Co-op reverse snowballing.

Copypasta for additional visibility.
I think that the suggested idea of being able to drop items AS WELL AS a tweak to the gold to exp ratio at stage-end would greatly improve the game experience for co-op players that are lagging behind.

My main issue with coop death is that the exp gain from all the money you couldn't spend does not put you even close to equal strength to the rest of the party. This means you spawn in magma chambers with only 4 items and a 3 level disadvantage and instantly get facerammed by teleporting rocket bulls. I assume the post stage money to exp is in the game to either balance death or reward players who choose base stats over items, and I would like to see this strengthened because right now it feels very weak.

Item drop would of course let other players choose to distribute items to people who needed them, though I could see concern for this affecting the overall difficulty and roguelike feel of the game. I, however, support the idea because I think it would open up for new strategies and improve the co-op experience.

I happen to play with baddies who don't like to watch me carry all day, and I'm trying to help make it so that they don't have to.

 

I agree with your assertion that being able to distribute items should NOT be considered a bad thing. Yes, Risk of Rain is supposed to be a hard game, but it's ALSO SUPPOSED TO TEACH YOU TEAMWORK. So being able to distribute items you get to other players who need them or can use them more effectively would be VERY MUCH in the spirit of that.

I also think that the game host should have the option to toggle-on a "Cash Pool" option, which would make it so that all the money collected by the players goes into a collective pool that everyone can use.

A pool would be incredibly handy in some situations. I understand it has it's drawbacks (people unable to level when others use up the money to buy treasures), but that's why I suggest it be toggled.

 

Personally, I feel it would be nice to have a dying breath revival like in left for dead 2, where you have a limited time for others to help you up else you die and they have to spend 5seconds or something next to you. that way, itd be a little more fun to play multiplayer for the weaker teammates, because its not fun to watch your teammates go and get everything and leave you behind until next level

 

I think that revival is a good idea however dying breath revival seems a little too overpowered. I think that it should be like drone deaths where you pay money to revive dead players, this way there is some sort of penalty for death but it is not impossible to get back into the game.

 

I disagree on it being overpowered, at least if there was a fairly long revive timer. Being vulnerable and unable to attack for 10 seconds could be game over if you're not careful.

 

I think the item drop would be enough, as long as you get XP during the stage even when you are dead (have not checked, but considering you get the gold (?), I suppose you get the XP too. If you don't, well, here is the root of the problem).

Tweaking the gold/XP conversion might create problems of its own.
To begin with, considering players redistribute the items accordingly, the XP bonus might give the team an advantage that wouldn't be there otherwise (minus the time needed to redistribute the items, which depends on how it's implemented...).

 

Well, honestly, if EXP was a shared thing, at a constant, the problem could be solved better. All players level up at same time, even dead players.
Dropping usable items for other players would make this something better as well. However, why not only drop USE items. For realism.
In Lore many of the items are permanently merged into the character, but the usable items are just that, objects you carry and use, and drop if you find another.
Dropping them for another player should be an option. Players could swap for better efficiency in the fight. Or give an item when they would normally acquire another.