I start up crossfire and everything runs great til i get to the point where i would choose which faction i want to play as and it doesn't load properly how can i fix it?

I have the same problem... Every time I edit a faction(with bundled Faction Editor) and try to add them, SMAX won't let me choose one. Not even a original one... it simply gets stuck here. The only 'quick' solution was to re-install the game. Sad but true...

coldfire1986:
If you're still stuck there (I hope you don't), do you have any error message?
Does the game shut itself down or does it stay on the "choose faction" screen?

Andadroid:
In your case, it looks like something went wrong the first time you installed the game.
Especially if you can now use the faction editor after reinstallation.