Nicolas Cellier wrote:
> I guess the order of loading matters...
> Behavior might differ whether you update every day or every few weeks...
> Doesn't this require an intermediate configuration map?

No, there is something strange in your image. From the debug log it is 
clear that the failure is in Parser>>method:context:encoder: sending 
#new to nil. The only send to #new in that method is the very first line 
saying:

	properties := AdditionalMethodState new.

So for some reason AdditionalMethodState must be undefined in your 
image. And that is *very* odd since AdditionalMethodState is defined way 
earlier (in Kernel-eem.242 loaded via update-ar.14.mcm) than the 
Parser>>method:context:encoder: (in Compiler-eem.79 loaded via 
update-ar.15.mcm). So the load order should be precisely:

* update-ar.14: Loads Kernel-eem.242 introducing AdditionalMethodState
* update-ar.15: Loads Compiler-eem.79 using AdditionalMethodState
* update-ar.16: Loads Compiler-ar.81 recompiling everything

Can you try updating again to see if this may have been an intermittant 
problem (keeping an eye on the transcript to see if there are any server 
timeout messages etc). If you still get the problem, can you try loading 
the update MCMs manually to see if this makes any difference?

Thanks,
   - Andreas