I can verify that power plant is locked at 1,048,576. I just played 6 hours on manned, generating just under 10kw, and it never moved.

I'm running into this as well on the 5 Oct 15 main branch build.

All tasks are reachable, but several require going inside the caves to complete.

I noticed it also resets if you hit ESC at any time.

I've lost several parts due to storms, including a robotic arm on a large rover(could only do photo, eas and rad after that).

The wind damage is really extreme considering that the density of mars atmosphere at sea level is .5% that of earth, or like being at about 70km altitude.  Both Spirit and Opportunity went through dust storms exceeding 80km/h with no damage except lower power output from the solar cells due to dust settling on them.