I'm not really sure if this is the best place to ask this, but here it goes. While the game is running, it will frequently freeze on a sound - that is, it loops the sound over and over and the program stops responding (without a CTD). I've tried running it in compatibility mode for various versions of Windows, and I've done the single-CPU fix, which seemed to increase the amount of time I can run the game until the sound freezes and makes the program stop working. I've looked around for other solutions - but I haven't found one, short of turning off all sounds from the menu. Does anyone know of anything that might make the sound work?

Try restarting your PC, it normally solves most of the bugs. The single-CPU fix isn't really necessary as it will always run on a single CPU anyway, it wasn't multi-core supported.

Nope, that doesn't help.

Can you upload a sample video to YouTube detailing the bug ? You can use a program like Hypercam 2 or Camstudio to demonstrate the bug, it might help others in finding out what's causing it, as I've never come across this before.

http://youtu.be/sj_FM_dvvSs?t=9m50s

Here's an example of the freeze - It has become such a big issue that I've given up on recording the game live completely until I find a fix. (It does it more than once in the video, just another minute into it)

This is on 8.1 with the 1080 resolution hack and XP compatibility to restore animations.

Thanks for the link.

This might be due to Windows 8.1, as I have very rarely had the game freeze up like this (I have Windows 7 64-bit, no compatibility settings set). Try setting the compatibility to Windows 7 and play without OBS running in the background.

Disabling sound effects (the 3rd option in the sound settings screen) seems to be able to solve issue.

Hi, I have the same problem. Does somebody know what might make it work?
In my case disabling sound effects completely didn't worked. The game still stops.

Regular freezes/crashes of the game are associated with a bug in the playback of sounds.

Especially strong when "Compatibility WindowsXP(sp2/sp3)"
Use "Compatibility Windows95/98"

The user reports that after updating mss32.dll and MP3DEC.ASI the problem was solved.
caesar3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=9,7677,,20
old files
CRC32:0CF075E4 mss32.dll (Version:5.0r)
CRC32:1533C2F2 MP3DEC.ASI

A proven pair to replace mss32.dll+Mp3dec.asi (from Zeus+Poseidon v2.1)
CRC32:9BD81E9D mss32.dll (Version:6.0m)
CRC32:FA4BC870 Mp3dec.asi
wdfiles . ru/e11658