Point 3 is meant to make early levels in tiers worth it. Right now, the payout within each tier get greater as you get farther down, for example:

Floor 1 = 100 crowns
Floor 2 = 200 crowns
Floor 3 = 300 crowns
Floor 4 = 400 crowns
Floor 5 = 500 crowns
Floor 6 = 600 crowns
Floor 7 = 700 crowns

This is our example Tier 1 run under the current system. The total amount of crowns in this run is 2800 crowns. However, if you notice, 1800 of them come from the last three floors. Meaning, if you only do four floors, you are missing out on more than half of the crown payment. Where this comes into play is that boss levels are always at the bottom of each tier and thus give out the most crowns, and more than normal levels at the same depth. However, missions allow you to gain instant access to the depths, skipping all the previous low profit floors, spending less energy, and making more profit because they can use the energy saved from avoiding the low profit floors to do ANOTHER boss run.

My proposal is to make the floor payout like this:

Floor 1 = 400 crowns
Floor 2 = 400 crowns
Floor 3 = 400 crowns
Floor 4 = 400 crowns
Floor 5 = 400 crowns
Floor 6 = 400 crowns
Floor 7 = 400 crowns

With this, whether or not you do the mission, you'll get the same payout each floor. The total profit of the tier is still 2800, but you do not loose by leaving early for whatever reason (whether it be real life stuff, no mist, etc.). Also, the boss levels should have the same payout as normal levels to discourage people from spamming boss farm for epic profits of inflating proportions. Boss levels will still give more in the end because of tokens, so it will be fair. Also, if they take away boss tokens form missions they will only give more if you run arcade.

As for the Token quantity, currently if you do every stage from the basil floor you will get the maximum number of tokens possible. Because of this, people would try to join parties halfway through a tier and not before. I want to change it so you have to do the WHOLE tier to get the maximum number of tokens possible. This would encourage more clockwork exploration instead of just trying to land in that one party or exploiting the system to always have someone be at the halfway point.

If boss levels give even a little bit more crowns than normal levels, people will still farm them like crazy. This is why I suggested evening out the crown payouts between normal and boss levels. Now, in the end, they would still give more because of token stuff. The point of this is to increase activity in the clockworks, hence why I suggested no boss tokens from boss missions.

I know the feature is here, I meant make it so you'll only get the full amount of tokens if you join at the START of the tier, as opposed to just at the start of the boss levels. It was also in the suggestions to take away earning boss tokens from the boss missions, to encourage exploration in the clockworks.

Yes, I also know minerals are worth crowns when selling them. That is the whole point, to make the clockworks worth exploring financially.

They do accomplish this well. I see what your saying, but the problem is the reasons you listed are the only reasons one would ever run clockworks. There are only a few boss token items, the rest can be found in HoH. SL is only ran when someone wants to get shadow lair armor due to it's rediculous entry fee. People are willing to overpay in the AH because it's so easy to farm crowns by farming boss missions, and the payout from that completely overshadows anything you can attempt in the clockworks.

I once did a T3 run and hit 3 arenas as the last 3 levels in the run. My total pay for that 70-80 energy usage was 10k crowns, not counting materials. Too bad FSC mission gives you 8K crowns for just 40 energy, not counting tokens. FSC mission's payout is unmatched by anything else in the game, including shadow lairs (which, in my opinion, should give a LOT more considering the entry fee).

There's a reason why the clockworks are dead as we speak. Also, don't worry about being long winded, I've read longer posts (and books). Better to have more details so people understand you, than to have not enough and cause a flame war.