Hi Sega Chief,
I've talked with you before on the Insane Difficulty forums. I was the guy with a long list of ideas for modding FF7 including adding some elemental spells, reintroducing tonberries and ochus, displaying weapon bonuses, etc. I played your mod up to Junon, but I haven't really been playing games at all since then. Life is taking me in other directions for now. But I do get on these forums and read about the progress you're making. I can't wait to play the mod again soon!
Last night I woke up with another idea about how to change AP growth so that players can only equip materia that they want to use and don't have to worry about loading up on materia for AP grinding. I'm not sure if it's possible, but it seems like it could be cool. It's related to your idea for changing how characters grow their stats through events rather than experience.
What if players gained/upgraded new spells (Fire -> Fire2) through events or quests, rather than having to keep Fire materia equipped for the entire game to keep leveling it up. If an event leveled up the materia, then players would only equip Fire when they really wanted to use it. Events could also be used to power up summons. At least in the PSX version, I assume that different discs of the game could have different strength levels for the same attack, so in disc 3 Choco Mog could be stronger than in disc 1 (I think this is the case) so it could still be a viable attack throughout the game. Not sure if something like this could be used in the PC version.
Thanks for being open to hearing my ideas and I hope they're helpful! I don't know if they're possible or would be popular, but I think they'd be pretty cool!
Nathan