In the Preview Event, the gate system was rather different. Minerals deposited were formed into "trays" periodically, which turned into "blocks" that then formed "rings" of blocks that most closely correspond to the current concept of strata. If there weren't enough rings to reach the Core, that was it; you'd reach a special "A Homecoming for Heroes" level at the end, and you'd go back to the nearest town. The limited documentation at the time also hints that there might have been plans for levels with more than one exit elevator.

This sort of thing, refined and honed by Three Rings' design experience over the last 3 years, could be a great way to make Arcade Redux. You could have levels with a random chance of more than one elevator module. These secondary elevators could send you to a different level on the next tray, a level further down (or maybe even up), or possibly even a level on a different gate. While with the original system of no-minerals-no-gate players would end up without access to later levels, with a non-linear elevator system and a few tweaks to how minerals affect gates to keep that sort of thing from happening, it would be possible to have dead-end gates again. These gates would end in a similar fashion to D29, with a special level called "Clockworks Terminal: The Path is Sealed" with some Geo Knights telling you to put more minerals in next time.

This may sound rather confused, but what I'm after here is making the Adventure Board look less like this and more like this, or maybe four of these linked together by Clockworks Tunnels.