Allow us to create 2D animated characters#45

This might be a bit of a stretch, but hear me out.

We all know creating a fighter in a 3D environment is much harder than creating one in 2D is. Modding for RoA2 is significantly more difficult overall than modding for RoA1 was. A big part of that difficulty is how complex it is to make a good 3D model, and that’s before you even get to all the animations and visual effects needed to make it look great.

I think it would be really helpful, at least for the prototyping stage, if we could use 2D graphics to represent our fighters. Basically using sprites on a flat plane with a billboard-like effect instead of full 3D models.

This would:

• make it much easier for more people to get into RoA2 modding (some experience from RoA1 could be carried over)
• open the door to porting a large amount of RoA1 workshop content to RoA2 (either adapted to the new moveset options or with special properties like instant shield breaks for characters that lack grabs)

Maybe this is already kind of possible with the current modding tools, but if the idea has any merit, an official, polished implementation could make it much easier and more approachable.

I know it might sound silly, but I genuinely believe this would help the workshop take off. It would let many people get over the initial hurdle and potentially open the floodgates for more and faster quality content that, even though it’s not 3D, could still look and feel great in the new 3D environment alongside regular 3D fighters.

YESSS