First, <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/6032-rejectedegg/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="6032" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/6032-rejectedegg/">@rejectedegg</a>, it is (probably) not your system, it is the game. Too many people are reporting the same issue.
An access violation has many causes that are not related to a specific system. This can be anything from a null pointer to improper memory management. It's not even necessarily the programmers fault, it could be the compiler or even the OS.
Also, if you look at Shining Rock Software's known issues, you will see there are a lot of problems, many (many), unresolved.
For number 2 above, there is a modder's version of the game that is different than the "release" version. This is a special version that exposes more for programmers, like BL.
The more I dig into this, the less likely I think it can be resolved (without Shunning Rock's involvement - typo, or not [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/laugh.png[/img]/emoticons/laugh@2x.png 2x" title="xD" width="20" />).
The reason it didn't crash when you did the same thing from your saved game is because the exact same conditions were not met. To us, mere humans, it seems random, but it probably isn't.
I believe, looking at the known issue list, the game should not have been abandoned by its creator so soon. Maybe we can talk him into releasing the code as open source, but I doubt he would....
For now, try cutting back on the graphic settings. Use bilinear textures with no anisotropics. Modern computer monitors are so hires nowadays, anisotropic is rarely even needed anymore.
I have a crappy laptop (I haven't loaded it on my desktop as I can't sit at it very long without hurting) and I don't get crashes (yet?)! I play large maps, but haven't gotten near as far as you guys. Many of my settings are set to medium, or below. It still looks good, though.
Let me know how this goes....
