Bug in combat simulator, v 1.71 + balance mod

[Dogboy]

I am many turns into a multi player game of SEV, patched to 1.71, running the latest version of the Balance Mod, in a "Paradise" map type, with AI's and one other player.

Until now, I've had no problems running the combat simulator.

But, as of this turn, I am running into a big bug. When I go to ship designs, all is fine. But, when I enter the space combat simulator, all of the pictures of my ship designs are invisible. I tried running a simulation anyway, and in the midst of the test battle, the graphics go haywire: my ships freeze, and damaged enemy ships move around, but leave permanent trails of flaming smoke.

If, after battle, I go back to ship design, I can't see my ships any more. When I quit, I get an error message referencing: "Access violation at address 0047AB57 in module se5.exe, Read of address 0000C028". If I hit "OK" it goes away, SE5 disappears and I get no further messages. I can replicate this same error message when I re-open SEV, open the combat simulator, and simply quit out of game.

If instead of hitting "OK" I go to another window (the one I'm using to record the error message) and return to the SEV window, I get a second error message referencing "Access violation at address 00472B11 in module se5.exe, Read of address 00000000"

Has anyone else had similar problems? If so, is there a fix? Is there someone to whom I should upload my saved game file? Is it safe to go forward with the multi player game?

Also, more generally, are these sorts of bugs the norm in SEV? I'm trying to get several friends to join me in a big multi-player game. I'd like to give them an unvarnished idea of how buggy it is likely to be before beginning.

Thanks for any advice!