Since the early 1.2s, we've had a "standard" start of getting the Demolitionist, then buying a dozen or so bombs, smash a couple of orbs/hearts, and have space gun/meteorite armor from the get-go, often before even finding a crystal heart.

We created a new expert world in 1.3.1.1 and blew up an orb on about day 4. No meteorite. We smashed another at about 3 weeks. Still no meteorite. Did all the terraforming, lake-building, etc., still no meteorite. I got Fast and Fishious long ago; probably somewhere around 100 quests, and didn't even start until I could afford the 35 GP for the Sitting Duck. At the very least, we are somewhere around half a year since breaking the first orb. (I don't know if there's an easy way to find out or not.) I've checked TerraMap to see if maybe we missed something. Nope.

Is this just colossally bad luck, or has something changed in 1.3.1.1, maybe even just in multi? I've started a few expert worlds since then in single player just to see, and often have the set within the first week, almost always within two.

[url=http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Meteorite_(biome]http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Meteorite_(biome[/url])

There's a 50% chance of a meteorite strike on the first night and 2% chance the following nights. Basically you were just unlucky on the first night, but meteorite strikes should be enaled (if rare).

That link doesn't work as written; you forgot the ) in the url.

Right. At this point, I've blown 5 50% chances, and upwards of probably 150 2% chances. That's so far out on the tail of the bell curve I thought it probably means something weird is going on.

TerraMap does indeed say there are 5 orbs smashed, and while it does not say how long the game has been active (so far as I can see) TerraSavr says I'm at 122 quest fish completions, and I didn't start fishing until after the first orb, nor have I filled every quest since I started. And TerraMap shows no meteorite yet.

I'm just not used to it taking more than a month or two from the smashing of the first orb.

Not that big of a deal anymore. We got the molten set this afternoon, and took out all the easy bosses, finished the dungeon, then took out WoF. Done two mechanical bosses, half a dozen pirate invasions and 2 solar eclipses.

I'm now curious how far into hard mode we will be before we get our first meteorite.

If you're sick of waiting, you can use TEdit to force a meteorite to spawn. Simply check the "spawn meteor" flag, and you should have a meteor fall once the ingame time reaches midnight.

To my knowledge, the only way to absolutely prevent meteors from falling is to have a large number of meteorite ore blocks at or above the surface layer. (800 and 1200 for medium and large worlds respectively). Otherwise, I just think you've had some bad luck.

Now I've had another case of bad luck, this time on single player and a different computer, just to see.

I've deliberately been keeping my Max HP at 180, gathering life crystals until I have enough to go to 400 and make a few lanterns. I'm beyond that point, at 21, so enough for 10 heart lanterns. I've also finished housing for everyone, built all the lakes I need (including honey) and have my jungle bait farm and mushroom farm operational. I've got tracks to both coasts. I was hoping for a meteorite by now.

Did something get changed? Is there another requirement now, like having 200 HP, or armor above X or something? Has anyone had a meteorite before they took on the Eye post 1.3.1.1?

You won't get a meteor before a Shadow Orb/Crimson Heart is destroyed, period. You can get very early meteors if a malformed shadow orb is created during world generation, which can break as soon as you load into the world the first time. If that happens, you can get a meteor on the first night. This has only ever happened to me once, however.

If there aren't any malformed orbs, then there's no danger of a meteor regardless of the state of the Eye of Cthulhu. Defeating the Eye of Cthulhu doesn't actually unlock anything unique. Normally it only unlocks the Dryad, which you can also unlock by killing any pre-hardmode boss except King Slime.

Right. I kept close track this time, and found a chest with grenades on day 1, spent all my money on bombs on day 2, and smashed my first orb on day 4. I know of 6 full moons since, because I've been raising Deathweed in pots, and have 6 harvests. I'm pretty sure I missed at least one full moon. I smashed a second orb a little over 1 lunar cycle ago.

If the wiki is right, that's 2 50% chances and at least 50 2% chances. Granted, it's still not completely implausible, as by my math, that works out to 9.1% chance of failing all checks.

Finally!

It took 8 hearts (crimson world) and nearly a game-year, but it finally happened at 180 HP.

I then jacked my HP to 400, and got another 4 meteorites over the next 6 days. I might have even missed one, as it took me a couple days to find one of the strikes, and there might have been too much meteorite on the ground at the time.

The upside is that it is vastly easier to do that with obsidian skull and reaver shark than it is with bombs...

I do wonder, though, whether the odds haven't been tweaked. I tried several runs with a machine that still has 1.2.4 on it, and 4 in a row got the meteorite either the night of the first orb, the night of the second orb, or within a week or two afterwards. I'm 0 for 5 of anything close to that in 1.3.1.1.

Unrelated, in my search for meteorites, I happened to be near the dungeon at night, so decided to kill Skeletron with kind of a minimal setup that I had for EoC. Campfires and a double row of platforms, well-fed buff only. The first couple hits dug way into my HP, so I hit "H". Unfortunately, instead of the 120 HP honeyfin, I got a 15 HP mushroom that I hadn't noticed in my inventory. I spent the next minute dodging a lot and finding time to trash the 'shrooms. Managed to get the bugger before sunrise, but it was close. Then I noticed that I was wearing fishing armor, with my molten set in the vanity slots. DOH!