This page is obsolete. That is a shame and possible one of the most saddening things about this game.
With Battle sprites eventually came the loss of creating gates with combinations minerals. For me, this was the loss of a unique aspect of this game, and an excellent way to pass time/wait for mist to recharge/ end the day: By putting a little bit forward for what could be a new or familiar experience. This suggestion intends to bring back functionality for minerals and create a fun mode of play for players new and old.
Imagine putting a minimum of 5 of any minerals into an elevator and it changing the upcoming level. That is the suggestion and I believe it would add a sense of exploration back into the levels we've ground for almost 4 years.
The mechanics of gate creation should still exist as code hopefully saved somewhere or simply locked behind other lines. What I envision is this code being applied to elevators. Upon entering d0, d8, or d18 the next level will be displayed as the "Party Lobby" symbol. Once stepped on, a prompt will be displayed with a 'Quit Expedition' button up top, the next level's icon displayed front center, our 4 mineral types below, a single 'Add' button beneath each, and below or to the side these a 'Defer' button. Until all knights are on the elevator will a 5 second timer begin for mineral inputs.
'Quit Expedition' will send knights back up with their heat applied. This would be akin to the 'go on ahead' function at subtowns.
'Add' will add a single mineral of the chosen type, Shift+click will add 10 of each just like before.
'Defer' will count the player's contribution as nothing. Working similar to the current Next Depth button we have.
What this means, is that each level you progress will be party decided and reopen the vein of actually exploring something new. Using the previous mineral combination players themselves define the journey. There are considerations though, such as bosses, terminals, mono-typed minerals and the timer.
Bosses are typed already, Snarbolax as beast, Royal Jelly as something obvious, Roarmulus as Construct and Shock, and Vanaduke as Fire/Undead. If a party were to input those types after a terminal it would unlock those boss levels in full. Party A puts in the Moonstone/Valestone minerals at d13, all of IronClaw Munitions would become available and the level generation would be disabled until the subtown.
Terminals, as well would disable the level generation on the floor before. You would seamlessly enter the terminals as we do now.
For instances where only one type of mineral is added, a greyed out 'mystery depth' that would use that mineral will be chosen. Party A puts in only Crimsonite at d14, the level will be picked from either being something in a Fiend, Fire, Beast, or Gremlin level.
The timer would do a similar thing here. If no minerals are present at the timer's end it is fair game for any level to be chosen. Like the above knights will not know the level until loading it. This is why a quit expedition and defer option are needed.
I hope this suggestion is clear enough. The point is adding in a familiar system and integrating it with forlorn Arcade system. By metaphorically 'digging' our way to the core we can make experiences a Stratum system cannot provide us with.
But there's more!
Something I considered adding but chose to keep it short(er than it was going to be), is a 'challenge gate'. This would incorporate the above in the event a game-wide change was not possible. This challenge gate would function exactly as above without changing the current auto-made clearly defined gates, but provide players with the option to 'make their own way'.
An option for this challenge gate could also be an 'endless' mode. Where after d28, you only get ??? as your depth. This is the same system Operation Crimson Hammer and Shadow lairs use to mask their location while being within the depth system. It would function as repeating d28 endlessly, or looping back to d23 and simply never reaching the Core.
Of these option, I can say Every D is D28 would need to have a significant trade off such as the entire endless mode mandating parties start at d0, or a T4 having to be created.
Challenge Gate would functionally be a compromise of the new system I propose and the current gate creation.
(Now I'm done, thank you.)