JohnCarver wrote:So in one sentence you explain how to prevent this from being a problem. and in the subsequent sentence you then go into how it is game breaking.
As always I thank you for the laughs and tears sir.

It is you who provides the laughs, though not realiziing it I guess, I would consider what I just described in my previous post as an exploit, and would assume any serious game designer to fix it, right away or after his friends and himself get annoyed by how easily everyone evades that evil backdoor they just created.
Which again opens it up for massive abuse.
And removing the "basement" will sure hurt a lot of players, not me fortunately, not in this iteration, as I have not used it much in this way yet, partly because I anticipated this move of yours. But there will be a lot of upset players for sure.
Not to speak of ambushs that can and will be done downstairs (i would not go down before checking with an alt, but even then it would be hillariously risky for a few handfuls of ore!)
Anyone who would want to produce anything that comes from a mine would have to make a dedicated alt or risk far more than it's worth. So everyone will play it safe, sooner or later, leaving no one, not even you JC, with more fun, but simply more grind.
After all, this is a game, games are meant to be fun, did you know that, JC?
Challenges and hardship can provide much fun in the end, stupid more grind on the other hand never results in more fun.