Any News on Broken horizons for accounts on PS4

Elkyri · Feb 18, 2021

Support Luna said:
And for everyone here, did the problem start mid January? Or have we got anyone here who only started to run into this more recently?

I noticed it 14 or 15 January -- right after the galactic update for that week. I assumed it came about because of some change made with the weekly update and expected it would be resolved with the next weekly update. There were some other changes that may or may not have a bearing. I'll put that it in a separate post.

Support Luna said:
Absolutely. I don't doubt our Devs will have already approached the problem from this angle. I'm largely out here, flapping about of my own volition, like an overenthusiastic detective sniffing for any tiny clue that may help to solve the case.

Elkyri · Feb 18, 2021

The 14 January galactic update added some experimental habitats in the Colonia region as a result of the previous week's community goal. When I went to Experimental Habitat 004 with my main account I saw this (two images):

When my niece went there in the alt account she saw something completely different. The Beckett Class Science Vessel appeared as a "human signal" and was placed on/in the non-landable planet.

Main account had one presentation and alt account had a different presentation. We subsequently discovered not being able to land on planets when she attempted to visit an engineer base. I included these images and the description when I first reported the issue on the support page. May or not be related but it all happened on the same day.

franzdganz · Feb 18, 2021

Support Luna said:
Heeeello again.

Those of you who actually use SLFs (or rather, would use them... if you could...). Is it the 'launch Bay Malfunction (1)' message you're all getting at present? I ask because I've now seen a trickle of reports for just that error alone, without the loss of landfall capability. And it seems to be intermittent in those cases, so I'm worried it may be some kind of precursor.

Has anyone run into an issue with moving pips to weapons at all?

And for everyone here, did the problem start mid January? Or have we got anyone here who only started to run into this more recently?

The issue started mid January for me (on alt account) out of the blue. The day before everything was working fine.

No issues with moving pips to weapons and no SLF module in use so I have no feedback on that.

waduquon · Feb 18, 2021

The problem raised mid January for me.

Thanks Luna for your comm.

bltc · Feb 18, 2021

Mid January start time
'launch Bay Malfunction (1)' confirmed
no landfall capability
no trouble with weapon pips

alt account (main seems to have landfall in nav bar (cannot test further or slf as I do not use that account)
ps4 pro digital
horizons season pass displayed
license restore/reinstall etc no effect.

Pristine_Bump · Feb 18, 2021

Cant be definate with start date but think it was Feb 2/4th havnt played since untill today
My Alt (600 hours) cant launch SLF,s or land on planets (Needs Horizions for this)
I have a Legendary PS4 disc
will check my main later

Old Duck · Feb 18, 2021

Support Luna said:
Absolutely. I don't doubt our Devs will have already approached the problem from this angle. I'm largely out here, flapping about of my own volition, like an overenthusiastic detective sniffing for any tiny clue that may help to solve the case. And I really do want this solved. And I want everyone here to know that it's not some forgotten little nuisance that we've swept under the carpet already

I'll keep feeding back, and the Dev team will keep peering under the hood to find what's wrong.

But right now... I'm well past off shift for the day. I'll make sure to come back and check on you lovely people, and update you as and when I can

You are my new hero, and I don't even play on PS4 anymore.

Phongsalt · Feb 18, 2021

The landfall problem first occurred for me on Jan 15th. I don't have a fighter hangar/SLF installed on my ship, and am nowhere near civilised space/ engineers, so i can't comment on these issues.
Thank you for continuing to keep us informed.

SirTheo · Feb 19, 2021

Support Luna said:
Heeeello again.

Those of you who actually use SLFs (or rather, would use them... if you could...). Is it the 'launch Bay Malfunction (1)' message you're all getting at present? I ask because I've now seen a trickle of reports for just that error alone, without the loss of landfall capability. And it seems to be intermittent in those cases, so I'm worried it may be some kind of precursor.

Has anyone run into an issue with moving pips to weapons at all?

And for everyone here, did the problem start mid January? Or have we got anyone here who only started to run into this more recently?

For a time, I worked investigations on returns for a major aerospace firm. If we discovered a pattern of returns, we would deep dive investigate like you are, and sometimes we'd request one of the malfunctioning units to be returned in order to record and try and track down the problem.

I wonder if somehow, it was possible to get debugging information from a malfunctioning install and have the user submit it. See if your devs could track down where the disconnect is happening.

Rama_V1 · Feb 19, 2021

Apologies for taking longer than I thought to check, life and all that

I've put a fighter bay on my Corvette and have the launch bay malfunction problem too

Spacerschoice-00 · Feb 20, 2021

Saw this on Reddit,
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/lny8ah Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/lny8ah/why_am_i_not_able_to_land_on_any_planets_when_i/

Looking like it's affecting new accounts also...

Alpenniless · Feb 20, 2021

It should affect across all PS4 accounts new or old and it's probably an alt account (the gamer did not say which), from what I read so far.

Is there anyone with an alt account that is not affected by this issue ?

Rittings · Feb 20, 2021

It's alarming that this has gone on for so long now. It might be time for people to start considering legal action. Check with Trading Standards and consumer rights. We've purchased something that isn't accessible as intended.

My own experience is that my alt IS my main. I had to purchase a US physical copy since I was living there, but have a UK PSN - and thus the Horizons code within the game was for the US PSN store. I'm years invested at this point, with billions of credits invested in ships, modules and engineering. And now I've lost access to engineers, fighter bays and all those mats I have are useless to me. Trust me, my grind will not be in vain. I will be seeking help with this matter if FDev have fallen silently on their swords on this issue.

The very least they could be doing is trying to give us PSN codes for digital versions (at least one code for people like me) so that we may have access to a game we already purchased!!!

pr1sm · Feb 20, 2021

Rittings said:
The very least they could be doing is trying to give us PSN codes for digital versions (at least one code for people like me) so that we may have access to a game we already purchased!!!

And that's the bit i don't get, whilst they have to find the root cause lest it cause issues further down the line i can't see why they don't just issue new licenses to the affected players while revoking their current not working ones. A royal pain in the end for whoever has to manually edit the affected accounts but in the interests of customer satisfaction it makes sense. and im not even a ps user but even i can see why everyone is rightly aggrieved.

Rama_V1 · Feb 20, 2021

Rittings, are you the guy that said on the issue tracker about how he's contacted BBC's Watchdog? I mean...really? Yeah. Good luck with that. /sarcasm.

That's going to amount to nothing

Dillon Fallon · Feb 20, 2021

Rittings said:
It's alarming that this has gone on for so long now. It might be time for people to start considering legal action. Check with Trading Standards and consumer rights. We've purchased something that isn't accessible as intended.

My own experience is that my alt IS my main. I had to purchase a US physical copy since I was living there, but have a UK PSN - and thus the Horizons code within the game was for the US PSN store. I'm years invested at this point, with billions of credits invested in ships, modules and engineering. And now I've lost access to engineers, fighter bays and all those mats I have are useless to me. Trust me, my grind will not be in vain. I will be seeking help with this matter if FDev have fallen silently on their swords on this issue.

The very least they could be doing is trying to give us PSN codes for digital versions (at least one code for people like me) so that we may have access to a game we already purchased!!!

Good luck finding anyone willing to give you legal representation over unintentional damages in the region of £40.

At best you're entitled to a refund maybe. Might be worth asking some of the Cyberpunk customers how that went.

Rittings · Feb 21, 2021

Dillon Fallon said:
Good luck finding anyone willing to give you legal representation over unintentional damages in the region of £40.

At best you're entitled to a refund maybe. Might be worth asking some of the Cyberpunk customers how that went.

They got a refund for a game that didn't work as intended. Simple. That's how that went. Legal action doesn't mean you need representation either. It simply means that you have lawful consumer rights and are protected by them - and you can get help and support on how to move forward with something. It hardly seems fair that I've purchased a game that isn't working and I'm not getting the product I paid for. I guarantee if you walked into a fast food joint and asked for a quarter pound with cheese and your burger came meatless - you'd be demanding they replace it wouldn't you, or at the very least give you the beef you paid for... and that's you just quibbling over a couple of quid... so don't try to trivialize the matter

thanks.

Rama_V1 said:
Rittings, are you the guy that said on the issue tracker about how he's contacted BBC's Watchdog? I mean...really? Yeah. Good luck with that. /sarcasm.
That's going to amount to nothing

I have contacted them. It's not the first time a software company would appear on their radar and show either. EA Sports featured heavily on it - and from it came an industry standard change with regards to in-game gambling on loot boxes. I believe it's important to get free advice from people that deal with these kinds of things everyday. It doesn't hurt to remember we are customers and consumers and have rights.

twistleuk · Feb 21, 2021

Spacerschoice-00 said:
Looking like it's affecting new accounts also...

Can absolutely confirm this. My son has just downloaded a brand new digital version purchased from PSN store. Same issue.

Rittings - fair play to you for following up. Is there any way anyone knows of bringing this to the attention of Sony, or anyone else as a group? It is affecting hundreds of players at least, and has been doing so for over a month. And also new players who are buying a broken game. When they get one complaint they can easily ignore - not so easy if there are hundreds.

And Frontier - this is getting really shameful.

Rama_V1 · Feb 21, 2021

Well I'm sure you'll appreciate getting those dollars back if it works

Think I might sue the government. I have rights. But I can't do everything I used to because of this problem that hasn't been around before making it so I can't. Like. I can't land my butt in restaurant seats anymore. And it's been so long, how have they not already sorted it?

Rittings · Feb 21, 2021

Rama_V1 said:
Well I'm sure you'll appreciate getting those dollars back if it works
Think I might sue the government. I have rights. But I can't do everything I used to because of this problem that hasn't been around before making it so I can't. Like. I can't land my butt in restaurant seats anymore. And it's been so long, how have they not already sorted it?

You aren't guaranteed to be going into restaurants. There is no consumer right there being breached because you haven't paid for it already. The analogy is appreciated, but sadly is a very poor one. When you pay for a product that doesn't work the way it was sold to you - you're entitled to a refund, or a replacement. Covid was not the governments fault, but they have the issue nonetheless to deal with. However, this is a coding issue that was caused by FDev in their latest patch. So, quite rightly, they are fully accountable for fixing it.

But like I said... I enjoy a good analogy, but this is far from a good one. It's completely devoid of relevancy.

twistleuk said:
Can absolutely confirm this. My son has just downloaded a brand new digital version purchased from PSN store. Same issue.

Rittings - fair play to you for following up. Is there any way anyone knows of bringing this to the attention of Sony, or anyone else as a group? It is affecting hundreds of players at least, and has been doing so for over a month. And also new players who are buying a broken game. When they get one complaint they can easily ignore - not so easy if there are hundreds.

And Frontier - this is getting really shameful.

You can try @AskPlaystation on Twitter to see if they can lead you in the correct direction. But I know with Cyberpunk they acted fairly swiftly - and I don't know if they followed through with it yet, but I know the plan was to remove it from the PSN Store until it was in working order. I'm not saying that should be the fate for Elite - but I do think FDev need more than just a single moderator to acknowledge this issue on these forums and to offer some transparency on what they are doing about a fix.... so far it's been crickets from them and THAT is the reason that consumers feel pressured to take further action.