I am getting really really tired of seeing some random guy join in for the last two levels of a dungeon run and finding five four star mats, while I, after playing continuously from Moorcroft Manor to the Gremlin Camp, only found a single three star mat and nothing better than that.
Fix. This. >:(
You have exactly the same chance of getting materials as everyone else, and that is precisely the way it should stay.
What bothers me is that people who join can receive materials even before they've finished loading.
Clearly, pringerX and Hazel don't have to worry about a messed up loot distribution. Unfortunately for the rest of us, we actually play this game with other people and have seen that changes need to be made.
If you honestly think there's nothing wrong with a system that gives one guy five different 4* mats IN TWO DUNGEON FLOORS while other people go EIGHT ENTIRE FLOORS without finding a single one, then you really have no business even visiting the suggestion forum. The entire purpose of this section of the forums is to ask for improvements to the game. Coming in here and saying that they should just leave it broken is not helping anyone. What's next, you going to suggest that they stop making crowns, heat, minerals, and tokens be shared either? You're so against the idea of the materials distribution being fixed, it's a wonder you can stand letting anyone other than yourself have anything!
It's not like it would be a difficult fix, either. The game could easily keep track of how much of the randomly distributed loot, by tier, has gone to each player during the CURRENT floor of the dungeon, and skip over people who have already received their share.
I strongly suspect that right now, the game ATTEMPTS to balance out the distribution, but does not care what tier the loot is or how long any given player has been in the group, hence why if a group of two or three people goes through six dungeons and then another person joins in once they reach the floors where higher-tier materials are dropping, the game suddenly decides to give ALL of it to the newcomer. EVERY. BLASTED. TIME. This isn't a one-time thing, this is every time. The late-joiner gets the lion's share of the loot EVERY TIME.
I'm with Crash on this. The problem is that apparently nothing attempts to prevent long tails, and you see it once in a while (fairly frequently, even) when one player gets a streak of high level mats, or when one player gets almost all the mats regardless of rarity.
The tails balance out on both ends in the long run, but why should players endure that at all? A beneficial run just sets unrealistic expectations for later, and a string of losses embitters the player for no beneficial reason. A system that balances this out in the short run will also balance out in the long run. In a game where play time comes at a premium, this is especially a problem - it's not like World of Warcraft where you can just kill another two-dozen mobs to make up for the lost item. You need to spend some more CE, or wait a day for more ME.
It's not required, and it won't make the game mechanically better in the long run. It will eliminate issues where players may fear that they are doing something wrong that is causing them to get less loot, and result in less pick-up drama where one guy is saddled by a lot of good loot and hated for it, two very real short term problems.
It can be especially frustrating when someone is running a tier from floor 1-8 (or 9-17 etc). I joined my in game friend Grigsby on floor 15, and then another joined on floor 16. First room for the new guy and a kat dropped a ghost bell and the new guy got it. I was actually really really disappointed that grigsby didn't get it. The new guy then got 2 owlite feathers.
...
my most valuable mat from the run was...
a bronze bolt. While this is mildly hilarious, and i'm able to laugh about it, a better distribution system would be nice. I'd even be happy with a system that went round robin with the guy with longest tenure in dungeon getting 1st dibs for 5 star mat working down--with an option to pass. For example, say we all join and the ghost bell drops, it goes to Grigs and if he thinks he has a chance to get better 5star mat he passes and he gets the next. Not perfect, but at least the beginnings of a better system. And then there would be a big advantage to running a tier rather than just always jumping in on floor 14 (which i would continue to do anyway).
I'm actually okay with the system the way it is. I've been brutally out-rolled on materials before, sure. As I tend to play with friends, though, most of the complaining about being screwed out of the fair share is in good fun.
However, this IS a suggestion forum, and as such, you have the right to mention things that you feel need improvement.
The only critique I have on your post is that "Fix this" is not a solution, and most of the rest of what you post is just a complaint.
Let me help you a little bit with two ideas:
Average Star Value:
This would just hold off the loot distribution until the level ends.
Every item collected by the party is put into a pool. At the end of the level, the pool would be divided amongst all party members, in a way that everyone gets an equal "star value" of items.
This is by no means perfect, as one 5 star item tends to be far more valuable than five 1 star items, but it is a little more organized than random chance.
Pseudorandom Distribution (PSRD):
Many of you who are very into Blizzard's line of RPG and RTS games (Warcraft, etc.) will be familiar with PSRD.
This simply is an artificial means of pulling a random value toward what is written. For example, take a Critical Strike listed at 15%. If you swing and don't crit, the next time, your chance is temporarily bumped to 16.5%. Then 18%. And so on and so forth until a critical DOES connect, and it is dropped back to 15%. If you are connecting on a critical from 15%, it then lowers your chance to 13.5%. Then 12%. and so on, until you miss.
This enables the chance of a random event to still be essentially "random", but nudges the values toward the mean.
What would this entail on Spiral Knights? PSRD applied to loot distribution would be lowering the probability of getting an item temporarily, after you've just gotten one. Suppose in a party of 4, your chance is 25%. Acquiring an item would lower your chance to 19%, and everyone else would get bumped up to 27%. It would continue on as such, making acquisition of an item lower your probability, and missing the item raising your probability.
I wouldn't argue too strongly for either of these being implemented, but I wanted to help out the original poster.
They both have their pitfalls, for example, the issue of people joining mid-dungeon still getting included in the split at the end for average star value.
PSRD's downfall is that it is more difficult to code and implement. Also, there is the potential for abuse, as a player who knows that he/she has not acquired an item for 3-4 consecutive drops will have a pretty good chance of getting the next one, and deliberately try to pick up better mats. A player getting a few drops in succession knows that his/her chance is reduced, and thus will go pick up less valuable drops. Leads to some rather unfriendly play.
Or a hybrid. At the end of the level, it hands out top-value drops as evenly as it can, then weights the distribution for each successive level in favor of the people that came up short before. If you're the only one that didn't get a 5-star item, you'll get more 4-stars to compensate.
@Fredman: You have a good idea, actually. Instead of distributing materials as the run goes, hold them until the end and sort them into * categories, randomize the order of each * list, and distribute equally. There is a caveat though- whenever a material is collected, the names of those present must also be tagged to the material. If a player leaves the party, then the algorithm runs in the background, and gives them a share of the materials- but only the ones they were present for in the party.
To get an idea of how this would work, let's simplify: there are 1-3 star materials, and five players A-E.
Players A, B, C and D start at depth 1 and go to depth 4, collecting four 1* and four 2*.
Player D leaves. The game will choose one of the 1*s and one of the 2* materials to give to D.
Players E joins on depth 5, and plays with the party until Moorcraft. For convenience, let's say the party acquires four more 1*, 2* and four 3* materials.
At Moorcraft, they all decide to go up. Now, there is a pool of seven 1* and 2* materials- but player E is not eligible for the three 1* and 2* materials collected in depth 1-4 because he wasn't there. Thus, the material distribution is as follows:
Players A, B and C get two 1* and two 2* each (one of which is marked from depth 1-4).
Player E gets one 1* and one 2* (the ones marked from depth 5-8).
Players A, B, C and E get one 3* material, because they were all there when they acquired the materials in depth 5-8.
This system ensures that everyone gets a completely fair share of the materials based on * level, value of individual materials aside. Of course, it won't always work out to even values, but with this method, a player can at most get one more 5* material than his party-mates. How does this algorithm sound to people?
I'll assume your post is just letting off some steam, and repost the stuff that's been suggested in every other material distribution thread.
Go solo and lock your party, or party with friends who are willing to give you mats. The material distribution is brutally random, so take it or leave it. If I am farming for materials, I always go solo or party with trusted friends. Also helps to find a good guild, and don't sweat the small stuff so much. If it's stressing you out so much, then don't play.