YAY!
Just loaded my save game after restarting Elemental! My cities are there, research is still there, looks like the old save game bugs are all fixed!!!!!
Now another new bug. It apparently did not save my newly created Scout unit. So created unit data is not being saved.
Also, having built over a few farms with farm developments I no longer see the underlying colored ground area for fertile ground. Intended or not? This is only the result of loading a saved game.