This is an upcoming set of updates I've been thinking about lately (mostly because I've thought through pretty much everything else by now). It will basically give players a more visual way of moving around and exploring linear worlds.
The Grid updates
I want to introduce some useful improvements to the The Grid plugin:
Creating a Grid could automatically create rooms inside it, named say A1, A2 etc until you change the names.
You can adjust room names from within this panel pretty easily.
For larger grids you get zoom and move controls that let you see what you're working on easier
Adjust the names of relationships (instead of just north/south/east/west. Also adjust individual relationship names here from within the grid panel.
Link grids together in a batch way, letting you link regions of the same size together for example but keep the regions separate. In the case of different sizes, choose a section to link. This would allow for 3D grids as well.
Tiles system
This allows you to set images up as "tiles" which can then be assigned to rooms.
You'll also have the option of using the Conditions system to determine which tile gets used where.. for example rooms with a Machine might have a machine-looking tile.
Eventually I want to expand this to create new images from overlaying transparent PNG tiles onto backgrounds, but this may take time.
You can set your height and width of tiles to whatever you want.
Grid movement
Setting this up would let you mark Grids as "visual", or make them all that way. In that case, players would actually see the Grid they're on and be able to click tiles to move.
You could set constraints on movement, maybe only allowing cardinal directions or limiting a player's range. There will be a lot of options here. Keyboard support would also be feasible.
Tiles could also optionally be hidden until a player moves into a room and "discovers" it.
Maps plugin
With this plugin, players would be able to see maps of areas they haven't explored or aren't currently on. The system would also support map fragments to reveal sections of areas players haven't yet explored.
Map overlays
This system would allow certain things to highlight parts of a map, for example a "Compass" item that highlights rooms that have Lootboxes, or Quest Markers that show the next place to progress a Quest. Players can then click through different overlays to show whatever they want to show.
This set of updates is part of the vN update but will probably happen sometime during v6 development. The ideas have been around for a while.
