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...

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.

Hmmm, a compelling argument? Which has more information.. Nascar where they go around in a circle "Oh, my Ghawd! He's making a left turn." or Pro wrestling... Well, wrestling does have gage matches and uses chairs.... "Excuse me I think I read my script wrong. Am I supose to spit then slam him on the ground or slam him on the ground then spit?"

Okay, I will remember to never seriously answer to your posts in the future.

I'm only going to get a bullshit response anyway.

^I deserved that.

But seriously, you have to remember the decision was not Capcoms alone. Nintendo also had a hand in it and historically Nintendo is shy around a lot of online things. Though you are correct in MK7 having a lot of online support the online interaction it provides is still a lot less than what you would see in a game such as MH. In MH you have player to player interactions, talking, you have the monster data, and a lot more. In MK7 how much interactis there really between the players?

And thats where Nintendo gets shy... even on the 3DS streetpass nintendo has many words and phrases blocked. on mario Kart you cant interact aside from racing. With MH3G nintendo cant really stop people from saying things to each other if they are beside each other but by not adding online they can add that level of safety. SO in my opinion I do not think in the development of 3G it was all Capcom's decision to not add online but a big influence from Nintendo as well.

on the ds i can remember stuff like metroid prime hunters which required data transmission pretty much the same size as monster hunter making a rough estimate and even so for as bad as the game was lag was not an issue.

btw in monster hunter as far as i can tell what is transmitted to others is:

every player:

character info
your location vector
your next action (includes attacking and items)
your remaining health
i suppose a "cart" flag
minions damage*
chat messages

the monster host also handles:

boss monster remaining hp
i suppose break/stagger and mission completed flags
boss monster location vector
boss monster next action

it's really not much

*minions positions and actiosn are handled locally but if you kill one in your screen it dies for everyone, so their health is shared anyway

quidam wrote:

on the ds i can remember stuff like metroid prime hunters which required data transmission pretty much the same size as monster hunter making a rough estimate and even so for as bad as the game was lag was not an issue.

btw in monster hunter as far as i can tell what is transmitted to others is:

every player:

character info
your location vector
your next action (includes attacking and items)
your remaining health
i suppose a "cart" flag
minions damage*
chat messages

the monster host also handles:

boss monster remaining hp
i suppose break/stagger and mission completed flags
boss monster location vector
boss monster next action

it's really not much

*minions positions and actiosn are handled locally but if you kill one in your screen it dies for everyone, so their health is shared anyway

Also the time of day for the environments (day/night) and how they effect the players if they have any (Desert for excample)

It is not necessary to constantly transmit data about that online.
You just tell the systems once "Hey, it's night time, you know what to do" and that's it.

The rest is handled locally.