I play as Cravers and whenever I watch a battle against a Riftborn fleet, the game grinds to a halt (less than 1FPS) right after the deployment phase. After some time the battle picks up again at a fluid pace (above 60fps) only to suddenly halt into sub-1 fps. It keeps doing this for the entirety of the battle. Windows and buttons are generally (but not always) unresponsive when the stuterring occurs.

This issue happened in every battle against Riftborn so far (but not against any other races). Skipping to action doesn't fix the bug. You MUST use the "barrage fire" battle card! Using a different one (like post-op analysis) will not replicate this issue (some very minor stuttering may still occur but it's not nearly as bad).

I attached a save file where you can replicate this bug by starting a battle on Galtur. When I use Barrage Fire there and watch the battle, the game stutters right after the deployment phase.

hungry craver.zip

dxdiag, output log and diagnostics.zip

EDIT:

I was able to replicate the issue in a battle against Horatio. Savefile attached. Find a fleet of Slingers orbiting Xanados, fly "south" to Ceres. The AI should declare a battle on you there; use the Barrage Fire battle card, watch the fight and observe the bug (you can skip deployment).

hungry craver.zip

The save file's name is the same but it's a different save file, sorry for the confusion :s