1. probly not
2. All npc combat is controlled by a sepereate program, the npcclient. As a
delicate program, it is prone to bugs where npcs stop attacking, especially after an update to the server. Most of the time it just goes offline and stops anyone from fighting.
3. Someone's been messing with my code!
I'm guessing someone switched (if x>0) with (if x> or = 0), as bloody is supposed to be available untill you run out of stamina... or maybe there's something else going on
4. Restarts will come as needed, but I don't think there will be more downtime... well, untill the full update <.<