In addition to the existing mechanisms for players to affect the stratums (strata? strati?) of a gate, I'd like to throw out another mechanism to add to the mix - how about a way to move (for a price, of course) minerals that have been deposited in one stratum to another stratum of that gate. Maybe make the "move fee" equal to twice the standard payout for depositing minerals at the "origin" stratum.
So if a gate is under construction, and Stratum 1 looks like it's going to be a Beast stratum, you might pay 10,000 Cr to shift 1000 Valestone from Stratum 1 to Stratum 3, and then pay another 6,000 to move 1000 Dark Matter from Stratum 3 to Stratum 1, shifting it to a Fiend level instead. Of course it may require much larger quantities of minerals (and thus much larger quantities of crowns) to affect an actual gate. And there's also the possibility of a "stratum fight" between two groups, with one group shifting things one way, and another shifting it back again, with "victory" going to whoever is willing/able to spend the most crowns...
I believe this would make "customizing" a gate somewhat more practical than it is now, and also put a potentially large crown sink into the game, which I think it needs.
I'm not sure how to handle "complete" stratums - maybe have it be a "swap" system rather than a "move" system, so that the total number of minerals in any stratum would remain constant, and just the particular types would change.
Anyone see any major problems with this idea?
It seems there's a gate construction thread here already so I guess I'll just post my idea here.
I'd think it would be better if every stratum on a gate had +5 crowns per mineral value despite earlier stratums being filled. That would allow people to affect later stratums without having to wait for all the upper stratums to get filled(which they haven't been lately). I also think there should be some way to lower a mineral so that it's worth less in a stratum and that autodeposit should make it so it deposits that type of mineral to a different stratum since it's now worth more there if a +5 crowns base value is applied to all stratums. You could lower a mineral for every mineral you boost so if you boost two minerals you can lower two other minerals. This could essentially allow you to affect two stratums at a time for better value as well. You would not only have a clear affect on the first stratum, but you could also end up choosing the minerals that go to the second stratum through this lower function affecting what minerals get sent there. You'd pretty much be limited to two combinations for the second stratum though depending on the first since you have to choose the anti mineral for the first stratum type.
So you'd end up with the first stratum like
+5, +6, +4, +6, +4
With another stratum that's
+5, +5, +5, +5, +5
Autodeposit would deposit minerals, 1, 2, and 4 into the first stratum and minerals 3 and 5 in the other one resulting in two stratum significantly affected with two boosts. Actually maybe it would be better if all stratums have an equal value for a particular mineral it gets dumped in the highest stratum. So mineral 1 would instead go to the highest stratum if the 56464 stratum is not the highest therefore ensuring your gate is going to get the combination type it wants.
Kathoric, your idea seems like it could be useful, it would allow more exacting changes across stratums allowing you to affect them more precisely. You'd be able to calculate the exact numbers needed to change a complete stratum which would be far more concrete than hoping for mineral depositers to deposit right. However if you do spend the crowns to change a stratum so that it's a different one. You probably spent the least amount of crowns you could so the mineral lead is very minimal. This could allow just anybody to overthrow the decision the first guy made if doesn't have enough crowns to make it overwhelmingly expensive to change it back. So it would be incredibly risky to be the first one to swap minerals in a stratum.