FFVI Project: Meltdown

Long time since I updated, so I'll just post where I stand now.

Meltdown is a WIP Final Fantasy 6 romhack that aims, primarily, to make major changes to the battle system, and secondarily, to re-do overlooked story content, mostly in the World of Ruin. The former is what I have been working on up to now, and will be what I focus on up to 2.0. After I finish with the bulk of my battle work and am satisfied, I will begin work on plot content. 
A thread exists on ID which has fallen to the mists of time and become largely irrelevent. I'm somewhat hoping to begin developing enough displayable content to actually have something to show now. I have some screenshots, but nothing of battles since a lot of the changes are behind the scenes. If anybody's interested, once I actually finish enemies and then begin working on AI up to Ultros, or maybe Zozo, I'll put up an early alpha build. I fully expect it'll be wonky and possibly even buggy though.
Primary changes:

• GBA script and nomenclature, subject to change but unlikely to see substantial modification, at least until 2.0.
  

This is game-wide. Due to the nature of how I have to make my changes, battle dialogue will probably remain unchanged until I'm ready for a major release. Spells, items (those which haven't been removed or modified, anyway), blitzes, enemy names, and most other aspects have been pulled from the GBA version. Bushido is renamed Tachi, because Bushido is a made-up bullshit translation and if we're running with that, I'm using more accurate series precedent.

• Thorough rebalancing of enemies and PCs.
  

Expect a similar scale to BNW. Each character has their own HP and MP growth, and their own stat growths to level 20. Enemies will be rewritten to be competent and dangerous if underestimated. Enemies also have a few assigned stats which they previously did not. Trying to run underleveled may not be a good idea, but I certainly have no issue with people trying.

• Complete overhaul of esper system.
  

Let's break this down:

Each esper has its own level.
Espers may contain up to 10 spells. (This list is not final. I've already made first-pass lists, and none of them actually have 10 spells.)
Esper spells are imbued, meaning they are applied on equip and removed on unequip.
Esper spells are learned at the level displayed.
Each level gives that esper a bonus stat, which is applied on equip.
Each esper may be raised to level 25.
Gaining an esper level:

1. Enemies have assigned skill experience values.
   
2. Each time you gain 100 Skill EXP, you gain 1 Skill Point (SP).
   
3. Once you have enough SP, you can then purchase an esper level for an available stat (if the value is white, not grey)
   
4. Profit?
   
5. Profit!
   

The player chooses a stat to boost with each level applied. These boosts cap at 25 total per esper, and are applied to the esper in the same way spells are.

• Several new relic effects.
  

The main presently implemented effect allows the wearer to bypass reflect entirely when casting spells. I have yet to give the relic a satisfactory name.
Present other ideas include: Allowing Runic to absorb two spells instead of one, and a Pray/Health command swap for Relm

• Modified Runic.
  

Celes's Runic effect now lasts until it's consumed, rather than until her next turn comes up. In exchange, however, Celes (or Gogo) now incur a -20 Defense penalty while under the effect or Runic. This would be unchanged with my proposed relic effect.

• Numerous enemy AI tweaks and additions. Players may or may not notice these when they come into play.
  

I can manipulate enemy stats and properties at will. I'm presently trying to think of a way to make it relatively transparent, but it's a work in progress. I'd like to minimize invisible changes.
I can also properly counter MP milling, so expect an actual fight if you try to MP kill Ultima Weapon.

• Many modified battle mechanics.
  

Back row now only reduces damage by 25%.
Defend reduces damage by 25%, but applies to magic as well. Defend also restores a small amount of HP and MP. This value is subject to change.
Physical and magical damage both use vanilla's magical damage formula at present. I'm not entirely fond of it, but i'm less fond of the original strength formula and have yet to find a satisfactory custom formula which is feasible to code into the game. I'm open to ideas as long as they aren't logarithmic and don't involve things like square roots.
Some spells replace their primary stat component (magic if magical, strength if physical) with vitality. This may extend to all healing spells, but that's purely theory right now.
Physical tachi and blitz techniques now respect row.
Working on dealing with the genji glove/gauntlet issue. I'm undetermined as to whether they remain a relic or get applied more directly to weaponery.
Rages are overhauled. Still a WIP though. There are only 48 rages, and I'm considering removing the leap mechanic entirely. Nobody likes rage grinding.
Morph will undergo a change. Have a few half-baked ideas floating around. Still exploring options.
All (non-Gogo/Umaro) characters have natural magic tables, but only Terra, Cayenne, Celes, Shadow, Relm, and Stragos have anything filled right now. Shadow may be axed from that list.
Shadow will not run off anymore.
nATB, identical to BNW.
With nATB, tachi charge speed is no longer functionally relevent. However, I still have the speed modification in place. I intend to slow this slightly, as its default speed is way too fast for my liking.
Colored MP damage display. This took forever to get to work properly for me, because . . .
All actors may now deal up to 32,000 HP damage in a single strike.
Vitality adds to defense fractionally. This will likely be changed, though ideally not removed.
I intend to give status display an overhaul, much as I did in BNW. The exact nature I am unsure of at this point.
Sap is going to become manasap and poison will replace its function -- Poison will no longer have an element, and the poison element will be renamed to Darkness.
Learned spells from items are now imbued.
Steals now function as they do in FFX. There are still two item slots. However, a common item steal attempt will have a 100% success rate on the first try. You may continue stealing common items, with the success rate being halved with each successful steal. A successful rare item steal will blank both items on that enemy and you will no longer be able to steal from it. The Thief's Bracer will raise rare steal rate.
Weapons/shields cannot be swapped in battle due to issues with imbued magic.
This is actually all I can remember looking at my assembly files alone. More has likely been changed that I have forgotten about.

• Quality of life improvements, some of which appeared in BNW, either coded by synchysi or myself for it.
  

Encounter rate option.
Battle speed does work, unlike BNW's (which I removed the option for anyway).
Item sort sorts by either healing or weapons (for throwing) first.
Auto-dash.
Difficulty selecter. This will be locked to Normal early on, then expanded to include Hard later. Hard will have higher (hand-picked!, not straight percentage) stats and some modifications to enemy abilities. A third option will eventually be added, likely once I've worked through the end of the game. The last difficulty will have new AI, so it needs special attention. Am considering the prospect of higher exp on Normal and higher Gil on Hard.

Rages will have descriptions. This is already coded in, but is naught but placeholders.

Gear stats screen shows both imbued spells, if two exist, and also shows weapon accuracy, if relevent.

Will add this if people like it and want it, with the understanding that the battle menu equvilent will go unchanged (unless some unlucky soul decides they want to tackle it for me).

I am presently trying to finish enemy properties up (working on status vulnerabilities, and then plan to begin going through and doing basic stat assignment and AI up to at least the 3 scenarios splits). I simply wanted to post this to gauge interest and bounce ideas for feedback.