after clearing out appdata folders for this game the saves work again. version 156_E944B35
BUT, sometimes after longer sessions the ability to save will break again and i just lose any progress i had done. also loading back in on saves sometimes just freezes up the entire game. or somehow instakills my player.
other than that things appear stable, but im noticing it seems a LOT harder to actually get kobold milk to go in the buckets. having to get a bucket on a table and hope i can position the kobold in the right spot to ensure the milk goes in the bucket and not all over the place is actually quite a hassle.
though because of constantly losing save data it's actually been quite near impossible to test the new purchasable items in the construction shop due to the lost progress.