ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I get strange slowdowns in a small set of circumstance. These are multiple second slowdowns - at least 1-2, sometimes 4 or 5.

• Monsters summoning. Not monsters with the Summoner class talents, but the older monsters with the older summoning talents, like honey trees and ghouls. Each time they summon there is a pause (whole game freezes) for a few seconds
• Bosses dying and dropping artifacts. I *think* it's the artifact, not the boss, which is the critical issue here: you can see the message log (and the whole game) pause before each gray item
• Simply walking over an artifact that was randomly generated in the dungeon

I'm pretty sure this doesn't affect everyone, but I have seen at least some other people mention it. It's been in the game for many many versions at least back to b25 or so. Possibly all the way.

I'm using the OSX port.

Possible explanation - it's something to do with the online profile?

I always play offline. Torokasi on IRC says that he sees the slowdowns I mention above only when his computer is offline or the server connection is poor.

Could it be checking the summoning unlock (which is unlocked by monster summoning) and also the lore (for the fixed artefacts)? Perhaps the online profile check just needs to learn to fail faster if you are offline?