I may be wrong, but it seems like the shortcut node is only able to make 128 links at once (the first 128 paths will be processed, others will return 0).
I used 45beta28.1 on win32.
hei in order to find out if you’re wrong or not it you should post the patch that makes you wonder. then we can check and let you know and probably even do something about it. in case you were not wrong.