Quest - Off into the unknown - Send out the explorers

So I was finally thinking of starting to do PvP quests, and didn't get far before I reached a problem.

the quest is:
* Have one explorer
* Search for a small colony island
* Confirm the selected island and start conquering it.

Now, there is more than 60 explorers in my star menu, so that checks out.
I do search for small colonies, it doesn't register.
Even after conquering the island, it still doesn't register.
I have tried to search with different explorers, still no respons...

Is this a new bug that came with last game "upgrade", or is it supposed to be something special done, to complete this task???

they already said that PVP isnt working currently in Unity deployment- it didnt work on test either and with the current batch of issues i expect that PVP will be out of order for a few months at least if they can sort out the rest