I haven't been watching long, but from what I can tell, gates tend to go live before all the strati are filled with minerals. Is this the case for most/all gates so far?
If so, how much effort would it take for us to coordinate dumping crystals into one specific gate? I don't really care what stratum themes are generated, but I'm wondering if a 100% full gate will have an effect on the core.
Furthering machallboyd's comments: The gates used to fill up completely just after the game went public (due to the large influx of new players). Now, a few weeks later, the rate of new players has slowed and some have left meaning that the strata aren't being filled up any more. Hopefully they start being completed though, because the % they are filled = the % chance that the stratum type we have constructed actually eventuates.
Oh and the current gates won't have an effect on the core at the moment. The devs are stilling working on the core, and perhaps when it is released our mineral deposits will influence it or then again perhaps it won't (depending upon what exactly the devs have in mind for the core).
From what I've heard, the number of minerals needed to complete a gate is determined by the number of crystals generated shortly before, so it should stay vaguely balanced.
If there were a big burst of new players, we'd see gates suddenly fill up easily. If that big burst of players stopped playing, it would be temporarily difficult to fill gates. We might be seeing this now with a post-launch slump.