Exile's Journey

I just came across a really weird glitch in RPG Maker 2003 that I can't seem to fix.

I have an item called "Phantom Potion" that, when used in battle, blesses the user with a condition called "Phantom" in battle that allows him/her to appear spectral and evade all attacks for a few turns.

The item's type is set to "Skill Scroll" in the database so that it invokes a skill when used (a skill called Phantom that does what I already mentioned.) My first problem is, you can actually use it outside of battle as well. But whatever, that's no big deal and not what I'm concerned with.

But when you do use it outside of battle, even if you have multiple party members (in my case, I had four) it only allows you to use it on the first member. You can't move the cursor up and down. The strange part is though, it doesn't inflict that character with Phantom. It inflicts the FOURTH party member with Phantom every time. I can't seem to fix it.

The skill itself is set to "Self", so that isn't that problem. As well, I have another Skill Scroll type item that inflicts the user with Haste - it's the same exact type of item as Potion of Phantom, but it works correctly. Even more unusual, though, is that the Haste skill that the Haste potion allows the user to cast is set to "Single Ally" rather than Self.

What the hell? I guess this is just some weird bug with RM2K3, but anyone have any ideas?

I like to think of my game as being divided into thirds - the beginning, the middle, and the end sections.

The 2 - 3 hour beginning section is linear and typical of your average jRPG. You do what you're told to do, and you don't make many decisions. Every dungeon must be completed in a certain order and that's it. However, the middle and end sections of my game are pretty different than the first - they both will have about 3 dungeons that can be completed in any order. After the three dungeons in the middle section are completed, the can move on to the end section. After the final three dungeons are completed, you can move on the final boss.

In other words, my game is very open-ended after the beginning portion. The goal in the last two divisions of the game is to complete the dungeons marked on your map. Otherwise, you're free to visit anywhere on the world map and explore.

To encourage this exploration, I've decided that I'd like to include many side quests. My question is this - what kind of side quests would you, the player, most enjoy playing? A bunch of "go get me ten " style quests or lengthy trade quests scattered throughout the world? Or would you rather have fewer but longer side quests that involve optional dungeons? A mixture of both simple and more in-depth quests? What kind of rewards would you like to see? Do you expect each quest to have it's own engaging storyline? Do you expect every town to contain at least one sidequest?

I'm looking to see some discussion.