I have ten suggestions for changes to the way Character WADs are set up.
1. There should be additional sprites for running on water.
2. Each character should have their own "going super" frames, instead of a set of SUPT frames which are only used for Sonic (I think this is already in consideration, but I just thought I'd restate it.)
3. There should be more special ability frames. It stinks that characters with Tails Fly have just two frames for "flying" but four frames for "falling". This could benefit Glide/Climb, too.
4. While I'm on the subject of special ability frames, there should be separate frames for unique super transformations and special abilities. You would still have SuperAnims in the S_SKIN lump, but that would be for whether the super transformations frames would be used at all.
5. I think this has already been suggested, but there should be "pushing" frames for when the character is running into a wall or a solid object.
6. Falling off a cliff should cause the character to break into their Spring Down animation (this is already done in Adventure Mode, but it should apply to all modes, in my opinion.)
7. There should be multiple Spring Up animations, and, if this becomes the case, there should be an extra option in NoJumpSpin to make it so that either the first Spring Up frame or all the Spring Up frames would be used during a normal jump. It would be something like this:
NoJumpSpin = 0: Character goes into spinning animation during a jump.
NoJumpSpin = 1: Character goes into the first Spring Up motion on the way up, and Spring Down motion on the way down.
NoJumpSpin = 2: Character's jump looks exactly like it would on a spring.
8. There should be separate frames for charging up a spindash and releasing it.
9. TAILSFLYTICS and other "timer SOC" settings should be handled inside the S_SKIN lump, not the MAINCFG lump.
10. There should be a way to tinker with how power-ups affect the character. For instance, there should be a way to set exactly what speed a character will be with Super Sneakers, and their acceleration, etc.
I also have a non-Character-WAD-related suggestion. Make it so that touching a Puma (Mario Fireball) causes Fire Damage, not Plain Damage. It makes sense...they're hopping balls of fire! Also, change their name to Podoboos...that's their more commonly used name.
What do you think of these ideas?