I have had no issues at all with saves.It's a nice game but I think I'm done as none of my saves have transferred without having to jump through hoops. Sorry dev but it shouldn't be this complicated... nice models nice story or game, but the save issues for every update just seems to be an on going trend. Hopefully at some point in the future you will just release a full version download to make it easier on the players. Good Luck.
The rule with patched games is simple, don't ever try to mix! If you start unpatched, you need to continue unpatched but if you start patched you need to continue patched. In order for the save files to be compatible they must have the same content. The game can't track stats for characters that you did not see because you didn't apply the patch. This is the largest problem with saves.