You could call me computer illiterate, and that would be an understatement.  I would have to check my computer, but I think it's got 4 GB Ram...or somewhere I read 4096 MB.  Either way, the computer is brand new, and this is the first game I installed, so I really don't think there should be any memory issues with saving any game.

Has anyone had this happen, or does anyone have a possible solution?

Software. You have plenty of RAM, but as the game is 32-bit it can only use up to 2GB.

The largest galaxy sizes can eat a lot of RAM, especially if you also include many civs. It'll get to the point that the game is using so much there is not enough left to save the game.

Also, mods like ST have some nice ship designs which also use a lot of RAM once they are loaded into memory - which happens the first time you go into the ship buildier in each session. The more hulls you have, the more RAM it uses. I have added so many hulls that they were unable to all load, so I had to weed some out.

One thing that might help is to reduce the background star and nebula density settings in Options - Interface. Set nebula to 1, and only a few hundred for stars.

And always save your game often, especially during a war if you are destroying a lot of ships and/or invading a lot of planets. Do too much in any one turn and the game will explode with that OOM issue. I always save with one unique file name per game (and I save / overwrite the file every so often, and sometimes several times during a single turn if I am doing a lot), and have my autosave set to 3. That way I'll always have at least 1, and as many as 3, backups to fall back on.

Ok, I tried that, and it worked for a while.

Can I expect the game to crash like this while trying to save forever, when playing with this mod?  Basically, I will be able to get through the game, but it will run out of memory every so often while trying to save?

Also, is there anything else I can turn down in the options area that will allow me to play this mod a bit better?

If not, is there any way to transfer the ships over from this mod to the normal game's custom design area?  I just really want to fly Federation ships...

This time, I got another error as well.  When it said "Out of memory", and I clicked "Ok", another message popped up.  It said I didn't have enough virtual memory and I should try to free some up.  Is this consistent with what you were telling me Moosetek?

I tried to read up on virtual memory on the internet but I am very computer illiterate, as I already stated   I just like to play video games!! 

Yes, one more thing that can free up the base memory the game uses.

In Options - Video, turn down the 'Planet Surface Variety' slider to around 15-20%.

One other thing that might help is to set a static swap file in Windows. It defaults to a dynamic swap file, which is supposed to grow as needed. Doesn't always work correctly with all programs, so sometimes it is best to just set it manually to a set size.

Right-click on the My Computer icon (desktop) and choose Properties,

There should be an Advanced tab or link, depending on your version of Windows. Look through there until you find the advanced performance option for Virtual Memory. Select Custom Size for the drive you want the swap file on (usually C:), and set both min and max to the same value - try twice your physical RAM size, so 8192. OK out of all the windows and reboot.

Don't forget, the game can only address up to 2GB of memory (physical and virtual combined). So even with a large static swap file you may still get the error.

Just curious Moosetek, will setting my virtual memory up like that have any ill effects, or is there anything I will have to watch out for in the future?  Will this fry my computer in any way?

Edit:  Dumb question.  Just read up on swap files.  Interesting stuff!  Seems the only times I learn about computers is when I'm trying to get a game to work lol

It was already set to 3152 or something like that, but I turned it up anyways.  I suppose I'm just going to have to tone it down on the game size and graphics etc. 

 Apparently I can create a swap file for a different drive, even removable drives.  But I suppose it doesn't matter if all the game can use is 2GBs.

Thank you all so much for the help!  This is great.  I won't have any time to test these changes in the next week or so, as I'm heading down to Oregon and Washington for my 1 year wedding anniversary, but when I am able to get on and play for a while, I will let you all know how things go.

One other thing: would it help if I turned autosave off and only saved in the middle of turns, when the game isn't trying to load other stuff?  I notice a lot of the time, when my research is complete, at the beginning of the turn, it will prompt me to choose a new research topic, and it will also autosave, and that's when it freezes most of the time.  So I assume that if I wait for everything to happen in a turn, and then save, the game will be using less memory at this time, and the save should work.  Is my logic flawed?

Well, it didn't work. 

So I went through the video section and disabled anything graphics related.  It will make for a dull game but damnit! I want my Federation ships!!!  I haven't tried it yet, but it will probably help.  If not, I will just have to play a smaller game.

Is there any way I could transfer the ship designs for the federation in to the normal game?

Hi, 

you prolly already know..but just for sure...

this problem was so annoying but its solved and its very easy and works just perfectly.

Just download this http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php (multiplatform version) and follow these instructions

http://www.subsowespac.org/the-patrol-zone/give-silent-hunter-4-a-memory-boost.shtml

It enables 2GB+ memory for 32bit applications.