Episode Four - Technical Issues & Support

[Admin]

 

Hi Survivors,

Thank you for your patience as we work on some bugs following the Episode Four launch. We’re also writing a Dev Diary for early next week, which will provide more information on upcoming releases including a planned Hotfix, Survival Mode updates, and more. 

In the meantime, please find a list of some of the issues we are currently working on, along with a few helpful tips to improve your experience.  

 

Windows 7 Black Screen Issue
Some players are experiencing an issue with a black screen on Windows 7. Please visit our support portal for a temporary workaround: bit.ly/3vr8m8p

 

Mac Graphics Rendering Issue

Some players are experiencing rendering issues while playing on Mac. This may mean images may load incorrectly. 

Forcing OpenGL may remedy this issue temporarily while we work to resolve the underlying cause. Please visit our support portal for more info: bit.ly/2YPakTA 

 

Mac Terrain Rendering Issue

A subset of players on Mac PCs may also find that some terrain elements are not rendering in. We have identified the problem and committed a fix to our next update which will fix the problem.

 

PS4 Crashing Issue
Occasionally, players are experiencing crashes on PS4 when transitioning from the disclaimer on launch (with the error code CE-34878-0). We are working on this issue. 

 

PS4 Trophies 
We have received reports that trophies aren’t appearing on PS4. We are also working to remedy this as quickly as possible. 

 

***SPOILERS***  Episode Four -- Steam Tunnels Control Room Door

Some players have reported that they are unable to open the Control Room door after the ice has been thawed while solving the Steam Pipe puzzle. Gameplay logic should prevent it from being possible for the ice to be thawed while the door remains locked, and we are working on fixing this issue. In the meantime, the puzzle can still be solved if all levers are in their correct places. Please retrace your steps and ensure that all pressure gauges running to the control room door vent are at maximum pressure. If that doesn't help, you can also try reloading from an earlier save. 

We are working on a more permanent fix for this.

 

Thank You

Please note that this is not an extensive list, and we appreciate your patience as we work to improve your gameplay experience. 

If you're experiencing other issues after updating to Episode Four, please send a note to our Support portal and someone will get back to you ASAP. Launches are high-volume, so please be patient! http://hinterlandgames.com/support

Thank you for playing Episode Four, and please keep an eye out for next week’s Dev Diary for more helpful info! 

- The Hinterland Team

[ProsPex]

Thank you!

[Sherri]

I always worry about submitting bug reports because I always assume that someone else has done it. 🤔 But none are showstoppers so. Maybe I'll report them if they happen again.

Off the top of my head I've had:

- Noisemaker "sticking" to the revolver so both appear equipped.

- Yellow unread indicator on journal items doesn't clear when read.

- A wolf stuck in the eating a rabbit animation but no rabbit.

Edited October 15, 2021 by Sherri

[Gun Tech.]

18 hours ago, Sherri said:

I always worry about submitting bug reports because I always assume that someone else has done it. 🤔 But none are showstoppers so. Maybe I'll report them if they happen again.

Off the top of my head I've had:

- Noisemaker "sticking" to the revolver so both appear equipped.

- Yellow unread indicator on journal items doesn't clear when read.

- A wolf stuck in the eating a rabbit animation but no rabbit.

All 3 happened to me too. Edit: I formally reported the first one and 4 more bugs using the portal. Looking forward to the survival update!!

Edited October 16, 2021 by Gun Tech.

[ajb1978]

18 hours ago, Sherri said:

I always worry about submitting bug reports because I always assume that someone else has done it. 🤔 But none are showstoppers so. Maybe I'll report them if they happen again.

Off the top of my head I've had:

- Noisemaker "sticking" to the revolver so both appear equipped.

- Yellow unread indicator on journal items doesn't clear when read.

- A wolf stuck in the eating a rabbit animation but no rabbit.

I've worked tech support--NEVER hesitate to submit a bug report. If one person reports a problem, one person has a problem. Low priority.

If a hundred people report the same problem, it needs to be escalated.

[Admin]

On 10/15/2021 at 1:46 PM, Sherri said:

I always worry about submitting bug reports because I always assume that someone else has done it. 🤔 But none are showstoppers so. Maybe I'll report them if they happen again.

Off the top of my head I've had:

- Noisemaker "sticking" to the revolver so both appear equipped.

- Yellow unread indicator on journal items doesn't clear when read.

- A wolf stuck in the eating a rabbit animation but no rabbit.

Thanks for sharing. As @ajb1978said, it's always a good idea to file a bug report for issues you experience. Most of these are known issues, but we also monitor for severity and how widespread the issues are, and any details you provide are helpful.

It might take us a little longer than normal to respond since we're still handling a larger than normal volume of reports following the Episode Four update, but you can report bugs here: https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us 

[Cheesestix]

Do error reports made through consoles go to the Hinterland team?  I often fill in a bit of info and send a report through my PS4 when a game crashes, but rarely directly through your website.

I always assumed they got shot straight to your tech team, but if they don't, I'll start reporting the other way.

 

[Admin]

21 hours ago, Cheesestix said:

Do error reports made through consoles go to the Hinterland team?  I often fill in a bit of info and send a report through my PS4 when a game crashes, but rarely directly through your website.

I always assumed they got shot straight to your tech team, but if they don't, I'll start reporting the other way.

 

If you run into a major issue, please do file it through our support portal. Console reports generally go to the console's tech team, which we then access as a larger data set (as opposed to tracking individual issues). You can access the portal here: https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us 

Thanks for checking! 

[Mistral]

Is the Dev Diary still coming up?

[skyline21]

I've had issues with the map in Mystery Lake on my survival world since the update. There are 6 "possible old bear locations" that cannot be mapped. This is for regular sandbox mode, not a challenge or story mode game. It showed up after the update. 

[friedmandesigns]

Hinterland -- As I commented on the Steam release notes post, this is one of the best gaming experiences I've savored in 40 years, starting with a TRS-80, 300bps modem, and "Island of Kesmai" on CompuServe around 1981 as a wee Pilgrim.  As an IT Ops monkey of 25 years, I know how hard squashing bugs is, and given your code-base size and team, you are doing an absolutely stellar job.  Please keep on! ☻

I feel for Win7 users, but an O.S. from 12 years ago running a game from 4-5 years ago is the modern human equivalent of a car from 30 years ago trying to use a new fuel source from 10 years ago.  It may not seem "fair" but the motor being sunset by newer fuel sources requiring newer engines is the binary reality of mathematical progression.  It's admirable you're doing what you can.  Thanks for bringing this art to our screens.

[SteelySnow7]

***SPOILER*** control room bug responce

I strugled with the bugged door for a while. In addition to the help mentioned above I found out that in my case some additional conditions needed to be met. I eventually found a way to open the door and this is the way that worked for me. 

Load up a save in which you haven't tried to open the bugged door. Make sure to leave all the valves in the right order everywhere like devs instructed, but in addition.

1. Make sure that you don't return outside the steam tunnels while working on the puzzle. 

2. Make sure that you carry all loot from the tunnels as well as the gear you have with you when entered the tunnels when opening the last valve and thawing the bugged door. I recommend that you don't store any items you find from the tunnels into any container or drop them after picking them up.

I did this by storing most of my old items in a container near the bugged door and picking them all up when going (very slowly) to thaw the final door. 

Hope this helps someone.

-Tuukka

[Kranium]

On 10/23/2021 at 2:31 PM, friedmandesigns said:

I feel for Win7 users, but an O.S. from 12 years ago running a game from 4-5 years ago is the modern human equivalent of a car from 30 years ago trying to use a new fuel source from 10 years ago.  It may not seem "fair" but the motor being sunset by newer fuel sources requiring newer engines is the binary reality of mathematical progression.  It's admirable you're doing what you can.  Thanks for bringing this art to our screens.

Wrong:

 

Anyway, converting the videos to webm works just fine. It's not a big deal.

[lunarobverse]

On 10/23/2021 at 1:56 PM, skyline21 said:

I've had issues with the map in Mystery Lake on my survival world since the update. There are 6 "possible old bear locations" that cannot be mapped. This is for regular sandbox mode, not a challenge or story mode game. It showed up after the update. 

Hello! I'm seeing this bug, too, when trying to map all Mystery Lake locations in pilgrim mode. This appears to still be happening even after the patch released today (27 October 2021.) Any advice to work around this, or will it be addressed in a future patch? Thank you!

[Admin]

20 hours ago, lunarobverse said:

Hello! I'm seeing this bug, too, when trying to map all Mystery Lake locations in pilgrim mode. This appears to still be happening even after the patch released today (27 October 2021.) Any advice to work around this, or will it be addressed in a future patch? Thank you!

This is a known issue we are still working to address. Thank you for your patience. 

[Peteman]

Hello I am trying to escape blackrock in wintemute part 4 "donner." I click on the plank to move it and nothing happens like i see in youtube video run throughs. thanks.

[Admin]

On 1/14/2022 at 5:58 PM, Peteman said:

Hello I am trying to escape blackrock in wintemute part 4 "donner." I click on the plank to move it and nothing happens like i see in youtube video run throughs. thanks.

Is there any additional information you can provide? Are you on PC? How long has the issue been going on? 

To log a ticket via technical support, please visit our support portal: https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us 

[ToAsT]

Can we please get some form of estimate for when the bug with the accelerated degradation of corpses and items in the world might be fixed? I truly enjoy the new additions to TLD that come out, and I appreciate all of the difficult work that Hinterland does, but I also don't understand why it has taken this long to acknowledge that this is a serious issue and to give us some more information. Many players have been experiencing this problem in their games for weeks now, if not since shortly after the last update came out. I've personally been holding off playing the game for over a month because of it, waiting for a patch to come out, and I was hoping for a hotfix for this particular issue.  If you need more evidence or saved games to see the problem and reproduce, please reach out to the people who have commented about it, not only on these forums but the more popular Steam forums or Reddit.

In a game with perma-death, bugs like this can really affect the player and could mean the difference between a long survival run or one cut unpredictably short. I ran into similar issues while playing Wintermute Ep 4, but fortunately I could save those games and at the time I was close to the end of the episode, so it didn't affect me that much. In survival, on the higher difficulties or in some of the challenges, it's an unexpected and unfortunate surprise when you expect to find a carcass, corpse, or an item to be where you left it or where it's guaranteed to be, and it's either not there at all or it disappears much quicker than normal.

[Jalos]

7 hours ago, ToAsT said:

Can we please get some form of estimate for when the bug with the accelerated degradation of corpses and items in the world might be fixed? I truly enjoy the new additions to TLD that come out, and I appreciate all of the difficult work that Hinterland does, but I also don't understand why it has taken this long to acknowledge that this is a serious issue and to give us some more information. Many players have been experiencing this problem in their games for weeks now, if not since shortly after the last update came out. I've personally been holding off playing the game for over a month because of it, waiting for a patch to come out, and I was hoping for a hotfix for this particular issue.  If you need more evidence or saved games to see the problem and reproduce, please reach out to the people who have commented about it, not only on these forums but the more popular Steam forums or Reddit.

In a game with perma-death, bugs like this can really affect the player and could mean the difference between a long survival run or one cut unpredictably short. I ran into similar issues while playing Wintermute Ep 4, but fortunately I could save those games and at the time I was close to the end of the episode, so it didn't affect me that much. In survival, on the higher difficulties or in some of the challenges, it's an unexpected and unfortunate surprise when you expect to find a carcass, corpse, or an item to be where you left it or where it's guaranteed to be, and it's either not there at all or it disappears much quicker than normal.

The other  problem with the bugs is that the players whose accept to play on  the older (1.94) version don't get it through the time capsule. I already requested the Time capsule access codes in the forum and on the official support WEB page, but no answer. Currently (unfortunately) I  have to play 1.94 with a Warez version!

[Manbearpig]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:44 PM, Admin said:

Is there any additional information you can provide? Are you on PC? How long has the issue been going on? 

To log a ticket via technical support, please visit our support portal: https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us 

I had the same issue on x box one series x. I had to restart from the wardens office several times till it worked.

[Manbearpig]

I play the game on x box one series x. There have been no sound issues until this last week. The sound cuts in and out. Now there is no sound at all from either headset or TV speakers. I tried resetting the x box but no change. I checked the sound and it works on all other games and apps just not the long dark.

[Admin]

23 hours ago, Manbearpig said:

I play the game on x box one series x. There have been no sound issues until this last week. The sound cuts in and out. Now there is no sound at all from either headset or TV speakers. I tried resetting the x box but no change. I checked the sound and it works on all other games and apps just not the long dark.

Have you made any other changes? We will investigate the possible causes from our end, but thank you for the information. If it persists, please file a bug report via our support portal: https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us 

[Jolan]

On 10/15/2021 at 4:46 PM, Sherri said:

I always worry about submitting bug reports because I always assume that someone else has done it. 🤔 But none are showstoppers so. Maybe I'll report them if they happen again.

Off the top of my head I've had:

- Noisemaker "sticking" to the revolver so both appear equipped.

- Yellow unread indicator on journal items doesn't clear when read.

- A wolf stuck in the eating a rabbit animation but no rabbit.

I always report the bug using the bug hunting link and include the save file they ask for.  Creating as complete of a report as possible can help them track down what exactly is going wrong, how, when and for who. Similar look/sounding glitches may be happening for different reasons for different gaming set ups.  Of course, if they tell say "we're working on xyz" I don't bother reporting it

[peteloud]

Well, the update must be due any day.

I want the update to make sense of the number of locations I have discovered.  No, not the 212 required for the cartographic challenge, the total number of locations.

Alas after the update there will be nothing of interest until the final episode 5.  I'll stop playing after the update.  I suspect many others will lose interest too.  I usually notice a drop in the postings to this forum which suggest that.  I would prefer to see a steady dribble of updates, just to keep me interested, rather than one major update 2-3 months after a new episode.

However it matters less now.  I am not particulary looking forrward to Episode 5.  My interest now focuses upon what HTL will do next.  I think TLD is brilliant, far better than any other game I have played.  Now HTL must have teams that are working well, and lots of ideas.  A while back I assumed that the next HTL production would be a similar icy survival game.  But why?  With their skills they could turn their skills to any genre game.  As long as it isn't jull of zombies and giant iron-clad storm trooper I don't mind.  It would be great to have HTL create a new genre.

[ToAsT]

On 2/23/2022 at 4:06 PM, peteloud said:

Well, the update must be due any day.

That's what I thought 2 months ago. Really frustrating.