As for system changes: literally nothing, not even anti-virus update, since buying the game on 9th of March.
Here are three samples batches attached, in zip archive.
Batch 1 made in clean, freshly installed game.
Batch 2 made after upgrade to 0.16.3 Beta Patch. "Hang up" cases attached.
Batch 3 made after downgrade to 0.15.8. "Hang up" cases attached.
Each sample made in new, generated Galaxy.
Side note: Problem not exclusive to 0.16.3 - first Beta I tried was 0.16.2, was exactly same behavior. As speculation, I think there is some glitch in patching if xml/ini files ("roaming/avorion") from older version already exists (I hope to test it with legacy versions like 0.14 and so tomorrow). How and why this is unique to my machine, on the other hand... :o
log_samples.zip