The current gate creation system doesn't seem very immersing. All I do is click auto sell, since I know I wouldn't have much impact on the final stratum theme. I'm guessing that others feel the same way.
So, then. How about we change the way strata are determined?
What i'm saying is, how about, during mineral depositing, you only have your mineral deposits shown? When the gate is created, the strata themes you had chosen would be counted as "votes" for the real stratum theme.
Say for a Coral Bishop gate. I put in 5 crimsonite and 3 dark matter for stratum 1, making it Fiend themed. When the gate is constructed, I would have put in one vote for stratum 1 being a Fiend stratum. This doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be Fiend; however, if enough people voted for it to be Fiend, then it will be. However, if the theme with the majority of votes was Poison, it'd be Poison themed.
So, what do you think? Is it too confusing? Should there be modifications? Tell me if you don't like this idea and why not!
What your suggesting has the basic flaw of the electoral college, where regardless of how much you put into it, it still counts as one vote. It doesn't change anything because the number of those that selectively make a theme choice won't outweigh the masses of "auto sell" votes, which likely bump the lowest counted theme.
The underlying problem is with the Auto-sell and the pricing structure. Because the mineral with the lowest counts have the highest value, all auto-sales promote theme disruption (3rd element). If not for the efforts of a small group of thoughtful players, it would probably have complete theme changes several times per hour. If they brought back mineral price boosting, that would go a long way in making themes controllable again without having to replace the entire system.