If I even get close to 2000 ships in one system, the game just goes totally loony on me. GFX start "switching off" at random, and that can be ANY GFX, including the menus and text (which make it near impossible to try saving when trouble hits). The game crashes when trying to quit to Windows as normal, forcing me to use Task Manager to force quit it!

This isn't good, as even of the easiest difficulty AI settings, I've still faced enemy waves of over TWELVE thousand ships at one planet..... this game blows it's flipping gasket at just one sixth that value! And it's not even THAT old a PC, isn't 3GB ram enough?

Ideas anyone?

Regarding RAM, the more the better rule applies but 3GB is enough. Keep in mind though that it's the CPU that handles all those ships, so this component should be fast enough to able to make all those calculations in time so you won't get lag etc. Since you have pretty serious performance problems, i guess your CPU may be underpowered (you don't mention what CPU type/ speed you have).

(Straight from the game's official forum)

"Here are some things that might help:

1. Play on smaller maps -- the more planets there are at once, the more complex the simulation.

2. Use lower ship caps: the default is Normal, but Low is also available. Only very powerful machines can handle High.

3. Try not to bunch up too many ships on any one planet. Having 3,000 or fewer ships on any given planet is probably ideal if your computer is below the system requirements.

4. Try not to have too many large-scale attacks on AI planets at once if you are below the system requirements, since this can also cause slowdown in some cases.

Other things that help a little, but not a huge amount in most cases (only try these if you're playing on a netbook or something and everything is already floored and you're still having trouble):

L1. Avoid playing against Mine Enthusiasts, or especially the Special Forces Captains if the simulation is becoming an issue. This doesn't make a huge difference, but can help some.

L2. Play with lower AI difficulty levels, but with perhaps HARDER AI styles if the challenge is not enough. More difficult AIs have more ships, which can increase the simulation complexity."

If this issue persists, definitely report it to Arcen. This game is half their bread and butter and they are likely to fix it once they get their current 4X out of Space Dock. http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/my_view_page.php

Thanks everyone, I got it working a lot better by checking what updates were available. There were 3, and once installed the memory outages seem to have stopped. The frame rate still suffers with 1000's of ships but at least I'm not having to quit/restart the game!