Everyone hates rolling the Treasure Vault on Graveyard levels. At best it's a minor inconvenience between actually fighting things (you know, what we're down in the clockworks to do), and at worst it's a tiresome waste of 10 energy.
Everyone also wants to see the glorious return of Tortodrone.
I recall posting briefly about this in another thread a while back, but I thought I'd flesh it out a bit.
The lore/story aspect would be this: Basically, what sense does a treasure vault make without a guardian?
As for the nuts and bolts: The southern half of the map would be roughly the same. Coins and boxes, maybe a few more than previously, and the odd kleptolisk troll. The northern half, however, would be completely reworked.
The layout would be roughly as it is now, with an open area in the center and treasure off to either side, but the treasure would be locked behind those angryface monster gates, and ambling around in the middle would be our good friend Torty. One of those recon signs would warn noobs that Tortodrones do not part with their treasure easily, and that they had best just head down the elevator. The elevator to the next level would be just off to the side of the entrance, to emphasize that fighting Torty is completely optional.
A party button inside the arena will aggro Torty and begin the battle. This part is relatively predictable: You wail on him with your wet noodles and pea shooters, while he grinds your face into the dirt over and over.
When the battle is done, the treasure gates drop, and a large gold chest appears in the middle of the arena. The chest, when opened, drops one piece of gear for each party member; usually low star crap but rarely something nice. Basically have the payout average out to the same as you'd get on a similar depth arena or graveyard.
+1
does like. :)