did capcom screw themself?

[twiggy]

adding followers to the game will make less people play less online and less with other people since they can just choose to have npc party members instead...

seems like a quality of life improvement on the surface but it can also have major drawbacks to multiplayer and the franchise as a whole since people might expect the follower system to be mandatory and improved upon in the future games, what do you think?

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by twiggy:

did capcom screw themself?
adding followers to the game will make less people play less online and less with other people since they can just choose to have npc party members instead...

seems like a quality of life improvement on the surface but it can also have major drawbacks to multiplayer and the franchise as a whole since people might expect the follower system to be mandatory and improved upon in the future games, what do you think?

Like with Counter-Strike. Just because you have smarter bots it does not mean they are ever be able to replace real players. If anything, then good followers show that there is an ongoing issue with how people learn to play multiplayer, as followers are ALWAYS inferior to actual passionate Monster Hunter players.

No one who plays with friends will ever prefer bots over their friends.

[JPM岩]

I'm pretty sure Worldbabies bringing this mentality of "being carried is okay and if youre against it, youre an elitist", combined with SOS, is what will kill off multiplayer. Followers were added to basically allow players who want to not deal with that BS still have a group to hunt with.
They need to either remove or redo SOS completely, give larger lobbies another try without SOS being a thing, or but more stricter HR/MR restriction of later games quests so we dont get a repeat of Raging/Alatreon/Fatalis, where you basically just cleared IB's story and have access to end game gear-giving monsters. Either that, or they need more monsters like Alatreon that force players out of their "I must follow what the Youtuber says is meta" and give the community to more police themselves into going into late game quests, like how older lobbies were.

[CookedMeat]

Followers "appear" to play better than lower quartiles of players simply because these NPC have a default 250HP, while many players would rather not care about getting spiritbird buffs and die to 1-hit.

Their damage are similar to previously unnerfed palamute turrets, but they appear to be strong because their existence doesn't make the monster HP scale upwards like Multiplayer does. Essentially you are getting a free +2 palico/palamute when you brought followers to a hunt.

So, from my point of view, followers system will only stop two kinds of players from playing multiplayer:
1. People who prefer not to socialize with real human due to various reasons
2. People who perform well enough in solo that multiplayer on average decreases their efficiency
Or in other words, follower system are just gonna make the ones who already prefer singleplayer to stay solo.

As for people who seek the fun in interacting with real human beings, they will still open a lobby and chill with randoms. And for those who seek carry, I would actually prefer them to go after followers than being a weight for randoms.

Region lock is the real issue that harmed multiplayer, and the terrible matchmaking system of Rise only made things worse.

[TyresTyco]

No.

[Regufyz]

They barely do any dmg compared to actual players. And ontop of that, its way less fun than playing with friends

[Thelnar]

I don't think they really did anything to change the player dynamic with the extension of the followers for other content, like CookedMeat said, those that solo will solo (with or without followers) and those that seek multiplayer will do so anyways.

For me the benefit is in that I can grab them as I "learn" a fight or weapon, as I prefer not to be fully carried or cart someone else mission.
The scaling seems to be similar to PSO2's NPC supporters (20-30% of the power), which is understandable but also provides some "status" problems since those thresholds are abit too large for certain weapons on followers (Luchikas bowguns running stickies never KO a target unless I also help with it).
in general thou Hinoa with HH will prolly be the most used, buffs, heals and high support trigger, combo her with a healing palico and you got healing for days to combo with a good layer of defence.

But I think the biggest counter to multiplayer is part region lock and part how they do lobbies threw steam, any of the consoles have the lobbies hosted on the servers, steam? one of the players hosts it, not to mention steams like to DC/go down randomly quite ofthen compared to any of the consoles, which doesn't help.

[...]

i always find my doggo more useful than randos so followers are a good addition.

[ArthorPen]

hot take - monster hunter multiplayer severely needs an formula overhaul.

i'm not denying that hunting with real players can lead to moments that are truly special and can never be experienced with brain dead AI, but i will say that we could still have these moments with a formula that isn't so outdated and having years with no clear direction.

[Dog]

I play with friends only, otherwise Im solo. So Id say things are just fine.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by lightningdragon97:

hot take - monster hunter multiplayer severely needs an formula overhaul.

i'm not denying that hunting with real players can lead to moments that are truly special and can never be experienced with brain dead AI, but i will say that we could still have these moments with a formula that isn't so outdated and having years with no clear direction.

Not wrong. But I still would disagree unless people finally take the culture clash into consideration when they bring up such a statement.

The system with MH:W was in my opinion bad. It had it good sides but ruined a lot what made multiplayer of older Monster Hunter titles special.

Yet the perception is quite the opposite, depending who you ask.
Some simplify it with MH:W starters vs. MH veterans who see MH:W as the odd one.

An overhaul sounds good, but it needs to take into consideration the culture of the audience, like the fact that people in Japan enjoy multiplayer in a far different approach than Western players do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMoEBkZDqnE

[NightWatch]

I just wanna be able to enjoy the game solo. I can do that without followers, but its a nice change of pace. Main reason is i have horrible internet where i live. If i couldn't play solo i wouldn't have bought the game.

[zero]

unsure how that "screws themselves" its not like MP is going anywhere.

but some people just wanna play alone while also having some npcs so they aren't doing everything by themselves, sorta like rpgs.

[Remi]

Not really, random multiplayer is always going to be a thing, as are investigation lobbies once people reach level 200.
Capcom actually kinda fixed the main issue the game had, silkbind gun dogs being overtuned, and nerfed both their damage and status buildup into the ground, so they don't deal 30% of the monster's HP with zero player effort anymore.

[Misfit]

Originally posted by Remi:

Not really, random multiplayer is always going to be a thing, as are investigation lobbies once people reach level 200.
Capcom actually kinda fixed the main issue the game had, silkbind gun dogs being overtuned, and nerfed both their damage and status buildup into the ground, so they don't deal 30% of the monster's HP with zero player effort anymore.

level 200 is the problem, playerbase is so wide stretched atm, even with "better matchmaking" mod and worldwide search it can take ages to get an investigation you want.
they should release it in stages. 80 new levels at once is a bit much for the already bad multiplayer system.

[randomguy01542]

do they actually do much damage? I personally just use them as meat shields. I at least expect real people to put in work.