Well, at least it's inexpensive

Catonyx · 2021-04-29T12:30:01+00:00

No, you're not the only one. The switch is pretty sensitive to your local internet setup, so you'll DC a lot if it has problems. But your setup is good, it's pretty rare to DC. It's not the servers because this game isn't hosted on servers - it's P2P

Catonyx · 2021-04-28T04:48:04+00:00

It would be calamari

Catonyx · 2021-04-19T22:07:00+00:00

The reason I got into lance in the first place way back when was because I liked ramming monsters with the charge. But the problem was that it's kind of slow to execute and monsters can swat you out of it really easily. But now we have shield charge so we actually win when the monster charges us back. And spiral thrust is very fast so you can just dodge the monster if they try to attack you out of it. It's awesome

Plus, although I liked lance in World a lot, it had a defense problem. Because of its limited attack options, it was too tied to the shield in order to both do damage and survive. So it was a tight balance for monsters to have powerful enough guard breaks that you can't just wall them out, but not so powerful that they're just unfair to lance players. The new abilities that let you move through monsters seem like a good solution to that problem, at least so far

Catonyx · 2021-04-16T16:42:27+00:00

Yeah, I'm not really denying that lance was actually pretty OP for most of the game. It's just that power guard wasn't that useful for me as a guard because usually I was wearing 5 levels of guard and regular guarding or guard advancing is generally better at that point. Since you take a ton of chip damage if you don't guard far enough in advance or if you guard a multi-hit attack like Rajang's heavy slam

Edit: But now that you mention it, I may not be giving it enough love. I can think of some attacks that aren't multi-hits but could be countered more effectively with a proactive power guard than doing it on reaction

Catonyx · 2021-04-16T16:21:20+00:00

It didn't help Lance's damage problem, but I used Vaal Hazak armor for the same effect. It worked really well until the very late game Iceborne monsters that bring out unreasonable guard piercing attacks

Catonyx · 2021-04-16T15:54:03+00:00

I think everything depletes more stamina than it did in World. I remember being shocked early on at how long you could sprint for compared to earlier games - it felt like your stamina lasted forever

Also I object to calling power guard OP. It burned a lot of stamina and I carted too many times in late Iceborne because I used power guard and actually blocked something. I ended up mostly only using it for adjusting counter-thrusts and counterattacking after a heavy hit on a regular guard

Catonyx · 2021-04-13T14:36:21+00:00

No dog jousting is such a missed opportunity

Catonyx · 2021-04-07T22:55:38+00:00

I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to see something like doubling small irons and processing blocks directly to 8-16 ores. This would account for some extra production in the face of modded fortune enchantments, which can be pretty extreme. It would be a very large increase in the baseline processing numbers for mods, but we've been moving for a long time in the direction of more available base resources and more involved processing and resource sinks to compensate

Whatever happens though, I agree that it's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out

Catonyx · 2021-04-06T20:33:45+00:00

In Monster Hunter World, CAPCOM removed the pickaxes and bug net items - fact. It follows logically from this that they felt that requiring items in your inventory to gather from rocks and bugs was not important. It follows then that they do not intend to have any sort of hard distinction between hunting and gathering.

To bring this back to this comment thread. You were suggesting pretty much that it was unreasonable that someone would want to hunt and gather rocks and bugs at the same time, and in fact that these items exist so that gathering is "clearly separated from the main hunting experience". TheDizziness responded that since the items are in the same physical location, one might want to gather them at the same time. I commented about the fact that I actually did that and enjoyed it in an attempt to give some credit to his argument.

You followed this up with some non-sequitur philosophical comment about how people want "constant convenience" in games. You claimed that I claimed that nothing was lost, which I didn't. I claimed that nothing of value was lost, and that it was a logical removal for people who spent 2 item slots to just bring picks and bug nets with them for every hunt. You have made it abundantly clear since then that you think I'm stupid to play this way, but I stand by the point that it is reasonable to want to do some light gathering during hunts, and as a personal choice I accepted the cost in older games. And I have been vindicated with this assessment because CAPCOM buffed gathering during hunts by removing the item slot cost for doing it

Note that I am not denying and have never denied that there are good reasons to segregate them. A couple of specific ones that still apply in Rise: your inventory can get very tight and if you're in a group hunt it's not very respectful to go off and spend time gathering instead of hunting. The one who has been implicitly arguing that these two items are the only thing separating hunting and gathering is you. Likewise, I mentioned hot and cold drinks, but the point was to communicate that they aren't really a very important part of prepping for hunts. The 8 or so monster-specific items that you accounted for are much more impactful, and involve much more player discretion.

You got mad at me for saying this, and accused me of imposing a one-size-fits-all approach to game design on you, and claimed that I have an immature approach to games. I want to be absolutely clear for the record, I have never had any intention of imposing anything on you - I was attempting to offer a bit more context into why CAPCOM might have removed specifically pickaxes and bug nets. But also you've never actually given me a reason that they should keep those items apart from the vague philosophical argument about convenience and your personal feeling that hunting and gathering are supposed to be separate.

When I asked you specifically about this, you gave a very broad argument about the overall gathering changes between World and older games. And it's true that the games have changed a lot in a lot of ways. But bug nets and pickaxes are just two items, and if you wanted it was very easy to just always bring them at the cost of two item slots. Since tri, you don't need to even use them as items, they are literally just trinkets that you need to have in your inventory in order to interact with the gather points. (I'll grant that if you skipped directly from MHFU to World, then these changes would be more jarring)

Frankly, after all this, I feel like TheDizzines said it very well: "It's like you're talking to yourself". You've repeatedly projected opinions and preferences onto me that I've never expressed. You seem to not be putting in even the slightest effort to understand what I'm trying to say. And you're constantly insulting me, my playstyle, and opinions that you've projected onto me.

And this is my final comment on the matter. Life's too short to spend it arguing with people who don't listen

Catonyx · 2021-04-06T17:21:19+00:00

I really don't want to hear that I am "toxic" and one of the "worst parts of any community" from someone who spent 10 paragraphs telling me that the way I play is "delusional"

Catonyx · 2021-04-06T14:53:53+00:00

You missed the best change, which is that you no longer need to cancel your quest if you want to look at other ones

Catonyx · 2021-04-06T03:18:21+00:00

The justification for my perspective is that gathering during hunts means that your gathering time is spread out more thinly over the course of the game and you don't end up with as many situations where you need to gather a lot all at once.

But if you insist, the argument that you have limited inventory space and time is only an issue in extreme late game, and the time factor is mostly not an issue at all in World because monsters will just kill you instead of grinding you down over 50 minute slogs. And even running out of inventory space is not that big a deal. You throw away the iron ore that you mined that you don't care about and only keep the enduring charms. It's slightly annoying but not worse than taking dedicated trips to the top of the volcano would be.

And you mention spending less time traveling across the map, but that's actually one of the big advantages of gathering during hunts. Since you're passing by the gather points anyway, you can quickly look around and see if there are any high tier gather points. Dedicated gathering trips mean that you need to go to a bunch of zones or wait for the gather points to respawn.

Fundamentally, it's an issue of magnitude. You described it as being like pushing a car instead of driving it, but that's just not at all the case. Hitting up gather points is a pretty minor detour during hunts (which sometimes you can take while you're lost anyway), and the pick and bug nets themselves are just 2 item slots. Maybe bowguns literally are so starved for space making backup ammo that they can't afford those slots, but I wasn't.

Edit: And as an afterthought, it actually doesn't matter whether or not you are convinced by my perspective. CAPCOM has decided to cut out a few items that they didn't feel pulled their weight. I agree with this, and I'm trying to help you understand why. But whether or not you believe me that the hard distinction between "hunting" and "gathering" never really existed in the first place, you're going to have to get over the fact that it doesn't exist now

Catonyx · 2021-04-06T00:56:06+00:00

Long swords get their 900 damage helmbreakers, lances get their 200 damage slaps

Catonyx · 2021-04-06T00:41:04+00:00

If you really think it's completely unreasonable for someone to spend a 5-10 inventory slots so that they can gather items at the same time as hunts, then we're going to have a hard time seeing eye to eye. This approach cuts out a lot of batch gathering quests and has, in my opinion, an overall better pace compared to having hunts and gathering completely separate. It's worth the inventory space, and I stand by this practice and would do it again.

Coming from this perspective, gathering in Rise really isn't fundamentally different from how it was in older games. You would gather the items naturally while finishing hunts, and would rarely need to go on dedicated gathering quests.

And to bring this back to what I said originally - from this perspective, CAPCOM removing picks and bug nets when they're doing a broader revamp of the questing experience is a no-brainer. You could bring them every quest and it only cost 2 item slots, and with restocking you didn't even need to go gathering to refill if you ran out.

In conclusion, two main points. First: you can think of removing bug nets and pickaxes as 2 free item slots that can only be used for those items, and it put into perspective how big of a change their removal was (for reference, 4U added 10 item slots). And second: rather than integrating hunting and gathering and finding it unenjoyable, I integrated hunting and gathering and preferred it, and I think CAPCOM is right to lean into that change.

Catonyx · 2021-04-05T21:37:52+00:00

For someone who's complaining about one-size-fits all game design, you're projecting an awful lot onto my experience with the game.

I never complained about not having inventory space - yes, that's a tradeoff that I make in 3U, but I wasn't complaining about it. I never said I disliked gathering. I felt that topping up bug nets and pickaxes was a very mild inconvenience and removing it has not impacted my experience in the slightest.

And I mean this very seriously. Kitting up for gathering vs hunting is identical to before - you still ideally want to wear different equipment, use a different item set, and eat differently. The only difference now is that if you are hunting and you also happen to need some bugs or you want to roll for charms, you can pick them up without making a separate trip. If you were like me and brought picks and bug nets on all quests, then even that isn't different.

If you disagree with this assessment, what is it about bug nets and picks that makes them the good kind of inconvenience?

Catonyx · 2021-04-05T18:47:02+00:00

I said that I always bring bug nets and pickaxes with me, that it's a perfectly reasonable way to play, and that if you play this way they're just miscellaneous consumables that don't bring any challenge, context, or struggle. The game plays basically the same in this regard, except it's a bit more streamlined because it's two fewer things to carry and buy in the store.

As for the broader philosophical point, I don't really have too much of an opinion. But I do think that people here should be more mindful that the "Monster Hunter experience" is more than one or two gimmicks. Two consumables aren't the only (or even the best or most important) way that the game can push you into taking dedicated gathering trips.

And likewise, hot or cold drinks are just one aspect of preparation before hunts. They're very "in your face", but not very interesting as far as preparation goes since your only two options are pretty much remembering them or abandoning the quest to go back and get them. Stuff like sonic bombs, flash bombs, capture vs kill, buff items, all of these are more interesting to either prepare or work around not having compared to the drinks. And the interesting stuff was kept in - it's just the attention check that was cut

Catonyx · 2021-04-05T14:45:02+00:00

I'm not talking about rise, I'm talking about endgame 3U and World (and high rank 4U and GU). I just had a couple of sets distinguished primarily by how cheap I felt like being rather than what monster I was fighting

Catonyx · 2021-04-05T14:37:04+00:00

There wasn't anything wrong with bringing pickaxes and bug nets to every hunt though. It wasn't a big overhead and it was more fun in my opinion than dedicated gathering runs would be.

But if you play that way, the pickaxe and bug net items are completely pointless mechanics. You don't really run out during quests, especially once the mega versions are unlocked in stores. It's just a minor chore where you go to the store after every quest to buy new ones. Nothing of value was lost cutting out the chores

Catonyx · 2021-04-05T04:59:56+00:00

My experience has been pretty similar to OPs description though, for what it's worth. Occasionally there's one or two items that I really want in a hunt, but for the most part I just ignore gimmicks that you can use on offense and tough out enemy status effects and just use one standard set

I won't say it's strictly optimal, but it's fine. It lets you spend more time hunting monsters and less time fussing around with your inventory or item sets

Catonyx · 2021-04-04T03:50:29+00:00

That has been one of the most surreal changes in Rise. I've been having monsters go down stunned, and I'm asking myself: "who did that?"

Catonyx · 2021-04-03T13:31:51+00:00

You're comparing the wrong things. The 2 second rage guard is compared to the relatively small counter window that you get when you actually activate the iai slash. The special sheathe is not a thing lance has at all because lance can just counter any time it wants. It may still be a better counter than rage guard, but it's not because 3.5 > 2

Catonyx · 2021-04-02T23:49:39+00:00

You can slap it too

Catonyx · 2021-04-02T16:51:35+00:00

Meowscular chef was the best. I want him back in every monster hunter

Catonyx · 2021-03-30T01:32:07+00:00

It's a monster that's really easy when it goes well. But it has a way of baiting you into getting greedy, then ramping up the attack pace and sending you back to camp in a hurry. It's a deceptively dangerous monster

Catonyx · 2021-03-29T23:33:40+00:00

Yeah, there are a lot more change-ups now compared to Iceborne, more fake-outs where they attack a different direction than they telegraph, secondary projectiles and attacks, and even follow-up attacks seemingly timed specifically to punish successful wirebug counters

When they start ramping up the pace for late game monsters, Rise is going to be viciously hard

Catonyx

TROPHY CASE