The superman one was pretty simple. You opened the MagicType.ini file (now magictype.dat) and found the field containing target info. I named this Target_Type in my magictype structyre (

)
Basically, skills like superman/cyclone/fly used self targeting mode, and you just needed to modify it to target anyone. The range of these skills was little, so you had to stack onto the character you wished to cast it onto. Basically, a level 15 warrior could stack a high level archer and cast superman on it.
As for socketing other equips. I'm not sure which method you're referring to, but at one time in alpha, you could equip any piece of equipment in any slot, by telling the server to do it, bypassing a client check.