> I've added 20+MB to my save file, but have less than nothing to show for it.
Exploring new territory has always been more crash-prone than staying in the same area, but it seems like the 1.2 beta is a lot less stable than previous versions. The thing where the player position is saved after a crash but the state of the world is not seems to be new as well. I lost a diamond pickax and sword in a stone wall that reappeared after a crash the other day.
And a compass is an absolute necessity if you're traveling anywhere. The scenery is a little too homogeneous to be able to navigate any distance by landmarks and dead reckoning.