From what I can see from the initial impressions in the "I'm on the fence" thread, there is a lot of the facility to explore but your chances of exploring the whole top floor is largely dependant on the card order.

Would it be feasible to create pre-set facilities, a set scenario, or would that go against the game in some way? Whilst it would certainly reduce the random factor, I'm not sure how big a factor the predictability would diminsh the experience, if at all.

It would be pretty detrimental to the actual strategy of the game if the players knew what to expect. Turn order (which is already a critical aspect on how to base your turn) would become the most important thing. As it is now, you have to use turn order in the immediate short term to determine actions (e.g. "Alright, well, player 1 is most likely going to interface in this room before I have a chance, so I'm better off advancing"). If the rooms are known, its possible to determine exactly which rooms you want to arrive in, in what order, and which rooms to go past quickly. Items certainly are useful, but are rare enough in play that you can probably determine where to use them best early on.

Suddenly it becomes a matter of determine roughly how far you could go into the facility (based on knowing what reveals will boost the alarm counter), and where/how quickly you can destroy locks/lab workers and get the good downloads off.

I imagine if the facility was "hand picked" by a neutral outsider, you could wind up with certainly very interesting play,

Yeah, upon writing that earlier it occurred to me that the setter would have a natural advantage when arranging the cards. Even if custom scenarios were released by FFG, the replayability would only last for a couple of games at the most.

I guess random is the way forward.

Random is probably the best way forward as it would probably keep the game 'fresh' for everyone involved. Though, granted how the game is, you can probably set it up so that you can fit your needs. Heck, house rules would probably remedy it. Though, granted, I know some people would rather play the game as intended.

-Smaller floors: Self-explanatory on how this would help you getting into the top floor.

-Starting on the top floor: My friend who played this with me when I bought this suggested this as we were "the worst hackers ever", rarely ever getting more than 2 rooms from the second floor. Flavor-wise, all the operatives were dropped off on the rooftop (and the building has the best stuff built on top) and must escape through the bottom (floor). For some reason, we didn't like the labyrinth suggestion of shuffling the blue and yellow floors together as much.

-Extend the proximity limit: Since my games tend to have horrible luck, even when we start the game off at -1 alarm (we last had the Surveillance Room as the entry point, followed by Security Station). As you can tell, we'd be hitting 100 too soon. So what we're planning is to do this. Play the game as normal, but as soon as 100 is hit, instead of ending the game right there, increase the Alarm if possible, then continue for another 100.

-An elevator: One time only and only from the first (beginning) floor, when an operative choose to play his Advance card, he may use the elevator. He/she rolls the die and will appear on the corresponding room of the second floor. For example, rolling a 6 would place him at the deepest room while rolling a 3 would place him at the 3rd room of the second floor. Alarm increases by 1 (elevators have cameras, don't they?). The operative will also be delayed.

Maybe we should just start a "house rules" thread and see what ends up being popular (if any). Personally, I'd like to see blanks being offered since my friend and I have some ideas we'd like to play out.

I too would love to see more games adding the odd blank cards. It doesn't seem to happen as much as it used to. Perhaps games companies are worried it would stop the sale of expansions. However, I am only thinking about 2 blanks at the start and say 1 per expansion. That way, the more imaginative players can have fun trying their own creations, and the card backs - if appropriate - would be indistinguishable from the 'proper' ones. The alternative is doing what 'Smallworld' tried and having a competition for people to design their own additions. The 'winners' would then appear in later expansions. I am sure there is the odd blank or 2 on print runs. Cheers!