Hi all, I'm looking to optimize my magic finding with an online character and need some clarification on the effect of player counts in online games.

If I understand correctly, more players in a game can effectively increase drops (by decreasing the chance of a "no drop"). However, I believe there are other variables like player proximity, e.g. a player in town does not have the same effect on drops as a player in the same area you're clearing. Is there a resource I'm missing that explains all of this in detail?

Basically, I'd like to do some group MF runs with friends where we all clear separate areas. How many players are needed to see better drops vs. a solo game? I see folks setting up group MF games, so I know this is a thing, I'm just looking for more information to help me determine what will be most effective.

When you kill a monster in a multiplayer game, the game calculates a number to use as the nodrop exponent. This is not simply N.

It counts 1 for you, the killing player.
It counts 1 more for each player that is (a) partied with you and (b) within two screens of you.
It counts 0.5 for each other player, either unpartied or far away.
It rounds the final total down.

So, if you sneak into a full public game on the realms and don't party up but go MFing on your own, you actually only get a nodrop exponent of 4 (1 for you, 3 for the 7 unpartied players rounded down), while the other partied guys are getting an exponent of 7 (7 people in their party, and you rounded down to 0). Even though all of you are killing p8 monsters with their 4.5x HP. It is one of Blizzard's many measures to encourage party play.

https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Item_Generation_Tutorial <-- complete info there

This is helpful, thank you! Based on this information, it seems to me that the speed of running on my own would outweigh the benefit of a multi player game (especially since I wouldn't be in the same area as the other players).

wow. interesting. thx.
it turns out that cleaning games in 1 pp is quite more profitable than one in a game with 8 people.

It really depends on your damage output. A javazon in cows doesn't really care if P1 or P8. The only problem is getting cows to yourself...