Amazing, thank you! I'll try this today and report back. Where is this stuff documented? I thought I'd been thorough with the wiki!

Don't forget the setting in Alive that spawns player at last position. I think it's in Alive Data module...can't recall at the moment exactly which module. There is a checkbox.

I'll check my persistence settings when I get home later today. Works flawlessly for me.

BTW: if you find the checkbox in the module, check that, keep the three files loaded in your mission file, and get rid of the lines you put in the description box. I'm pretty sure that's my setup for persistence, and it works great. Again, if no joy, I'll check my settings later today.