I have played for quite a while now, and I've only ever seen a handful of energy gates opened (aside from danger rooms). I understand they're probably only intended for players who have trouble using up all of their mist for the day, but if the overwhelming majority of players can routinely forget that they even exist, I think there's some potential going to waste here.
I propose the following:
#1 - Treasure gates should be instanced per player (and balanced appropriately)
Right now, one person pays, but the whole group gets the treasure, so you've got the tragedy of the commons working against you, plus you're charging small groups the same amount for less treasure. Instead, each player should be able to choose for themselves whether the treasure behind the gate is worth the energy to them--no freeloaders or complex intra-party negotiations. As a result, the treasure behind an energy gate can be balanced to be worth about 3 energy without needing to worry that players are really going to collect 4x for the same price.
#2 - Choose a random theme for the treasure set, and make it apparent before the gate is opened
Treasure boxes can dispense a lot of different things, and you don't know what they contain until your break them. It would be silly if opening a treasure gate was so profitable that you always do it, but if you put different rewards behind different gates, then you can balance things so that most players will open some gates, but not others, depending on what they want. For example, on different runs, the same gate might contain:
- ~120 crowns
- A bunch of heat
- A crafting material (or several common ones)
- 1 "spark" token
- Several heart boxes
- A random selection of quickbar items
- A recipe vendor (with a small, randomized inventory)
- Pre-processed minerals, which are added to your inventory immediately without being carried on your back
Players should be able to see which of these is inside the gate before opening it (e.g. maybe not exactly which crafting material, but the fact that it is a crafting material and not a pile of heat).
The crowns are only going to be taken by people with spare mist (unless CE prices drop substantially), but you might plausibly pay 3 CE for a shot at a recipe you're looking for, for a token that can't normally be bought or traded, or to heal up so that you won't have to revive later--under the right conditions. This will make the energy gates relevant to a much wider selection of players, ultimately getting players to pay more attention and spend more energy.
You could also have treasure boxes occasionally, in which case the player is basically gambling for a shot at a rare drop. Maybe even a new color of treasure box with a small chance to drop unique costumes or something.
#1: I wouldn't mind this, but it's really whoever has the Elevator Pass opens the gates now. The only other thing they use them for is to revive.
#2: This would be nice for those of us who don't have Elevator Passes, as of now they are usually only crowns and heat. Since heat cannot be measured, it's difficult to tell whether what you get is worth the 3 CE or not. Usually it's Mist, and so I open it without second thoughts, since normally I do RCR (For crowns) once a day, leaving plenty of mist for opening gates and whatnot. But to have more specific boxes besides Red, Green and Heart would be nice.
On the other hand, I don't like the idea of accessories dropping a lot. Maybe costumes that bound on pickup, but any accessories or costumes that you can sell would throw the market off balance imo.
~Sev