2) Ouch, I had forgotten to write about the Deadzone change in the v0.83 !
I just added that to the ChangeLog :
- Controls : the Dead Zone was half the value shown, and thus the maximum possible Dead Zone was less than 50%
If you had the DeadZone at 95% before, you should set it to 45 or 50% now.
If you had 0%, then you should set it back to 0% in the Controls (if not already done) ; it should be the same as before.
4) If you didn't change the default controls, then adding slice is done with up, so yes the DeadZone can play a role there ; if you push the analog stick just a bit up when you aim left/right then with 0% Deadzone, you'll add slice right away ; if you have the Deadzone at 40%, then it won't add slice. So I'd recommend you to try to play with a Deadzone somewhere between 30 & 60% ; pick the lowest value that allows you to serve without adding slice.