We didn’t have an update in May, as very few issues seemed to be similar, and we simply dealt with them on an individual basis.

This month we have a couple of new issues to discuss.

X3: Hanging or Crashing

This issue has been affecting a small number of people, where X3 seems to be leaking memory. We are in the process of assigning a new staff member to look for this issue, as a matter of priority. The problem does not seem to affect everyone, as many players play for long periods of time with no problem, where some can hit the problem in five minutes of play.

While we acknowledge that the bug does indeed seem to be there, it may be some time until a fix can be provided, as it may take some time to locate such an elusive bug.

Sacred Networking Bug

The networking bug in Sacred that we have talked about previously seems to be more widespread than first suspected. We have found what could possibly be a solution, and we are hoping to have a patch out soon. However we are still working on a few other issues to resolve before the Sacred patch is ready.

There is only really one new common issue this month:

Sacred – problem starting a new game on Open Internet multiplayer option

This problem seems to affect people with certain network setups that are designed to block network traffic, such as symmetric NAT or Firewall systems.

You can find out your current setup’s networking facilities by downloading our Test Tool and checking that the networking section. If it says that networking is only available via TURN, then you are going to experience this problem.

The way around this problem for the moment, simply, is patience. The game will connect in the end, although it can take between 30 and 60 seconds to negotiate its way past your network security systems. We are working on a way to speed this up, and we hope to have a patch out soon which will address this problem.