When I am on a timed mission and sometimes when I'm in the middle of a battle, my screen stops. This usually happens on the loading screen. By the time the game begins to play again, I am out of time or dead. Please make some improvements along these lines because it is very frustrating.

That's a strange one. You say it usually happens on the loading screen, have you had it happen during normal flight? When you say the screen stops, does it go completely blank, or just keep showing the same scene, with no movement? And some details on your computer would probably help troubleshoot this. What OS are you running? How fast is your CPU? What video card do you have? What type of internet connection are you on?

/me makes Beolach a paper "Moderator" hat.

As long as his mod hat is only for the forums, i dont see a problem :P (I think Beolach would make a good forum helper, but I do not think this should extend to ingame)

But *better stuff is in the works* to every suggestion really isnt helpful :P (This is a dig a Beolach, not you, sorry for any confusion)

[edit]

who asked me? its a forum, you didnt have to. I have a voice, and im being nice. (I should not have made this post, and I realise this, UK people find it hard to say sorry, but I was not willing to delete it, we are also stubborn)

[FM replies in a post I make are not helpfull, if you think I am stepping overboard, mail me, its this account name at hotmail dot com, I would not have seen it if not for someone pointing it out]

[Edit 2 - wasnt gunna, cos last time I made such a thread, I was told not to post threads like that, make up your mind - I see no attack against you either.] :P

[edit 3 - I have pointed out what I meant, maybe its the UK/US english barrier)

If you dont read this, then well, you see my point about the edit of your edit :P or you dont, meh!

[FM replies: I see your point. Initially it appeared that you were going off-topic in the Bugs forum to criticise my moderating. Thanks.]

I'm using Windows XP with Pentium 4, dail-up w/56k modem. When the screen stops it just shows the same picture for a minute or longer. It doesn't seem to happen all the time, but when it does I seem to be doing something important.

It sounds to me like you are experiencing lag issues. Make sure you aren't running any cpu intensive or internet programs while you play and report if it is still happening.

*make sure there aint any new fandagled convoys spawning near you!" is a good reply, cos I have the same issue, if I warp into a sector full of em, loading can take from 1 min to 5 min, and I am not the only player experiencing this. I have a steady 110 ping, thats not the issue.