[2022] Help with launcher and taupe cobra error

Since this morning I’ve been having problems woth elite. When trying to run from steam the launcher takes about 5 minutes to open, or it just never does. The few times I am actually able to open and get into the game menu, when starting I get to the loading screen (ship holograms with tooltips) and then get kicked with a “taupe cobra” error.

I’ve rried deleting files and redownloading the game to no avail, restarting network and router and nothing works.

Yesterday there was a pretty big problem with rogers network in Canada (my ISP) and it was fixed this morning, however I’m not sure if services are having issues and that might be part of the problem. If that’s the case, is anyone from Canada on Rogers having a similar issue?

Edit: I feel like the problem starts from the moment I launch the game. From clicking “play” on steam to when the launcher opens it could take 5 minutes or so (a couple days ago this wasn’t happening, and my pc is usually able to run the game on ultra, also, nothing else running in the backgroung afaik other than windows stuff, steam and discord).

Then from the moment I click launch for oddysey untim it actually starts the client is could be 3-5 minutes. Once I’m in the main menu, click “continue” > solo play > taupe cobra error.

Even when exiting the game, launcher seems to freeze for a minute or so, until it closes. I’m thinking could malware do this? But I have no issues with other games so it is strange.