WHAT the hell is going on?

[Renegade]

however, going by the differences between RP versions, i am GUESSING that it has something to do with curser animation (although, how the word hotspot relates to animation is beyond me), where 0= no animation, 12345= forward animation and 54321= backwards animation.

Given the numbers, I assume it has nothing to do with this, but in mouse cursor editing (e.g. for windows), "hotspot" means the point where the click happens, i.e. the head of an arrow or the center of a cross. The graphical coordinates used as the position of the cursor.

However, those are usually full two-dimensional coordinates. Not just 0, 12345, 54321. Your theory does make sense. I'm just throwing it in because the words "mouse cursor" and "hotspot" are indeed closely connected.