The .json load seems to work great. Seems like a better approach for my setup. (I left the itch.io cookie exception though - now I don't have to solve a captcha every time I want to comment.)
Impressive scale to this update. I like "big worlds" and this fits the bill - dunno how many maps I haven't even been to yet.
Trying to come up with a word for the difficulty. For now I'll use fiendish, although it seems like a better word is on the tip of my tongue.