I, and you all know how creepily devoted to Toady I am, think this can become very DF like in many ways and still not threaten Toady one bit. here are my assumptions (assumptions are more like opinions and suggestion than facts in this case):
- This will be a browser based game, With ASCII display and an user interface and visual feel as close to DF as possible.
- The REAL appeal of DF is not in the physical and mechanical stuff, it is 80% in the AI stuff with personality, 10% in world generation and history, and 8% in all the awesome future goals.
- the browser based game will have a title that is not a copy of DF nor completely unrelated to it, perhaps a play on the title or something about it being a tribute on the main page, and will have a link to Toadys donation area on the page.
- the browser based game will not have any NPCs, or very rudimentary and AI-less ones, and will have only rudimentary history, and maps made by hand but perhaps inspired by ones of the DFMA or such.
- It will either be adventure mode based in a way that it could really be any rougelike, or centred around a single fortress with each player taking the role of a dwarf, and there being no worldmap and external events such as caravans and sieges will probably be created and controlled by hand by some kind of GM-like figure.
- It will copy the DF systems for combat, skills and experience, building and mining, and physics like hydrodynamics and mechanisms, probably able to run these things at greater detail/with a larger map due to using a dedicated server machine or being distributed across clients.
If my assumptions are reasonably close to the truth, and possibly if they are not, I'd greatly enjoy playing such a game, but for completely different reasons than DF!