Thanks, I'll put this as an option when creating a new game. As for myself, I definitely like the feel of nailing a larger crystal of empty space and get that Pavlovian sound.

What's funny is that most of the server code is already in place in dev, it's just disabled. I just need to carve some time to pick a direction and work on it. When a board is generated, there's already an algorithm that locates the center of the biggest empty space on a board, and if it exists, it assigns its address to game.clearest_tile.

    // first click, surprise!
    if( game.click_count === 1 && game.clearest_tile !== false ) {
        // sigh, this is too inelegant
        // game.board.private[payload.parameters.address].mine = false;

        // sigh, and this looks like garbage when shifted
        // this is what i get for picking a hexagonal board
        // game.shift_mines_to_center(payload.parameters.address);

        // todo: fixplz
    }

Obviously I can just clear that tile on that first click and be done with it. Or, highlight the emptiest tile on game board render. But the shift_mines_to_center algorithm is something that needs tweaking.

How long does it take to generate boards?

An alternate approach would be to repeatedly generate the board after the first click, till the board has a hole under the click.