Ahoy there.
Thanks for being attentive to the games. Nice work.
Im downloading now still have not checked on the updated stuff, but I did manage to play a game yesterday; I spent 2 hours trying to go around and like you said, options did not come through; just new and load game.
So I started a new game, and the first thing i noticed is that when you go to sea view, your ship is sunk (visually but not in terms of HP or anything).
So your ship appears underwater for some reason.
Secondly, the money lender's diamond quest outside city walls, I spent 40 minutes chasing it and could not find - is it possible that there is a bug which doesn't show the missing diamond?
I usually play ERAS and the last time I played about 10 days ago I found a lot of weird stuff as well since the new updates; but will report later when I play another new game in the upcoming weeks.