when i select a character slot to try and create a character in. I Select the slot - click create... it takes a moment or two then it just stops working.

The error log has this....:

game caused an Access Violation in module game.dll at 0023:0059dd4a.
Exception handler called in main thread.
Cver Catacombs liv1325
Error occurred at 8/24/2012 05:06:40.
C:\Mythic\Darkness\game.dll, run by USERNAME.
8 processor(s), type 586.
0 MBytes physical memory.
Write to location 0000007d caused an access violation.

Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0023 EIP=0059dd4a EFLGS=00210283
EBX=0a6a4130 SS=002b ESP=0018f590 EBP=0018f5b0
ECX=154bbe08 DS=002b ESI=00000000 FS=0053
EDX=00000436 ES=002b EDI=0a6a4224 GS=002b
Bytes at CS:EIP:
c6 40 7d 01 7c d7 83 65 0c 00 8d bb 14 01 00 00
Stack dump:

could be related with your video cards drivers did you update them some days ago?
you should either update to the newest drivers or return to standart configuration if the newest don't work but better get a second opinion

or u have the wrong dll...take care, that u dont use the newest dll from live servers (1.112 something) but an older one (i think 1.109?) there's some threads in the news and general information about this...

Ive seen a problem with 1.112/1.113 UI and the 1.109DLL. Perhaps a player can zip up their atlantis directory from 1.109 or earlier for you.

I installed the 1.109 DLL and it seems to work in terms of starting up - that's how I was able to get this far to begin with.

I'm running windows 7 64-bit however. I am kind of thinking that might be the main cause of this. But i ahve no real way to know. I'm downloading the latest "legitimate" drivers for my GeForce 450 card - the drivers I had installed were more recent Beta drivers.

The game.dll seems to crash basically when the character creation screen goes to draw the 3d character and the menu on the screen. (i.e. when i click on "create")

The more recent legit nvidia driver's do the same thing the beta driver's did.

My video card is a GeForce GTS 450.

I got it - I did a fresh install and it's working now.