I now have to say that the latest beta appears to have some major flaws. I am experiencing regular crashes that I've never had on any previous versoin. Those other crashes have been reported elsewhere. The latest was the "giant ship of flickering death." It was during a turn change and one of my fleets, which had been set on an intercept course in prior turns, engaged a Krynn fleet. Instead of a battle, the game froze with a massive icon of a Krynn fighter flickering over half the screen. I had to shut down the game through Windows. Several turns prior to that I had the game freeze as I was updating ships. Had to shut down through Windows on that one too. I will forward the Smartexception files when I have time to find them. I want to stress that I've never had these problems on any previous version.