Still no response from anybody on the GalCiv team about the save file problem. The only time I reload a save game is after GalCiv crashes (which seems to happen for many different reasons, all of them related to game bugs and programming issues in GalCiv itself). This would not be a show stopper IF the save game loaded properly. But no, you get ripped off of a production / research turn. This is inexcusable. I have heard a couple of references that this deliberate. I could see that being possible IF (you would need a giant IF in this case) the game itself never crashed. We all know how laughable that is. If it really is deliberate, the programmer should probably be slapped but until then FIX it. Disable the feature, flip the switch, change the attribute, whatever it is you need to do, it should take all of 5 minutes to fix (I know what I speak of, I am a retired SW engineer). But FIX it. Right now, I am not recommending this game to people and will not be until this problem is solved.

I have a hard time understading why the game is so unstable. The whole family plays Civ3 on 240 by 200 maps and it is extremely stable. We played Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for many years and had it crash all of two times (both on user created maps, never a problem with a map from the publishing company 3DO). I can not even remember Alpha Centauri crashing and I always played the largest maps with all the goodies. Whereas GalCiv crashes a minimum of twice a day.

By the way, I have timed my last couple of loads, they are stretching into the 4 minute territory. The file is not that huge, what is the problem here?

I can see the game has potential but the Save file issue is a serious one that need to be addressed by the deveopers of the game.

Cheers,
Superconductor