One More Possibility

OK, I'm just a few inches away from tossing this game on the shelf for a couple of months. I'll keep an eye on these forums to see if the "Processing" bug gets fixed while I'm waiting.

Meanwhile, I've discovered something else that might help. Every single processing (or black screen) lockup that I'm getting now all have one thing in common - it happens at precisely the point where the game intoduces a new empire into the play! Does anyone know if there's a text file somewhere that controls that event or is it done from within the main program somewhere? If it's text file and can be edited, it just might fix the problem.