So sorry to hear about you losing progress and having to redownload the game and losing your doggie, that sucks 
However be careful on the south part of Siptah, it has serious problems since last update, sudden game freezing and in worst case a full crash, it is worst the closer you get to Forge of first men, but the whole south part can cause freezes and crashes, I thought I was safe just slightly north west of grey ones city, but suddenly I went into a freeze and crash loop and lost everything but horse, it managed to get home.
Really hope Funcom soon will find a solution to this horrible problem because it is super annoying and always seems to happen at the worst possible time 
So far I have been succesful in avoiding the freezes and crashes in the middle western part of main island(E9) where I set up my first base, so crossing fingers that it will continue 
I wish all the best luck, and hopefully less crashes, I do agree though that the game is very much unstable after this update, but what can we do other than hope they can sort it out 
Thanks for the update on your challenge, looking forward to see how it goes 
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