worthy aspen
You've probably seen it if you played the last Grindhouse stage a few times, the game has a pretty bad problem of people joining the late stages while on a low level character basically not contributing or outright AFKing.
I reckon this is probably a hard issue to detect or fix, and I also know there's some people who are die hard on it not being an actual issue.
I've learned to disagree as I was doing my first leveling from 70 to 100 on Chef rocking Blue weapons as my Rares just wouldn't give any upgrades. People joined, suddenly I noticed a trend of dealing too little damage before I die. I digress ;
I think a Band-aid solution that I haven't seen come up much yet is to address the harsh HP scaling of enemies as per multiplayer.
I understand the reasoning behind it, it's assumed that more people would deal more damage and if you had a group of 4 it would just steamroll the game if it had no scaling, but the way it currently is I often found myself in a situation where a friend and I could easily Duo any content with appropriate Blue Items, yet as soon as others from the Friends list joined it seemed outright a grind fest to chip away at enemies comparatively.
This makes leeching frustrating single-handedly because a Berserker or Chef who was able to stat-check packs of Mobs before is now being punished for someone else being too lazy to put in their own hours actually playing.
Ergo Leeching would be less of an issue if the people actually putting in "the work" wouldn't have to lift twice as heavy for it.
Of course I understand the balancing act in itself would be a whole other story, and I don't think HP scaling should be gotten rid of in its entirety, but maybe a slight Nerf to it (or a possible system that scales it up less for people with lower levels approximate to a set recommended Stage level?) would make leeching less of an issue for those who aren't already decked out on rares and Legendaries and trying to progress.
It's borderline impossible to "fix" people, it's easier to accommodate within the boundaries set.
spice jewel