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While I'm still in the process of finishing the initial patch (including all the text changes I have to make and ASM hacking I have to learn), I figured I'd start a thread to log my progress and keep myself motivated. I'm not looking for playtesters or any helpers at the very moment, but if you're interested expect updates on this project about once or twice a week. Feel free to ask questions about design choices or specifics, and I'll do my best to answer them without sounding like I have no idea what I'm trying to do. 
What's Done
What I'm Currently Working On
What I Still Have to Do
P.S.: While this technically isn't new, I thought this was the best place to put my log. If there's another spot you'd prefer I put it, let me know.
What's Done
- JP costs have been reduced to 0 for all skills.
- Archer has been renamed Ranger; Charge has been replaced with Ranger Skill. Ranger skills deal damage and inflict various status with 100% accuracy for a small MP cost.
- Calculator has been renamed Inquisitor; Magic (skillset 23) has been renamed to Inquisition and set as the job skill. It focuses on stat reduction, status effects, and self-sufficiency.
- Mediator/Orator has been renamed to Trainer; Talk Skill has been replaced with Monster Skills. It functions very much like a Blue Mage, although making the abilities LoH isn't something I plan to do.
- Skillsets have been normalised; all units of a particular job/class now use the same skillset. All Lucavi have access to all Fear abilities.
- All jobs/classes have at least one innate, which will be listed in the job description. Of particular note: chemists, priests, wizards, time mages, oracles, summoners, trainers (mediators/orators), bards, and dancers cannot enter water.
- Yell, Cheer Up, Wish, and Scream have been added to Basic Skill; all names and effects of all but Scream have been altered.
- Overall CTR of abilities have been reduced, although a few actually went up. Healing spells are generally slightly faster than damaging spells.
- Most abilities have been renamed. Most of the renaming is simply to the -ara/-aga/-aja convention, and fixing odd spelling.
- All abilities that cancel status (except Dead) in vanilla (Heal, Remedy, Stigma Magic, Esuna, Dispel, Choco Esuna, Dischord/Odd Soundwave, Dispelna, Dispel 2/Dispelja, and Dragon's Gift) now have nearly guaranteed accuracy; all above skills remove ALL status effects (good and bad) except Dead from their targets.
- Positive status effects are now pretty much guaranteed to hit, and most have low MP cost.
- Negative status effects are now much more likely to hit, and most have low MP cost.
- All statuses have an indefinite duration except for Death Sentence, Charging, Performing, Sleep, Don't Move, Don't Act, and Stop.
- Berserk, Charm, Confusion, and Sleep now cancel each other. Reraise now cancels Undead.
- Antidote, Eye Drops, Echo Herbs, and Soft have been renamed to Tonic, Medicine, Smelling Salts, and Gold Needle, respectively. Tonics heal Silence, Frog, and Poison; Medicine cures Darkness, Oil, Don't Move, and Don't Act; Smelling Salts cure Confusion, Charm, and Sleep; Maiden's Kiss now also heals Berserk; Gold Needles heal Petrify and Stop.
- Stat growth has been normalized across all jobs and monsters up to the Uribo-Pig family in the FFTPatcher list. Monsters have better multipliers in general than human units, though most have either PA or MA at a 0 multiplier if they don't have a use for it in their skillset.
- All Monsters now have 3 usable skills, plus their Beastmaster skill. Reaction/Support/Movement abilities have been changed for many monsters. Elemental weaknesses and resistances have been altered for almost all monsters. Beastmaster is innate to all Monsters.
- Job level 8 is now reached at 500 JP, but all job requirements have been increased to compensate. You should still unlock Knight/Ranger/Priest/Wizard on at least a few of your units by the time you hit Igros the first time. After that... Depends on how much you switch around jobs. Mime now requires all other non-gendered jobs to be at level 8 to unlock.
- Equip lists for most jobs have been changed, in some cases drastically. Your generic units for Gariland battle now have set weapons, and two have shields.
- Most weapons have been renamed, and their graphics changed. Almost all weapon formulas have been changed.
- All Harps have been made into Crossbows, all Bags have been made into Guns, and all Cloths have been made into Books.
- Units in the Orbonne Monastery battle have better equipment; notably, Agrais, Gafgarion, and Lezales have gear you can't buy before chapter 2, and all other units have the best buyable gear from chapter 1. The battle is significantly easier and largely functions more as a tutorial on how battle flows than anything else.
- The Gariland battle swings between being very easy and very hard, depending on how many units have Auto-Potion on the opposing team.
- Mandalia Plains battle is moderately difficult if you get bad luck in the Gariland battle are are low on items; quite easy if you can keep Algus and Delita alive.
- Starting inventory has been increased to 10 Potions, 5 Hi-Potions, 3 Ethers, and 5 Phoenix Downs, in addition to one of every other Item. (On an average play, I use 2-3 potions and 1 Phoenix Down to get through Gariland. I'm sure I could use less than that, but I tend to play it pretty safe. Wish helps a lot here.)
What I'm Currently Working On
- Filling in descriptions for items, monsters and abilities.
- Balancing multipliers in Monster skill damage formulas; most seem to do 50+ damage at level 2-3 with neutral compatability, which is more HP than non-Knights can have at that level. Specifically: changing Blaster to inflict Slow or Sleep instead of Stop or Petrify.
- Getting Ramza's equipment in the Gariland battle to load properly; it's not showing up on the status screen, though he still uses the weapon and gains the evade from his shield.
- Making sure mages can be outfitted before Dorter; shop changes don't appear to be consistently working.
- Learning ASM hacking, so I can manipulate formula 7 (Heal_Weapon NS) to allow status effects. Alternatively, altering formula 4 (Magic guns) to allow any spell to be cast.
What I Still Have to Do
- Change the job descriptions, primarily the 'Job Requirements' text.
- Playtest changes beyond Chapter 1.
- Fix the ENTD; notably, restrict monsters to specific area types (plains/woods/swamps/deserts/mountains/waterways).
- Make sure storyline battle enemies are somewhere around the party level.
P.S.: While this technically isn't new, I thought this was the best place to put my log. If there's another spot you'd prefer I put it, let me know.