somewhat (!) fixed the lost save files

[Adun]

Since nothing worked and I lost progress over and over because the game didn't access the save files any more, I went for the nuclear option. I uninstalled the game, went to the AppData and deleted everything from Aloft saved there, and then did a restart for good measure. After reinstalling, the game informed me that a Steam cloud save was found, which turned out to be the last world I had created in desperation and my home island. I deleted that world and made a proper one, imported my home island and saved before exiting. At least for now, upon restarting, the save game is existent and accessible. I hope that'll last a while, I am seriously fed up with having to traverse the maelstrom!

[Adun]

Five hours later, saving works fine and no crashes.