I have performed a test both on Linux and on Windows and can not reproduce the issue in this way. The thing happened also to me a couple of times while playing/speccing, but even then the time was acceptable (although longer than I would expect).
On Linux I computed the time using "time" and letting the game exit automatically. The below times for Linux are with the 10s autoquit substracted (but they will be a bit higher than windows as they include AI initialization for example).
Computer: i7 with 8GB RAM
Linux (Arch 64 bit) times:
- 0.96 Epic, not cached : 46s
- 0.96 Epic, cached : 18s
- 0.91 Epic, not cached : 41s
- 0.91 Epic, cached : 41s (the UI appeared very fast, but the game exited very slow)
Windows (Win7 64 bit)) times (using an external chronometer):
- 0.96 Epic, not cached : 46s
- 0.96 Epic, cached : 10s
- 0.91 Epic, not cached : 47s
- 0.91 Epic, cached : 13s
Did tests also for
http://zero-k.info/Maps/Detail/26020 (this is much larger than the ones mentioned before)
- 0.96 Epic, not cached : 47s
- 0.96 Epic, cached : 33s
- 0.91 Epic, not cached : 34s
- 0.91 Epic, cached : 17s