We are mainly talking about stuff loading which sounds more like a slow connection from the server side (I've got the "server under heavy load" message a few times)From my experience the flashing doesn't affect game performance because for the computer it's just a sequence of images and some of mine have many of them to make the animation better, like this one [Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/VcsW6EL.png] so the high beams go lower and brighter again
Alliance events, those yes, those have a huge performance impact even when there are no units being dispatched (or responding/on scene), it just lags (more like FPS)
I've never had any problems with connection issues really here, although i could foresee it being a problem for some.
I'd agree that APNGs as far as I'm aware have a negligible effect on game performance in comparison to other factors, this is just my personal opinion.
Also, I'm not a big fan of UK emergency vehicles (mainly the wail siren, it's weird and sounds (really) weak in distance), but those units look great, good work
It varies a lot, particularly around here.
Also you too with the Portuguese Pack