Linux loss of connectivity issue

Title: Game crashes
Reproduction Rate: Intermittent
Blocker? When it happens, yes.
Details: When playing, if my wi-fi signal connection drops, SotA pretty much takes over the hard drive - hard drive use spikes/maxes out and my entire system is extremely sluggish or unresponsive. Sometimes the "network disconnected" icon shows up in-game; usually it doesn't. If I wait long enough, SotA may finish its processing and finally display a connection error - usually a minimum of five minutes, with 10 - 20 being more normal. Trying to kill the process hasn't been successful. I realize it's not SotA's fault if I'm playing with a spotty Internet connection; however, I would expect the client to recognize the loss of connectivity and pop up a message within maybe a minute, saying, "Hey, you lost connectivity - thank you for playing, here's the Main Menu if you want to try something else." Just trying to report something I've run into on my system....Since my wi-fi is USB: if I manually disconnect the USB cable, the "network disconnected" icon comes up immediately, and after about a minute, I get the behavior I'd expect - a loss of connection message and I'm returned to the menu.
Steps to Reproduce: Wait for wi-fi connection to drop - can't really predict this.
User Specs:
OS: Linux Mint 19 Tara (Ubuntu Bionic), MATE 1.20.1
Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-33-generic x86_64
CPU: AMD A6-7400K Radeon R5
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Wi-fi card (if it matters): Panda Wireless model PAU09

I hope this is useful...thanks