The relatively long load times were starting to become a bother. I looked for some solutions online.

Step 1: Access Secret Experimental Settings

Boot up the game.

Hold down CTRL+ALT as you click on Settings button in main menu

You should see a new option labeled 'The rest' at the bottom.

Click on 'The rest' to bring up all the extra experimental settings.

Step 2: Enable some settings

The first setting is in "other settings" section, called

cache-prototype-data

Set it to true/click the box to toggle it on

The second setting is in " Graphics settings" section, called

cache-sprite-atlas

Note: The developers recommend turning sprite texture quality to normal/medium in regular graphics settings before enabling this. It will create a big multi gigabyte file on your computer.

Set it to true/click the box to toggle it on.

Step 3: Restart the game two or three times

Watch the magic happen.