While it's true that is standard fare, I'd still report it. It could mean the game has a problem specifically with your Type of configuration, in which point they would want to know so they can make it run on as many machines as possible. Hope that helps.

I joined the Beta 1G too and have found that it does crash (actually just came back to the computer after getting a drink and its back on the Windows screen, "Where has the game gone?") but not as bad as what you report.

As others have said, autosave is your friend

@ Darias and Ravenstrike: The Devs (and us testers) are aware that currently there are some pretty bad memory leaks in the game. This is the most common cause of current "unexplained" crashes I'd imagine. Of course there are other crash bugs, gameplay bugs, bugs related to systems not fully implemented, etc etc, but it shouldn't be locking up systems or causing systems to overheat and shut down. Things like the later definitely deserve a bug report to be filed.

On a side note, a few years ago on a older rig I had there was this problem. I was running a GeForce 7 series video card and I'm a cig smoker. I have a few air purifiers now to solve the problem but back then cig smoke build up would become a problem. Eventually the fans in the video card and my power supply gunked up. They would over-heat and shut down my system but Only when I played games that really stressed my system as these would be the games that would push the system to turn on those fans when temps hit a certain level.

If your comps are working with other games, but not Elemental, check a few other "New" games and see what affect they have on your systems. Games that you've ran for a while now may work fine, while newer games that push your system harder may cause it to over-heat. Just a thought and something to look out for. Also take note you don't need to be a smoker for this to be the case as normal dust accumulation can cause the same thing to happen it just takes a lot longer then it does for a computer in a smoking environment.

I also ended up buying some hepa-filter bags for computers that run in industrial zones. They do increase the internal temp by 1 degree celsius but they keep out All smoke while still allowing your computer to breath.

Yes report it, but read the beta forum rules on how to report it first so you can give them some useful information. At this point you can expect the game to still be unstable, maybe very unstable on some systems. But part of the reason for the fairly open beta is that the game is played on a wide range of systems.

(double post)

Ditto.

The devs have typed about the leaks and in his March FAQ, Brad noted that clearing these problems up is one of the criteria to meet before moving to Beta 2. I think I saw Scott mention something about 100 turns being when the memory leaks start becoming problems, but that seems like something that could vary significantly across different rigs.

p.s. Has anyone found out how to display the turn count in the 0.295 UI?