[Bug or feature - Not sure] Lifepod beacon disappears / reappears erratically

frazmi

Subnautica Version - 29912 Mar-2016

Description
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According to a number of YouTube videos and wiki entries, the lifepod beacon is always visibly flashing regardless of distance. This provides a consistent directional beacon to swim back to the pod.

However, in my game the beacon is operational about 60% of the time. The beacon is always functioning when I start a game (or load the saved game). But at some point (15-30 minutes into gameplay) the beacon shuts off.

Once I find my way back to the pod, enter it, and leave the pod again the beacon usually is functioning again (but not always -- about 90% functioning rate). When it functions, it remains functioning for 10-30 minutes, then stops again until I either exit the game or re-enter the pod.

Once the beacon disappears, I've tried reacquiring it by changing depths (50m to surface) and swimming closer and closer (until my nose bumps against the pod). Beacon never reappears this way. And thus far the beacon has never reappeared while I'm swimming in the ocean.

If this is a design feature ("intermittent equipment failure"), that's cool, although I'd eventually like a way to fix the intermittent malfunction. If this is a bug, then I'm reporting it now


Reproduction steps
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Sorry, the only way I can reproduce the problem is "play the game for 30 minutes". There's no indication that the beacon has failed until I rotate 360 and can't find it.

My system
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Windows 10 version 1511
Intel i5-4460 running @3.2GHz, 64-bit
C: drive is 256GB SSD
16GB physical memory
2 Terabytes disk (7200RPM)
Steam and SubNautica installed on G: drive
Logitech keyboard and mouse

frazmi

Update... The beacon began transmitting again in my most recent play. It was off for about 15 minutes (real world time) and then started flashing again.

Rainstorm

This happens to me as well. It involves the Lifepod's , Seamoth's and Cyclops's integrated beacon thingie. From time to time it'll stop blinking for a few moments (anytime from a few seconds to 2-3 minutes) then randomly restart blinking normally. So far its just been somewhat annoying since you can locate the Lifepod from almost anywhere simply by resurfacing and seeing it from there in the distance.

For the seamoth its a weee bit more annoying tho. In my most recent game i went down in the bloodkelp biome to gather blood pustules and quartz and strayed away from my seamoth for a bit. giving the fact that down there now is completely pitch black and that even with a flashlight you can barely see anything anymore at nighttime, i turned away to go back to the seamoth but the thing decided to stop emitting its beacon thing right at that moment ..... yeah i was like FU** ima die for sure! lucky me i was closer to the moth than i thought and found it back just as i was about to drown lol ... fun times!

frazmi

It's been many game hours now since any beacon has disappeared. Actually, I don't recall the disappearing act occurring after the April 31322 release. Hopefully it's gone forever and we can rely on the beacon tech.

jujulicious

I'm having this issue now which I notice is a year after your post. The icons have disappeared for my beacons and lifepod. Hopefully it will come back soon?

0x6A7232

If the beacon disappears, can you get it back by switching it off and back on in the Ping manager of your PDA? (still a bug, just checking if this temporarily fixes it)