I've done a bit of character skinning lately, and MANY of the parts that moves on the characters are cut using a looping path of points (aka a mesh), anything outside that path is not drawn, so that limits how much you can draw outside the original sprites.

To fix this I had to get Spine ($300) and make a custom program to repair the mesh points in the original files (because they get messed up when importing, and I just wanted to make an addition to the original ones) before I could start working on them.

if I wanted to make a new model then Spine would be the only thing you would have needed.. I do not know if it is possible to animate it in a free skeleton program and then export it to json which someone with Spine Pro can read and convert for you. (what free versions are there out there anyway?)

Are we talking about a reskin or did you intend to change how things works aswell?

Moderately, it's still mainly the same game mechanics, with some changes (I know are possible) about the number and purpose of trinkets, afflictions, resistances (mainly death door that's more important because it's an "armor/suit breach" mechanic), a lot of renaming that is functionaly not changing anything,... A little expansion on camping skills to make way to build-up skills using the vanilla mechanics ("from skill" buffs).

Actually the only things i'm wondering if possible is the possibility of linking some quirks with flags (religious, heavy) and the possible creation of new flags; the addition of a second stress bar ; of new resistances and dots (probably not possible) ; and i'd really like to know if one could make a debuff activate before damage for a zero turn duration (to model armor-piercing weapons and the like).

But let's be honest, the reskin is nearly all the work. I've already known about Spine, and this plus the total absence of drawing skill is with certainty a problem in the project.

It sounds like an awesome idea. Though it is reasonable to doubt it's feasibility. I am a modder such a yourself, plagued with a lack of artistic skill.

To speak to a couple of the specifics that you mention:

The idea of linking quirks might be integrated soon. Or tags might be scrapped altogether. Red Hook is working on a quirk incompatibility system. Biggest example of this is that they want the religious incompatibility of the Abomination to depend on quirks rather than tags. So if that becomes a reality that could give a lot of tools to play with. Until it's officially implemented though I think it would be difiicult to do it on your own.

You can definitely create new tags, I've done it myself. Tags on heroes is easy, on quirks it's way more difficult.

You probably can't add new Resistences or DoTs, but I'm reasonbly sure you could just rework the existing ones (Bleed and Blight). As they don't seem very thematic to your target feel, you could just change them. Change the text and icon, and it's as if it's a brand new thing. That would be pretty straightforward actually (I imagine you want to do something like oxygen depravation or something along the lines).

The single turn debuff would probably not be possible, but I suspect there are ways you can simulate this. Maybe do the -PROT debuff and then somehow apply a +PROT buff soon after? A reaction could be accomplished. Many bosses have some 'auto-attacks', attacks they perform at the end of their turn that consumes no actions, just automatic. You could try that.

All in all it sounds like a fascinating idea, but it would be a ton of work, not just on the art side. You'd be in for the long haul, and without a committed artist I might even reccommend you rework some of your ideas to be able to work with existing textures, or ones with very easy modifications.

I'd love to help out and listen to some more of your ideas, it really does sound awesome.

Cheers!

About linking quirks:
Good, I didn't know about this intention. Would help me a lot.

On tags:
Great !

On resistances:
Well, I've already reworked the existing ones and was thinking about having more, feeling restrained with the only two "elemental damages". I'll work around them, probably by redifining par broad type ("can be purged" / "can be sealed" from the suit) and letting diversity be in the skill names.

Thanks for the workaround about piercing attacks. Could do the trick.

If i keep working on it we'll speak again, thanks a lot for your appreciation ! :)