the content. Then nothing happens.

I've been meaning to try it for ages. Will have a go shortly (next day or few) and see what happens...