I've got a problem that I had with this game a long time ago on my P4 Northwood Core 3.2GHz. The game, as it progresses, would start to hang, so I'd have to terminate the app, re-enter the game, load my autosave and do something different than what I previously did, usually just ending the turn without moving units would fix it.

This time, I did all that (as well as followed common troubleshooting options) but the game still hangs. I play a huge random map, the game has quite a lot of units by now... but it shouldn't be the problem because I have managed to finish such maps on a much, much slower and outdated machine. It was painful, a turn lasted a couple minutes, but still...

My current machine now is a Phenom II X4 965, 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM, Crosshair Formula IV MB... all quite nice hardware. So, it's either a bug or something can be done to prevent it.

Note that a long time ago I was playing the latest Alien Crossfire version with probably more bug fixes than this version has.

Cheers, hope someone can help or at least share an opinion.

EDIT: forgot to mention that I run it on Windows 7 Pro, 64bit, whereas Windows XP was used on the previous machine I think.

The game does have a tendency to crash when unpatched, due to some really silly bugs. Luckily, someone has been making a really useful patch to fix these bugs, I've used it myself and the game has become far more stable. I don't recommend building more than 2048 units though, due to a bug the patch accidentally creates.

If you don't want to register for the forum, you can snag the patch here.

Thanks mate, will give it a go and post if it helped in my case :)

EDIT: just patched it and it's the same, game hangs at mission year 2347 end of turn. :( Ah... guess I'm gonna wait for an update from GOG team, if it ever comes out.

Also tried reverting DirectDraw back to 1, and it's the same.

Can you upload your save file somewhere? If this crash also occurs with the patch, the patch author will be very interested in trying to tinker and find out just why it is crashing.

This is it. At the end of the turn, when the screen focuses on the part where Chairman Yang's aircraft is within my territory.. is where it blocks for me. Menus, everything becomes unusable.

http://www.crunatus.net/smacsave/

It was too big for the forum uploader. 500kb max so I hosted it on my webserver.

Thanks for posting that save file. I was able to reproduce the hang, both in the GOG version of the game and with the unofficial patch. Removing the Hive NeedleJet at coordinates (0,98) via the Scenario Editor allows the game to continue (although it appears to hang later). I'll bring this to the attention of scient (the author of the unofficial patch). He's been able to fix similar bugs in the past.

This is great news! I am so happy there are people that still care about this gem :)

Could you please post here if he manages to fix it?

Thanks in advance!

ARGH! I was just about to buy this, hoping that this bug would have been dealt with. It's plagued me ever since I started playing on XP. Worked fine on 98, but XP and everything newer has it.

The bug is caused by your defending aircraft, AAA Interceptors, scrambling to attack the enemy fighter. If you delete any of the interceptors within attack range of that unit, the game will also proceed.

Especially annoying when on harder difficulties after someone starts using aircraft against you.

EDIT: The unofficial patch says it solves this issue, so I'm not sure that this is it anymore.

That's right, the interceptor crash bug was fixed in the unofficial patch and the bug being discussed in this thread is different.

Really disappointing. I just played another game with all the latest patches applied to the GOG version as well as one I downloaded from torrents, apparently already patched fully, and the hang still occurs. My question is how come some people say the game works flawlessly on Win7 machines... I tried compatibility modes as well.

Maybe installing Windows 98 in a virtual machine could make it go away? Because I remember I was able to play a whole big map game on my very old computer.

Please, GOG team if you read this, get this bug fixed by EA with an update to Alien Crossfire :D

Sorry to hear that you're having problems. If you are getting hangs in other games, please post the save files. scient is looking at the problem, but he's unable to reproduce the hang, so far.

Thanks for being active with this issue. I have put up another .SAV in the same dir on my server. Check it out, if I get another game like that I will post it there.

Just played that first game that I posted as problematic, but from an older date (about 40 turns before the hangs started) and I was attacked by various aircrafts by Miriam and Lal, however, when Chairman Yang started attacking with aircrafts, hangs start then. Maybe that can be of help. :S

BTW, I googled on that forum where scient is a moderator, he said he plays it fine with his planetary pack... I also have the planetary pack, and still get the hangs. What OS does he use?

Also (as already stated by Petek on another forum) if you have this hang problem - just F7, select all and un-automate orders) then hold position instead of automate if you don't want to deal with the unit.

Thanks for this workaround Petek and for figuring out what it was in the first place.