I am not saying anything IS or ISN'T related to the new ZIPs.
What I
am saying though is that we need to know very exactly which game version people are reporting bugs with.
Even if it seems like it cannot possibly be due to recent updates, it is difficult to know for sure until the "before" and "after" conditions are checked against each other.
It wouldn't be the first time stuff breaks somewhere due to something completely unrelated that gives every appearance of being OK, except that it totally isn't.
You wouldn't believe the kind of insanity I've run into over the years!
For true mystery bugs, the way I do my bug-hunting is to first replicate the problem in the same game version it was reported with.
Then the next step is to go back to previous game versions until I find one where it
wasn't wrong.
Next up: WinMerge between those two versions and start changing them to be closer together until I finally find the culprit.
But to do any of that, it is absolutely crucial for a bug report to mention the specific game version (so version number + date shown + what extra ZIPs/fixes were applied) that the bug was observed with.
This doesn't necessarily mean the problem is BECAUSE of that version. But it also doesn't mean that it
isn't.
You really don't know until after a proper investigation and checking against those earlier versions.
@Levis there are no seperate issues needing bugtracker entries now that don't already have them. See my earlier post summing things up for you guys to make everhing clear--I'll quote it here for convenience. There was some confusion about a couple of mechanics players weren't familiar with. Possible someone wants to do a brainstorming on arcade ship stats though.
All three of the issues in your post deserve their own threads. One of those has a thread now, the other two don't.
Very likely there is a good explanation for those observations and they could very well be "Not a Bug".
But it is easier to discuss those in separate threads than to discuss them all in the same place at the same time.
Long story short: If a discussion does not related to the subject of the thread, find a thread that DOES match with the subject OR start a new one.
I don't mind people starting new threads. If threads should be merged, that is easily done. But splitting discussions is a pain indeed.