With the addition of new storytelling elements and tools to this game... The Shadow Lairs, the Scenario Rooms, and the upcoming Missions System, I think we could do with EVEN MORE things that:

A. Tells us something about the Clockworks and their construction
B. Provides a unique twist to regular gameplay

Why the Dune Quote? Let me tell you the idea and you'll understand.

So the idea goes like this... you're playing through a Clockworks Tunnel with your team, and the time is near that the gate will be cycled out of the system (or not, but this seems like a good way to explain what happens to gates that get cycled out so it could work)... when suddenly the ground starts shaking. Then there's the sound of something big and heavy crashing it's way through a lot of metal, and a roaring sound.

YOU ENCOUNTERED THE DECONSTRUCTOR WORM

It's this huge massive toothy-mawed multieyed monstrosity made of multiple machine elements masked by a muscular mucusy mass, most of which is moldy (like a sort of mashup of almost all the monster families in the game). Masticating this mysterious malformed mangler doesn't JUST make it die- it starts collapsing in on itself and turns into a giant vortex that sucks your entire party in.

Your party then gets scattered throughout the Clockworks. Which is to say you wake up in another depth, on another gate. In order to not screw people over the set of levels they can end up in is limited to tiers they're cleared for regardless of the tier they were in when they got scattered, and sometimes you can randomly join another party- except you won't load into the level standing up, like Knights usually do. You'll load into the game lying face-down, so your new party knows what the heck just happened to you. Or if you're lucky you all end up together in the new level.

I figured that the path through a regular Clockworks run should be a little less linear... this just came to mind as a solution to that lack of linearity. Except of course, yes, there could be a better ways handle it. I just thought this would be kind of epic.