Problem needs solved + unrelated question

Okay, so this would have gone into help normally, but due to internet death at home this is the first I've been on in a while and the help section seems to have ran away so keep me right if this shouldn't be here...

Maker 2k3.
I've got 24 characters in place.  I want more.  I made a 25th character but as soon as he went into any battle situation (even test battle in monster groups tab) I got a complaint that there is a battle animation being referenced that doesn't exist.
So I checked the battle sprites and they were all fine.  I checked bttle animations and they were all fine too.   They all existed.  Still didn't work.
I tried everythin' to fix it but got nothin'.  I eventually deleted the character completetly and even lowered the array size to 24.  I then upped it back up to 25 and got a character that works fine and copied him.  So now, the 25th character is an exact copy of the 2nd character, which works perfectly, but number 25 still doesn't work, and I'm getting the same problem.  I have no idea what to do now.  There is no reason it shouldn't be working unless there's a fundamental problem with characters 25+ that I've never encoutered before....

Also, this is just an unrelated wondering, but no point makin' two posts I figured when I could just pop them both in here...
Is there a way (On rm2k3 still) to make a 2-disc game equivelant?  You complete one file and save it at the end, then on the next project / game you load it up and can continue with the same save file you saved on the first game?  Like FF7/8.  There's a lot of switches and customiseable things that would need to stay the same upon the start of he second game, and I would rather it be seperate games rather than just one full game.
Is this do-able?  If so...how?

Thanks...

I've heard about weird errors occuring just by Actor ID number. Try making an actor in the 26th slot and see if he works.

As to the second problem... I don't know. I think no would be the best answer though. However, you can try maybe? You would probably need it so that the MAP ID of the last map in the first game would be the first map you appear in the second game. And all the database info and all the switches and variables would have to be the exact same in the two games I should think. Then you might be able to load a saved game from the previous project. Again, I don't know if it will work or not, but it might be worth a try (Do not try with your regular project. Or make backups first).

I tried making one on 26th slot and got no joy, but didn't go to 27+ cuz i figured it'd do the same.  I'll try other slots, see what happens.  I've never had this many characters before so it's never been a problem till now.

Yeah, the closest I can think of to realistcally gettin' the same thing is just mking a full game, but releasing it in parts.  You could just take your save file and move it from folder to folder (I know you can do it with xp games, i'm only assuming you can do it with 2k3, correct me if i'm mistaken) and then effectively just continue the game, but for all intents and purposes it'd be seperate games...but it'd really only be one.  I think that's the idea i'll go with for that unless I can get a realistic alternative....