Aaaand of course it stopped working again as soon as I posted 🙃 The crashes are solved; it was just my computer on life support, but the load errors seem to only occur during specific hours so I'm thinking it could be an issue with the game servers which - of course - we can't really do much about. I've been unable to load any saves in the daytime (~12am - 8pm) this past weekend and today (Monday) it went without a hitch right up until about 8.30pm, which would make sense in regards to working/school hours (give or take a few hours for players in different time zones). Could be something else for sure, but I've noticed the pattern and thought I might mention it.