So, gate construction is starting to get a bit dry by now. A few guilds dump for poison theme before RJP, and for/against fiends before FSC, and the grand masses just auto-sell. Here's a set of ideas to make things more exciting when a new gate comes online:

#1: Mystery Hour. One hour before the new gate comes online, the mineral levels, themes, and even payout displays on the gate all turn to question marks or static. The actual gate construction mechanics remain entirely unchanged, but people aiming to influence the gate themes in the last moments will have no way of knowing if they've been successful or not until the gate comes online.

#2: Make gate exploration actually exploration. Once the gate comes online, all stratums except for the boss stratum come up as ??? theme, and all levels on the gate map except for the boss levels are, likewise, just ??? until at least one player plays the complete stratum or level respectively. Multiple levels at the same depth would have to be explored separately before they're labeled on the gate map.

#2.5: Perhaps add a system where players completing an unknown level or stratum would earn explorer tokens which could be traded for exploration-themed costume or accessory items. Any player who entered the level/stratum while it was still in the ??? phase would qualify to receive tokens upon successfully reaching the elevator/terminal/subtown. Make it something like 1 token per level, and 5 tokens per stratum.