Sorry to resurrect this thread but I'm a new owner (grudgingly so as wife bought it for me and I can't return it) and have installed a few mods and this thing is incredibly unstable! These are the mods I have installed:
I've done about 4 missions so far and have had 2 freezes where the game just stops responding and 2 CTD at the same location as I try to go the the eastern side of Britain to sink some ships. Is it related to the environmental mod? When I tried out the game with my brother-in-law's copy to show him how to do stuff there were never any issues like this (crashing/locking up), though that was 1.1 and no use of the environmental mod but most of the others and a few more. Any ideas what I should try? Thanks.
Also, seeing I have your attention.

I notice that with my 295GTX that with my settings I still get this ugly banding in the sky, especially around sunrise and sunset and it looks like I'm using 16bit color instead of 32bit. Is this normal or related to the environmental mod? Any special settings to look at in game or my graphics card? Thanks for any help you can give!
System Specs:
EVGA 790i FTW, Core2Quad Q9550 @4.01, EVGA GTX295 197.45s, 2x150gb WD Raptors, 2x200gb SATA, 8gb G.Skill DDR3 1600, OCZ 700W PS, HP DVD-RW, Onboard sound, 32" Sony Bravia XBR, Win7 Pro 64bit, Tai Chi watercooled case