I have a fairly fast PC and internet connection.
Sometimes it can take upwards of 45s for some knights to load on to the level.
Having a party button there forces everybody to wait until the slowest knight loads... and then hopefully they aren't going to want to spend 2 minutes picking out gear.
Instead of the party button / gate, could this be switched out for a one-way energy curtain?
That way - those who want to or can venture on - can do so.
The feature exists already for monsters... so this would be or should be a variable of the same code.
If the button stays for every level, I can see impatient people booting slow loading players.
Another consideration would be to put a time limit on the arsenal station to limit how much time may be used up.
Jacobey
I don't like the time limit because you could get stuck with gear you really didn't want. It was a little frustrating waiting at the start of every level for my test-mate to gear up. I imagine it could have been much worse. But it's not like anyone has all the gear that is available on the test server knights. I was changing up just to try out some new gear.
The energy curtain is a great idea. It'll let players move ahead and keep the flow of their game going.