the ad does not close after viewing

[floral nymph]

after viewing the ad, the close button does not appear. And a bar with the text "cells" appeared at the top of the screen

App v. 20.49

[trim sierra]

I mean, the bar at the bottom indicates the ad isn't over, but rather only halfway done, but the "Cells" bar is weird, I've never seen that before

[echo nimbus]

This is the worst type of softlock I've ever seen.

[floral nymph]

yes, but nothing changes when it comes to the end. The X button does not appear even after 15 minutes

[trim sierra]

Ok fair

I partially expected that

[jolly plinth]

Same for me. Also 20.49

[echo nimbus]

The softlock bug still needs to be fixed, otherwise I would miss out on White Dwarves while saving darwinium for Black Holes to prepare for future Beyond updates

[floral nymph]

It seems to be fixed. Thanks

[floral nymph]

No, the problem is back again

[pseudo patio]

Hey @floral nymph @echo nimbus @jolly plinth firstly thank you for reporting this bug. Our team is actively investigating this issue to identify the cause and to implement a solution.

I'll keep you guys updated as we attempt to fix this bug

[pseudo patio]

Hey @floral nymph @jolly plinth @echo nimbus are you guys still facing the issue on the latest version of the game ?

[echo nimbus]

Not that much, but the issue still exists.

[pseudo patio]

I see, thats helpful to know

If you guys get an unclosable ad again could you please take a screenshot of it and send it here ?

[pseudo patio]

Did the issue become much rarer after you guys updated to the latest version or was it always a one off bug ?

[echo nimbus]

It became rarer. After the update I only noticed one instance of softlock. The rest is history.

[pseudo patio]

Thats great, so our fix is working, please keep us updated if you face them in the future

[floral nymph]

I'll let you know if it appears, so far everything is fine

[low sundial]

Am facing same issue after latest update...all ad softlock

[echo nimbus]

Ain't nothin like a good mountain dew.

[vast rune]

Same issue.

[ionic olive]

Just bring back previous ad system that don't have external black border. They worked well until now.

[floral nymph]

yes, it still appears, but now less often, and only for the first advertisement. - (if the first one starts without a strip, then all subsequent ones will work fine)

[vast rune]

Yep, exactly.

[dark crystal]

Same issue. It begins from version 20.32 or about. It's have bar sometimes, sometimes no.

[trim sierra]

I understand this bug now, the "Cells" bar can block the x, making you unable to leave

The x here is always in the top right corner, but the "Cells" bar is blocking it, and I cannot press it through the bar

This is the first time I've had this bug

[pseudo patio]

Unfortunately its not that easy. To give some technical context, We updated our unity engine version and our ad provider SDKs to fix ad crashes that players were facing. Now the ad crashes are gone and we have this unintended side effect. We know a lot of players are frustrated by this issue We are working hard on fixing this issue to get everything back on track

Information that you guys provide is vital for us and helps us a lot in narrowing down and solving the issue

[pseudo patio]

I see, thats a helpful to know. What happens if your first ad has the cells strip ? do all subsequent ads also have the strip ?

[pseudo patio]

Hey which country are you from ? and if possible could you let me know what ad it was ? (here or in DMs, anythng is fine)

and in the future if you encounter that bug, please do send a screenshot of the actual ad itself ^^

[trim sierra]

Canada, and I don't remember, I only know of one ad format that ends in "Thank you for watching"

I'll see if I can reproduce this issue

Ok I found the brand for that ad

ironSource Mobile Ltd.

[pseudo patio]

How did you end up finding that ? could you send a screenshot of it ?

[floral nymph]

Yes, until the auto-closing advertisement appears, then there is a chance that the strip will disappear. And if at least one correctly starting advertisement appears, the strip will no longer appear until the game is completely restarted.

[pseudo patio]

Thats interesting, I'll check on that as well

[pseudo patio]

@trim sierra

[trim sierra]

I clicked on an (i) button in the corner which turned out to be the company's privacy policy

Sent me to the website

[pseudo patio]

just to confirm, it was on the same ad in which your top bar got blocked by the cells strip ?

[trim sierra]

No, a different ad, but same format

It was definitely the same company

[floral nymph]

I have ads with a strip can be from different vendors, and with different strategies for closing and skipping. There were also that were auto-skipped

[pseudo patio]

the ads got auto skipped but you couldnt close it ? could you elaborate on that ?

[floral nymph]

There are a couple of videos that automatically close after the timer expires. It closes even with a strip. the strip itself does not hide the buttons, they simply do not render with it, as do the timers inside the ad. with the strip, you can only click on the ad and go to the browser or Google store and go back to the non-skipped ad

[pseudo patio]

Thank you for bringing that to our attention, your detailed feedback is very valuble for us to narrow down things

[pseudo patio]

Hey @everyone, We've pushed a potential fix for this issue on our latest stable build. Please let us know if you get unclosable ads with missing X button in the future

[floral nymph]

I haven't seen any more unclosed ads so far.

[snow berry]

Just wait 'till end of ads...🤩

[pseudo patio]

Awesome!

[trim sierra]

I only got them this once, and I'm fairly sure I won't get them again

[pseudo patio]

you got it once in the latest version ?

or do you just mean that one time in the image

[trim sierra]

Just the once in the image

Sorry for the confusion

[pseudo patio]

Ah alright all good

[echo nimbus]

I encountered the problem once again, this time for a specific ad that keeps playing without the "X" button because of the glitched layout of the ad not appearing properly.

What a terrible softlock I've ever seen that I restarted the application and lost 1 White Dwarf opening, which for some reason, the game counts as one even though I didn't open it. WASTED.

The glitched layout in question appeared as landscape, but my phone is in portrait, resulting in the "X" button ending up offscreen. I tried rotating to the correct orientation, but to no avail.

[kindred egret]

Sometimes, if the counter gets hung up, the ad can play without ticking over the counter.
Pretty rare from my experience, but there were a couple companies that didn’t format their code correctly, or something.

[trim sierra]

I also lost a white dwarf star, but not to an unclosable ad, to accidentally exiting and re-entering the game during an ad. If you are sent to the ad, it counts as a purchase, so if you exit out of beyond before opening the star itself, then it still counts as a purchase and you can't get the star.

A possible way to fix this is to have a counter that detects whether all the rewards have been given, and if the game closes and they still haven't all been given then when beyond is opened it goes to the star animation rather than the tree and gives the remaining rewards

[echo nimbus]

The ad in question

[echo nimbus]

It's clear that the issue wasn't fixed completely.

[trim sierra]

I think that ad is probably formatted incorrectly, and the x is off screen