PS4 v2009 Custom Islands lose resources when you approach them

Console Forums [Console] Bug Reports
1

Playing on PS4, and I made a couple custom islands for extra resources (not very good at this game yet). Everytime I approach one of them with my raft, all trees, shipwrecks, and other resources seem to completely despawn when I get within a certain distance from the island itself, thus leaving the island completely barren.

I have tried using several different custom islands, and all seem to have the same problem. I leave my starting island, and head to one of my easily noticable custom islands. From a distance, I can clearly see trees, and shipwrecks. But when I get close to reaching the island with my raft, usually with about 30-45 seconds of rowing left until I’d reach land, everything just vanishes and never returns.

Very odd.

2

Hi Shutat - thank you for reporting this issue.

I have a few questions if that’s ok:
Is the save this is occuring in one that was made before or after the update to 2009?
Similarly, were the islands added before or after the update (if it’s an older save) and if before hand were any only visited after the update?
Are there any particular items you’ve added an abundance of to each?

If you clear the cache of your console (shut down and unplug for 2 mins before rebooting) does the issue still occur?

Any extra information about the setup would be greatly appreciated so we can investigate this further. It is a strange one indeed. If there’s any chance you can record footage of it occurring too that would be fantastic, I’m wondering if it’s a particular point in the island load that this is occurring in - actually to that point, when next traveling to a custom island that doesn’t load in items, try looking away from the island as you approach so the island is loading off screen to see if it helps items pop in. Long shot but it’s worked for other issues so it may work here.

3

Thanks for the response, Clare! This is happening on a brand new game/save on v2009. Brand new cartography map, and brand new custom islands.

For safety reasons, I decided it would be better to start completely fresh with a new world map, and new custom islands, due to the most recent update. I also have cleared the cache on my PlayStation, and have even gone so far as to do a rebuilding of my database, to see if that helps.

The islands I created were of the largest scale possible, and were also loaded up with approximately 10 shipwrecks, at least 20 full grown palm trees, and the maximum amount of resources littering the ground of the island possible, without the game telling me in the creative mode that the island was not big enough to hold anymore.

Given the islands safety precautions in the creation menu, I assumed that if the game allowed me to input this amount of resources, that this would be acceptable for the game itself and not cause problems.

Per your suggestion, I also attempted to look the opposite direction while continuing my expedition to a custom island, with no success. I will also attempt to bring enough resources from my starting island to my custom island, and build a shelter there to save and reload. Perhaps that might help clear the situation up. At this particular point, it’s the only option I have left to see if I can resolve the issue myself.

If this turns out to be unsuccessful, I will definitely consider recording a short video to show exactly what is happening, and upload it so I may share it with you.

4

Update: After coming ashore on my custom island with the appropriate items, I made a quick shelter to save, then quit to main menu. Once I reloaded my save afterward, all items and resources were back on the island like they should be. So that is an acceptable workaround until this problem can be isolated and resolved in a future patch. Again Clare, thank you so much for your quick response in this, as well as getting me to remember as many additional details as possible. If you have any other questions about this, feel free to keep this thread open or drop me a personal message. I’ll help in any way I can. :grinning:

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Thank you for those details, that information is great. It’s also great to hear that your theory worked! I’ll note it for both the team and for players. Please do let me know if other islands don’t pop back in or if this island misbehaves if you save somewhere else. Fingers crossed it doesn’t though and you can continue playing.

If it persists, footage, or even a copy of your save might be something the team would like to have a look at too - I’ll check with them.

Thank you again for reporting in such detail - hugely appreciated :slight_smile:

6

Additional (Hopefully the final) update:

After significant trial and error, I have discovered that the problem is not a bug per se that I know of, but more a problem with too many resource-heavy custom islands being on the cartography map at the same time . When I was having these problems, I had all 20 islands replaced with custom islands ( like I said, I’m not very good at this game yet).

The workaround that I found previously, allowed for resources to spawn back on the island upon saving and reloading, however this would make my newly created shelter on said island, as well as my raft disappear. I believe this was a problem other people were having as well.

Eventually I discovered that as long as I kept the amount of resource-heavy custom islands to 8 or less on the cartography map, the problem of resources despawning on a map when you approach, as well as the problem of losing your shelter and raft when reloading a save, both stopped happening.

The only reason for a problem like this that I can think of, would be too many resources overall throughout the entirety of the cartography map. With custom islands, you are able to make some resource-heavy islands if you wish, to make the game easier. However, too many of them on a map might be exceeding a possible maximum amount of resources that the game is capable of handling at once.

So when you approach a new island on an overloaded map, the resources would disappear. Upon saving and reloading on this new island, the resources would be back but your shelter and your raft and potentially any additional structures you had built there would disappear. Not entirely certain if this makes sense, but it’s the only thing I can think of off hand. LOL

I no longer have any problems keeping my structures and raft, and I also no longer have any problem with my islands losing everything I put on them before I even get there. Hopefully this information can prove helpful to other players, who may also be having similar problems with things disappearing on their map. Currently, I have no new issues to report, but if I do, I will make sure to post them as well as any potential workarounds that I discover.

1 Like
7

Thank you Shutat for that update, I shall pass the details of your experience onto the team. I understand where you’re coming from based on your experience and will pass your theory on the possible cause of the issue too.

I hugely appreciate you taking the time to send me updates and let me know what did and didn’t work for you when playing around with getting the island to pop back in.