Starting a game now causes a crash no matter what.  The last line of the debug reads:

Debug Message:  ShipComponent Created. [ Name Yor_Starbase_Wall_03]

What is especially confusing is that the same GlobalDefs file that WASN'T increasing ability traits for custom races is now, but now the game is crashing.

I have done multiple uninstalls and reinstalls over the last 48 hrs, each time I get a different crash.  The only constant seems to be that it crashes the same way until I do another uninstall and reinstall (which then also results in different behavior from the GlobalDefs file).

Everything that I know about software and troubleshooting technical problems tells me this shouldn't be happening this way:  I have the same variables producing different results.

Is it SkyNet?