Rocoteh, myself, and several others have been trying to figure out what is causing this 76% crash for over a month now, with no success.
We thought Beta Version 1.93 was the solution to the crash (taking off the massive amount of units/improvements associated with 1860 tech and leaving them with no tech), but it still results in crashes for some.
The scenario was created on the Civ3 editor (Version 1.29f), and no one has reported ANY problems on Civ3 that I know of. But I understand that backing stuff up in regular Civ3 can be a pain...I gave up on doing that and just dumped everything into the respective folders (except pediaicons.txt and civilopedia.txt, which I have to switch back and forth). Since for myself, it loads on PTW, this no longer is as much of a problem. BUT, it needs to load for everyone on PTW.
I wish there was someone around on this forum who knew more about the technical aspects of the editor, who could maybe help.
I doubt Firaxis would seriously consider helping.
Anyways, on to other news. Based on the new Civil War book series I'm reading, I will be slowly working on some changes to army placement in West Virginia and Missouri (WVa is quite inaccurate at this time, Wheeling and Grafton should be Union, and Union forces should be larger, I'll probably add at least 1, probably 2 more cities between Grafton and Charleston for the Confederate forces to hold (Phillipi will be one if it fits)). Missouri, well, Jefferson City seems to have been Union as of June 14, 1861, but another book I read had it as Confederate in early July. So I'm not sure what to do about that. I also need to boost the army in St. Louis slightly.
Pawel: You said that the error occurs before interaction with the map. Do you maybe know what part of the load is at 76%? Scenario contents, so like what part would be the problem? Memory allocation, where would such an error be likely to occur? I would appreciate any help you could offer.