I'm so excited to see where they go from here. My fantasy is a version of DF where entity movement isn't locked to a grid, that would open the door for real animations, smooth movement, or even a 3D version.
None of that requires a non-grid based approach. Many puzzle games are grid based but have smooth animation and movement, and rendering it all in 3D is pretty orthogonal. The big problem would be making the entities non-abstract enough that their animations could make some kind of sense visually.
I kinda figured that but I wanted to couch my opinion because the last time it came up I got yelled at a lot when I wanted the sprites to face right when moving right.
They have a roadmap [0] for DF that, assuming historical development velocity, will take another 5 odd years to complete. The big upcoming (ignoring the never ending yak shaving that tends to lead DF development) is the Myth and Magic update. Also, boats.
