So I have been playing an awesome 2.8 ludicrous game on & off for a couple months that started with 100 Godlike Civs. I have 76 hours into it that has me at turn 163. I have fifty colonies and tailor update each ship for individual shipyards regularly to maximize production, as well as govern all colonies personally, hence each turn can take an hour easily before I click the end turn button.

The galaxy was mine, with just some mop up to do, finally on my way to my first victory on these absurd starting conditions I play with. Except my game became broken and started freezing and crashing when I click save.

Having replayed the same ten turns a dozen times only to end in a heart wrenching crash I finally decided to throw the towel in on my 76 hours plus the dozens more I couldn't save. I turned off airplane mode and rebooted the game so steam could finally connect to the server for the first time since March and usher in the latest version of Galactic Civilizations III.

When to my surprise after updating, my save game was not only playable but was savable again as well.

To top it off I immediately noticed an improvement in AI. Constructors that had sat idle began fanning out to build starbases and exploit resources. Fleets began to reorder and my starbases and shipyards came under attack all over the map. The more territorial nature to influence now feels great, not to mention the massive payday I receive from tourism. Over 270,000 at 25% tax rate. I own a massive part of the map. Prior to the update my ranking as shown on the diplomatic page was around 45,000 to second place's 5,000. After the update my ranking moved to 79,000 and a previous bottom feeder ally of mine moved into second place and is now at 40,000, with a host of other Civs who now boast half of my power when previously everyone combined didn't match me.

Anyway can't wait to wrap this game up and try the newest update from the beginning and add Intrigue afterward.

From what I can tell so far, the new update looks and feels great.