I had an idea for distributing material after a run, but in browsing the forum, I saw an interesting suggestion worth highlighting: Why not give materials to ALL players present during the drop? To balance out, drop rates would be reduced by ~40% for each additional player (50% if you want to be completely even, but I think rewarding parties is good). So, to quote some theoretical numbers, if a thingamajig has a 10% chance of dropping from a whosamawhatsit, in a two person party it has a 6% chance- but if it drops, both players get one. This is one of the big reasons people don’t like public parties- more often than not, they feel cheated by the materials distribution system. Because materials would be allocated at drop time, only players present during the drop would receive it (preventing a solo player from inviting friends to get multiple copies).
Distribute materials to ALL present at drop time.
It's an interesting idea to be sure, and one I'm sure many people who have seen a rare mat go to the slacker in the group, or all the best mats go to one person, has thought of.
So tell me, what would stop anyone from coming to last 2-3 floors with 1-3 alts?
So tell me, what would stop anyone from coming to last 2-3 floors with 1-3 alts?
The fact that operating 3 different computers at once is ridiculously difficult and no SANE person would do it.
You don't need to operate 3 at once, you just need to die with the alts and then you can just play the level with one PC. In case you didn't know, you pick up materials and crowns even when you are on the ground. I don't know how advanced are virtual machines currently but seeing as the game runs on my old duron 1.1ghz and a gf4mx with 1gb ramu i'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to run such kind of setup.
Oh, and, in case you didn't read the logs of the recent updates they recently added a feature where dead people are teleported to the party button that all alive party members currently stand on.
That's your prerogative. If you can drum up 4 computers, have the patience and ability to solo 3x strength monsters in T3, all the power to you. I have considered it, and decided it wasn't worth my time and effort. And the reduced drop rate for larger parties means you wouldn't be getting a huge bonus, only a slight one.
I support this. I prefer to play with friends, but the incentive is to play alone because I get every single material that drops that way. The incentive should be to play with others.
I really like this idea, I get sick of watch the slackers get get every freking drop on a level. There are time when I maybe get 3 drops on one level. Or maybe have it the person who kills the monster gets the item. Why not have the person doing all the work get the most items. It will help players strike to be better, or even have it when people are on the ground they dont receive items.
The thing is, the current system doesn't just accidentally reward slackers - it also allows lower-level players a better chance of getting the materials they need to progress. Awarding all the materials to the person who happened to strike the last blow takes that away, and leaves newer players flapping in the breeze.
Equal distribution, with or without adjusted drop rates, sounds good to me in theory, but would have to be very, very carefully balanced to avoid it being exploited. Party-size-dependent drop reductions make me uneasy, because it could serve as a disincentive for teamplay, which I really think is one of the best things about SK.
Equal distribution all good and well, but I can assure you that as novice T3 player, all I'm getting are shards, gel drops, ecto drops, etc... while the leveled players get all the 4* mats. Next time I'll take a screenshot.
It's pretty clear this random system isn't random, and I'd like a better explanation of it than what's currently available on the wiki...
Well, instead of having it reduced across the board, we could do this:
With a full party of 4 players, the drop rate is 3% for a material to drop
With 3, it's 4%.
With 2, its' 6%
With 1, it's 12%
So when a material is picked up, everyone gets one.
(I came up with the numbers to be proportional, nothing more)
This way, it'll remain pretty much as it is now, the amount of materials divided across the amount of players in the party, so that soloing is still the best way to get materials, but it's fairer to everyone in the party, in that they all get the material that drops.
I've seen that jazz as well. It can be frustrating at times.
I wonder, if I had suggested it this way, if people would have jumped aboard:
"To encourage partying, why not distribute materials to all players present during the drop? To prevent the solo players from losing out, drop rates would be boosted slightly for smaller parties. So to quote some theoretical numbers, if a thingamajig has a 4% chance of dropping from a whosamawhatsit in a full party, a solo player would have a 10% chance. Since full parties of competent knights are much more efficient a clearing out a dungeon, they can run a dungeon faster; the boosted drop rate for the solo knight compensates him for the longer time spent."
Same idea, but different spin. XP
This is interesting; so in a full party the drop for your thingamajig would be closer to 1 or 2% ?
For serious players, the ones who don't need a party to survive in T3, I think they'd all go solo if they knew that the drop rates were going to be better...
I'm still not totally sold on the idea. It definitely has merit, though.