Capcom Screws Up Again: No Online

First topic message reminder :

http://mynintendonews.com/2011/10/18/nintendo-3ds-capcom-clarifies-monster-hunter-tri-3-for-nintendo-3ds-wont-feature-online-play/

*weeps quietly*
Worst year ever for capcom fans so far...

They probably think the costs don't outweigh the benefits.

ShadowCeadeusDM324 wrote:

Arakune wrote:

"Capcom screws up"
What the hell? Do you know how hard would it be to program a game with that much graphics and variables as MH, on a portable console? It never happened, and it's not gonna happen anytime soon. Sure, there are fighting games on 3DS right now, but that's completely different.

Street Fighter 4 has online and is on the 3DS
Resident Evil Revelations has online and it is on the 3DS
Why 3G cant have online?

Both those games requesr a less advance server than a MH games would. The amount of information being sent to anywhere between 4-8 different players on a MH game is a lot LOT more than the information being sent between two players on those games. You also have to remember that boths Street fighter and RE:Merchs/Rev, have preset conditions where the monsters and a lot of what happens in MHare not as scripted.This again adds a lot more information being sent. This was a problem they ran into with Tri as well. Thoughnot all information is processed by all machines the servers still have to do a lot of work when it comes to MH. Again SF and RE does not have anything close to the amount of info going back and forth that 3G would have.

Arakune wrote:

"Capcom screws up"
What the hell? Do you know how hard would it be to program a game with that much graphics and variables as MH, on a portable console? It never happened, and it's not gonna happen anytime soon. Sure, there are fighting games on 3DS right now, but that's completely different.

They screwed up by deciding not to develop online for it from the get-go. They raked in the cash from japanese gamers playing online on Tri, so I don't see why they didn't do it this time around. Seeing as it is a profitable move and the 3ds is perfectly capable of handling online play, as we can see from Resident Evil and Mario Kart, I think it's safe to say that they screwed up, as they have several times in recent memory.

Noodles wrote:

Arakune wrote:

"Capcom screws up"
What the hell? Do you know how hard would it be to program a game with that much graphics and variables as MH, on a portable console? It never happened, and it's not gonna happen anytime soon. Sure, there are fighting games on 3DS right now, but that's completely different.

They screwed up by deciding not to develop online for it from the get-go. They raked in the cash from japanese gamers playing online on Tri, so I don't see why they didn't do it this time around. Seeing as it is a profitable move and the 3ds is perfectly capable of handling online play, as we can see from Resident Evil and Mario Kart, I think it's safe to say that they screwed up, as they have several times in recent memory.

They've never really had an online mode for the portable games, so I don't see how they "screw up" anything...


Their portable market is different from their console market.

Noodles wrote:

Arakune wrote:

"Capcom screws up"
What the hell? Do you know how hard would it be to program a game with that much graphics and variables as MH, on a portable console? It never happened, and it's not gonna happen anytime soon. Sure, there are fighting games on 3DS right now, but that's completely different.

They screwed up by deciding not to develop online for it from the get-go. They raked in the cash from japanese gamers playing online on Tri, so I don't see why they didn't do it this time around. Seeing as it is a profitable move and the 3ds is perfectly capable of handling online play, as we can see from Resident Evil and Mario Kart, I think it's safe to say that they screwed up, as they have several times in recent memory.

Did you even read Dcj's post?

^ I don't think so. But add Mario kart to that too. It as well has a whole lot less information that is sent back and forth between systems.

I do understand why people want online for MH, even though the portable ones never really had it since, well they are portable systems and not home consoles, but many of the complaints as to why it is needed are just that complaints. There is no or little coherent argument as to why it is really needed as opposed to several legitament reasons as to why it does not have it. The main argument for it is that not everyone has someone close to them to play multiplayer with. Correct me if I am wrong though but isn't online just an added feature? Granted it is a great feature but it is just an extra when it comes to Monster Hunter. But like I have said before, I would rather have an MH game at all than wait on it for an extra year for an added feature. But, also I have lots of people who have both 3DS and play MH that I see often. So, I may not sympathize as well to others who don't have friends..... Uhhhhh, I mean to play MH3G with. Yea, that's what I mean.

I am pretty damn excited for the lack of online, Crazy I know but it gets me excited to think that I will be forced to solo the uber hard monsters. Now of course I also have a friend who lives across the street and we both agree we will get this game if it gets a western release and we also agreed we will both do offline first and then do the multiplayer all the multiplayer quests together (Example:My first online barroth=His first online barroth). But what happens when we have both gotten to the end of the multiplayer quests and I want to go kill a deviljho but he is not there? I have to solo it which will force all of us to actually get good at the game. The lack of online also gets rid of leeching and also will start to turn away the noobs who actually suck at the game but could beat quests simply because they had a team to have there backs and save them. Thus I see this as a good thing.

It's meh wrote:

Noodles wrote:

Arakune wrote:

"Capcom screws up"
What the hell? Do you know how hard would it be to program a game with that much graphics and variables as MH, on a portable console? It never happened, and it's not gonna happen anytime soon. Sure, there are fighting games on 3DS right now, but that's completely different.

They screwed up by deciding not to develop online for it from the get-go. They raked in the cash from japanese gamers playing online on Tri, so I don't see why they didn't do it this time around. Seeing as it is a profitable move and the 3ds is perfectly capable of handling online play, as we can see from Resident Evil and Mario Kart, I think it's safe to say that they screwed up, as they have several times in recent memory.

They've never really had an online mode for the portable games, so I don't see how they "screw up" anything...


Their portable market is different from their console market.

All I am saying is that seeing the success of Tri online, Capcom is,
in my opinion, making a mistake by not adding online to Tri G.
Just because it is a portable game doesn't mean it shouldn't have online.

Actually the amunt of individuals registered online and amount of Tri games sold is way off. Meaning the sales far exceeded the amount sold. There was a post about a report somewhere. I will look.

But regardless I understand why people want online I just don't think it should be the determining factor if 1: you should get the game. 2: if it's a good game. 3: if capon screwed up or not. Honestly unless the game is released with both online and offline play outside Japan we will never really know how good or not good of an overall choice it was to leave it out. But let's face it. The game was not made for us and online is not as needed in Japan. So, for cost reasons, they did not screw up at all and did what was most profitable.

Thinking about it again... I have a friend that will also get the game. Also somehow I like the lack of online. Why? Online have the + quests and the online only monsters, meaning that once servers are closed these things and contents will dissapear. I like the fact to have everything avaivable instead of conneting to a service that may only last like 4 years.
Online also is fun to have a good time trollin, randoms, friends, etc. But once that online closes that is lost... and that is something not many liked when it happened to MH and less people will like that once that it happens to tri (admitamoslo, accept it,tri will close in 2 or 3 years).

These are post from June regarding Portable 3, but it's the same thing.

Quote :

But again, it's a big financial outlay for Capcom. Why would they spend that money on servers, when 95% of their profit comes from the Japanese market, who don't need online?

They'd be spending a lot of money, when Kai and AHP do the same job for free. Besides, the hardcore players will buy it regardless. The few extra sales they'd get would be outweighed by the cost of buying, developing and maintaining servers.

And think about the players who would buy (let's be honest: download) the game if they added online. They'd be complete scrubs who would get online and either gamesave or hack and ruin the game for everyone else.

Bottom line - Capcom is a business. There's no profit in adding online for Portable MH games.

Quote :

You say this as a fact that the US/EU release doesn't have online- yet MHP3rd isn't even announced for the US/EU currently.

Will they announce it for the US/EU? Probably. Will they add online servers and function to the game? Maybe, but not likely. There are not 'real' details where to base an argument with you beyond the choices Capcom has already made for the Japanese release which will likely just get passed over to the other Countries if it's announced. So maybe consider that for a base for *your* argument.

They did try adding Wii Speak compatibility for the Monster Hunter Tri release outside of Asia. It turned out to be total junk and as a result limited us to 4 man rooms with no password lock- As apposed to 10 man rooms that would be just fine because you can only password lock the quest board posts. So even if they do provide online mode for the US/EU as unlikely as that is, don't expect it to be perfect either. Besides in Japan if they had online, they would pay for it. They know the US/EU would refuse to pay to play a PSP game online - otherwise I would say the odds of us getting online would be somewhat possible. So as a result the online server support for the US/EU is somewhat of a long shot franchise building gamble. One that I think anyone could consider reasonable to shoot down given the fact that the game sells no where near the Japan numbers.

I don't think it's that important.

While online play was nice to have it was for most of my experience a terrible clunky mess.

Communication was difficult especially without a keyboard. Especially when limited to 4 players per city.
Drop outs were common, as was crippling and unexpected lag.
People often spoke multiple languages making team work difficult.
Some people had a very mean/elitist attitude and generally aren't nice to play with. Some times I've had people look at my armour set and tell me to get out, but how am I to build a decent armour set if I cannot quest for one? I guess these people assume everyone is born good.





There was however one time when I managed to get two other friends to play Monster Hunter Tri online but we were all in the same room with the same connection making an almost lag-free environment. Game play was much more efficient with us shouting at each other and generally the game had a really nice feel, like we were really part of a team. You can't emulate something like that with with online play.


I know it's going to be a hassle to find people to play locally with but everyone's going to have to move out of their comfort zone in front of a router and find some people with similar interests in playing the game. I'm sure it won't be too hard for most people and there's plenty of forums and communities out there to be involved in.

Just about all my online play of tri was with friends who I usually see weekly except for a few times when I went online with randoms or a few forum people. But that was few and far between. So not having to worry about lag to play with people sitting beside me would be great.

Though I do understand that there would be a lot of people in the west who would have no one to play with at all (I know I have sounded incensitive on this but I really am not).

Just for me I would rather have the game now with no online than wait another 9 months to a year for them to add online for a western realease.. <---- if that's even an option..

I'm a bit disappointed that there's no online multi-player option as I love to play Monster Hunter with other people. I'd especially love playing it with a romantic prospect who's into it as well. I think i can see why with a 3DS title there'd be no online though because unlike the PSP with Ad Hoc, Nintendo doesn't seem to have that ability to have self sustained servers that Ad Hoc provides. Maybe setting up an infrastructure is very difficult for certain handheld game systems? Maybe they can make a Wii version of this game which can be played on an online server? Really, Nintendo needs to create something like Ad Hoc Party for their gaming consoles and handhelds.

^ Nintendo could have the server capabilities it's the security issues they are and have always been worried about. It's part of the reason their online store works in set amounts and not accounts like Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo is very worried over security issues and if they don't have servers to worry about they feel safer.

There is a lot longer explanation but..... In short both Sony and micro have the computer resources to protect a server system of there own for each region they are in. Nintendo would have to pay someone else to do it for them. The only ones who can do it for them are, well people who are competing against them. Apple, Sony, Microsoft, so Nintendo is left looking for alternatives. Which I think they are doing from articles I have read. Part of that we may see in there next 3DS update as they have improved there online store. If they do go to accounts "as some rumors state than that would mean they are steps closer to actual full server systems of their own.

Let's just hope they can avoid what happened to Sony.

There is more to it. That is the short of it but I think I have the main points.

Yes, but this doesn't cheat me out of potential bonding experiences with guys I want to get into Monster Hunter though.

You use Monster Hunter's online services to find relationships? Wouldn't the whole 3DS forcing you to to actually meet up with people be more beneficial? Unless you're strictly interested in long distance.

Just sayin'.

Dude thats kind of harsh, anyway the only thing online in Tri is good for is getting the high rank weapons, if that wasn't required to get the good weapons I would rarely go online, fucking randumbs

Quentin wrote:

Dude thats kind of harsh, anyway the only thing online in Tri is good for is getting the high rank weapons, if that wasn't required to get the good weapons I would rarely go online, fucking randumbs

Yeah, they should have had an offline thing for that stuff...

Wow, I read what I said, and I realized how stupid I seemed... What was I thinking? That's not how I usually think about this kind of thing at all. Anyways, I only care about localization now so let's hope for that!

Online is more of a gimmick than anything else, but the only reason I'd like it is that my friends that play MH don't get to meet up with me often enough to really hunt as a team, at least for the portable MH games. That was not the case with Tri, so I can see why some people would be upset over it.

I like the idea of the lack of online as a way for people to meet and get together, but I wouldn't know where or how to meet these MH players, I introduced my friends to MH.

Too bad wii doesn;t have ad hoc party, although i wasnt planning on getting a ds anyways. But people need to realize that making online cities and all that takes up a load of memory, along with quests, events, and whatnot.

So you could have online mode, but with graphics as worst as they get.

MGRaiden97 wrote:

Too bad wii doesn;t have ad hoc party, although i wasnt planning on getting a ds anyways. But people need to realize that making online cities and all that takes up a load of memory, along with quests, events, and whatnot.

So you could have online mode, but with graphics as worst as they get.

Maybe you should learn something about basic game design before you start saying silly things like that.

The files taking up the most memory space are textures, meshes, and sound files. Since we already have a city for multiplayer, Capcom could perfectly use that for the online city like Loc-Lac in Tri. So no memory loss there.

Actual code (such as quests and events) take up almost no space at all. Maybe 2 or 3 kilobytes per quest, maybe less, I don't know. Certainly not a lot more. As a comparison, your average music file (4 minutes long) is about 4500 kilobytes.

And no matter how much space all of that takes, it has no effect on graphics. At all.

The only issue here is that Capcom is either unable or too lazy (or sees no reason) to support online play. My guess is too lazy. Just look at Mario Kart 7. That game has (worldwide?) online mode and that's a racing game with 8 players instead of 4. I really doubt Monster Hunter would need to exchange more data between the systems than a racing game such as Mario Kart.

^actually Mh would have to exchange a lot more data than a racing game. Mostly due to having to keep up with where everyone is at, what they are doing, what damage is delt to everyone, and the monsters and several other things. Localy this information is easy to send back and forth but over a server.. but I am not that up on how everything works so there could be more to it.

dcj91x wrote:

^actually Mh would have to exchange a lot more data than a racing game. Mostly due to having to keep up with where everyone is at, what they are doing, what damage is delt to everyone, and the monsters and several other things. Localy this information is easy to send back and forth but over a server.. but I am not that up on how everything works so there could be more to it.

I knew I should have gone more in depth.
IMO you are overestimating Monster Hunter.

Mario Kart:
Positions
Actions such as items being used, turning, sliding, etc
Items themselves and their locations
8 Players at the same time

Monster Hunter:
Positions (Minions are handled locally, not synchronised)
Actions of up to 2 large monsters and 4 players
Up to 2 large monsters with their main and breakable part HP values
Player actions
Items being used and up to 4 traps and 8 bombs placed at once
Only 4 players at the same time in a quest

It is extremely likely that item amounts and such are handled locally as well as stamina. HP would not require a lot of data traffic either, because all it does online is show the HP meters for others. So that is the occasional +X or -X to up to 4 variables. Not much.

And only for 4 players. Not 8.


It can be a bit more but I highly doubt that it is "a lot more".
Feel free to come up with a good argument and prove me wrong though.

If it can handle Mario Kart, it should handle Monster Hunter.