This is a rather large complex of systems that ties into several upcoming plugins and Machine types.
Basically it's an engine that fetches information about the game world, anything in it, as well as having some useful aggregation functions (like counting the number of players in a room for example).
In addition to its other uses, it should make building a Mafia engine in NIFE very easy, which is good because Automafia is defunct and I'd rather have full NIFE functionality anyway.
Here are upcoming features that run on the Information Engine:
Consoles
This is a machine type that has various functions attached to it. When a player picks a function it'll display information, such as the number of players with the trait Alien in a room.
Trackers
This machine type makes the Trackers plugin obsolete. It displays information automatically on the room description or the player inventory depending on whether it's an item or fixture. Hosts can also set some information to show on a room category or global basis.
Hosts can also adjust the formatting of everything.
Scanners
This Machine type lets players put in a #target like the Tech update to get information about whatever it is.
The Host can set various entity types and also apply filters so you can for example only scan adjacent rooms or items in your inventory.
You should also be able to do more general scanning, like scanning a room category to see a list of mineable items, which would be particularly useful for space games.
Analyzer
This Machine type will scan an item and get more esoteric information from it, for example a list of the Mines or Shops that carry it, Crafting recipes attached to it, foes that posess a clone of it and so on.
Databanks Plugin (name pending)
This plugin gives players an encyclopedia-like panel to categorize information, which is stored there when accessed or via events. This will be a bit more complicated to set up, but I'd like it to be able to do things like track Mines and Crops remotely, do grid overlays of stuff to assist in puzzle solving and so on.
Host Filtering
This update will modify all "choose room / etc" parts of Host Panels so you can Filter or Search for things much more easily.
Logging
Information fetched by any means whatsoever will get logged to a specific section of the Player Journal for easy recovery. Other New Journal updates like tagging / notebooks will apply here as well.
