I do have some requests/suggestions:
1) The point of Kethinov's Weapons Progression Balance having so many orb chests, etc. is so you don't have to get the final orb per weapon as drops in the Mana Fortress (which is a pretty boring, grindy process), you get the correct amount per weapon to level them all to 9 at the end of the game. zhaDe's No_Missing_Orb should result in there being an even balance of orbs when you hit the Mana Fortress (all weapons level 8). I'm not inclined to add a third option to hit the Mana Fortress with all at 8, especially when I personally use Weapons Progression Balance.
The Mana Tree doesn't check before setting your sword orbs to 7, it just sets it blindly. It also sets all weapons maximum orbs to (basically) 8, except the sword which it sets to 7. Modifying the event is possible, but there's no extra space so would be annoying.
As for an obtainable 8th sword orb, you've seen my first attempt. It has issues that I'll resolve next update.
2) Yeah, it's a sucky spell. Not high on my list of priorities, but something I may do someday. I'd also like to replace Evil Gate; even with Kethinov's hack that beefs it up it still feels bleh to use.
3) Absolutely not. One of my top complaints with Trials of Mana is how all of its spells freeze all action; it's awful. If I do anything regarding this it would be to make the level 8 spells not freeze time, but I suspect they do so for technical reasons. I do agree that it makes the level 8 spells worse than their less fancy versions, and is something I'd like to adjust someday.
4) That's a neat idea. I'll probably dig around and see if it's possible.
5) This is something to bring up with Kethinov. I assume he just hasn't been to the forums so hasn't seen your PM. Just brainstorming, it may be more practical to move Neko forward through the teleporter into the empty Mech Rider III room.
6) Melee damage is done via melee animations having a collide-able damage region. Throws have such a region, which means if you do a throw on one enemy, and there's a second enemy nearby, the collider can hit that second enemy; effectively you're throwing the first enemy into the second. Unfortunately, the grabbed enemy is not able to collide with the damaging collider during the throw animation (so that's why they don't take damage). Not sure what it would take to resolve this. Strong_And_Weak_Attacks removes the glove weapon throws, so it's a non-issue, and that's the default configuration I support, so changing throws is pretty low on my list of priorities. They're fun, so in theory I'd like to fix them up and make them worthwhile, but I have other stuff I'd rather work on.
Some updates to your existing packages:
Neko_And_Watts_In_Fortress and Restore_Unused_Fanfares were just out-dated descriptions. Gaias_Navel_Treasure needed a minor update (1000gp -> 50gp, and a dependent option to switch back to 1000gp). Thanks for pointing those out.
I can't think of a concise way to format the spell recharge time table in the description for Magic_Recharging. I added a general explanation of the logic behind the recharge timings to the description, but for now, if you want to see exactly which spell gets what timer, open the Turbo ZPS file in a text editor and search for \tbl_magicRechargeTime.asm to see the table (I added comments to clarify which entry is for which spell).
...then start from blank, all the saved filed (somehow, they exist) are all corrupt.
Use a site like
https://imgur.com/ to upload screenshots. They provide direct image links suitable for using in forum posts. But I happen to know of this issue, so no screenshot necessary.
Anyway, the problem you ran into has a fairly specific cause: have Equip_2nd_Weapon and/or QuickSpell_Hotkeys On, and Disable_Checksum_Bypass Off (this feature has changed since you hit this issue, will elaborate in a sec), then start the game without save data (.SRM file) in an emulator that initializes the save data with all bits set (all 0xFF bytes), such as ZSNES. Checksum_Bypass looks for 0xFFFF in the save's checksum value and skips validating if that's the value, which results in garbage saves being visible at the load screen. I changed Disable_Checksum_Bypass (On by default) into Checksum_Bypass (Off by default) to reduce the likelihood of someone running into this on accident.
Bug Reports:
I checked Earlier_Midge_Mallet and Later_Midge_Mallet and they change the bytes exactly as done by Kethinov's two hacks (modify an event related to getting the Midge Mallet). I don't personally use either so am not familiar with the precise expected behavior.
1. [Reduce_Moon_Saber_Healing]: Description Changed
2. [Revisit_Sunken_Continent]: Description Changed
3. [King_Goes_To_Bed]: That's the vanilla NPC movement for that event, so eh, get a time machine and tell the original devs they were kinda sloppy when setting up the queen's movements.
4. [Magic_Recharging]: Seems like too much data to dump into the description. If I can make a compact table I will, but not high on my list of things to do.
5. [Scroll_Hack], [CPUs_Dont_Block_Screen]: Should be handled by Bug_Fixes\Gather_Party_Fix. If you can still make it happen even with that bug fix On, let me know.
[No_Blats_To_Sell]: Fixed in Version 190902. I was accidentally allowing a 13th item to try and load, and the ring menu can't handle more than 12 icons.
I hope the Turtlelance's [Spear] Orb isn't farmable when you face it in the Tree Palace.
Whoops, it sorta is. I forgot they were the same enemy type in the Grand Palace and Mana Fortress; now it makes sense why they have such a crummy drop. Crud. Your maximum orbs value should prevent the drop from actually occurring until after talking to the Mana Tree, but I'll want to reassess this. This probably also risks an issue with Day_Night_Cycle adding nighttime Metal Crabs to Pure Land since they also have a weapon orb.
I want the 8th sword orb to be a drop in the Mana Fortress to match the other weapons. Just need to figure out a suitable enemy to cram it on. I didn't use Doom Swords because I did remember that they were in the Grand Palace. I also thought I'd read that weapon orb drops only functioned in the Mana Fortress, but that's incorrect info; the dropped orb chests only check if current orbs < maximum orbs (and various things set the maximum orb values, notably the Mana Tree event).
Replacing enemies with chests is Kethinov's thing. If there are some accidentally unreachable chests I'll move them in-bounds, but the two existing features related to weapon orbs already handle bumping orb availability. Part of my reluctance is that you don't just put in a chest that contains an orb, you put in a chest that contains a specific level orb, which means having to verify the correct orb count for that weapon at that point in the game, and modifying any orb chests for that weapon type that come later in the game.
There, think that replies to everything.