What happened to actually tracking the monster?

[Ankanator]

I have only played MH worlds before this one, and I don't know if other MH did this, but I really miss the part of checking for monster scratches and foot prints to actually get the fireflies to start tracking the monster's location. Going straight to the monster felt good at the beginning, but after some time of playing, it makes things feel monotonous. The tracking was part of the hunt, and without it, this game is only "Monster Whacker". Or am I miss remembering how things were?

Capturing a monster is also lame compared to worlds.

Edit: So the comments say that the tracking happens only the first time as a mission, not always, and after some time, you always know the location. So not a perfect system either, but I kind of wish there was an option to track the monster, maybe an event mission.

[Khergit Horse Archer]

its pwetty much monster fighter not hunter

i rmb in the older games u had to find the monster manually without any icon on the minimap telling u its there lol

[Poisenbery]

You're right.
In previous games, we didn't even have the monster tracks, we just had to explore around until we found the area the monster was in.

I think the "Always knowing exactly where the monster is at all times" came with MH Rise.

It definitely took away something that a lot of players enjoyed. Collecting tracks and scratch marks made me feel like a detective. Was very fun

[The Debauchery]

Old games: Find the monster manually and paintball it to track it.
GU: Also had the option of waving to the spotting balloon, which I thought was cool.
World: Collecting samples, reading footprints and scratches was a good thing... but the scoutflies were obnoxious and unnecessary.
Rise: Owl just knows where everything is.
Wilds: You just know where everything is AND have to put up with scoutflies.

It has definitely gone downhill over time. World's tracking system and the old paintballs instead of scoutflies would have been perfect.

[Ankanator]

There should be an option in which you spend guild points to unlock what monsters are on the map, or maybe talk to npcs that will tell you that information, but by default, you shouldn't know those locations.

[Ame-kun]

The spotting balloon was also available at least as far back as MHFU. There was also 'psychoserum', an item which let you see where the monster was on the map for a few seconds.

In Tri, one of the options for your partner (a shakalaka!) was a mask that let it randomly activate the Psychoserum effect without needing to farm mats. So it's been slowly moving in this direction for a while, but I'm not a huge fan of just getting instant-vision of the monster. I don't even know what the paint pods DO in this game...!

[zero]

world was the only one that had like, you looting pointless drops to find the monster, before then you would pop a psychosereum and know its exact location and simply run to it, and then use paintball from there.

[MeteoImpact]

Though let's be real, no one enjoyed paintballing a monster, fighting it, then at some point the paintball expires and now you have no idea where the hell the monster just went.

[Lavis]

Originally posted by Ame-kun:

The spotting balloon was also available at least as far back as MHFU. There was also 'psychoserum', an item which let you see where the monster was on the map for a few seconds.

In Tri, one of the options for your partner (a shakalaka!) was a mask that let it randomly activate the Psychoserum effect without needing to farm mats. So it's been slowly moving in this direction for a while, but I'm not a huge fan of just getting instant-vision of the monster. I don't even know what the paint pods DO in this game...!

Yup, I remember this being a thing in gen 2 as well. Nothing sucked more than forgetting psychoserum, finally tracking a monster and having it fly away before you could paintball - or paintball wearing off as it flies away.

[Dr0W]

In old games many times player knowledge came often into account: After hunting the same monster many times we'd often know where the monster would usually be, where it would usually flee to, etc. Even without having it painted if you knew your prey you'd know where to find it.

Now we have it all handed to us.

[The Debauchery]

Originally posted by MeteoImpact:

Though let's be real, no one enjoyed paintballing a monster, fighting it, then at some point the paintball expires and now you have no idea where the hell the monster just went.

Apparently I'm no one.
Who knew?

Actually in the old games after a while you could learn monster movement patterns so precisely that you didn't even need the paintballs any more. I loved that.

[Dr0W]

Originally posted by MeteoImpact:

Though let's be real, no one enjoyed paintballing a monster, fighting it, then at some point the paintball expires and now you have no idea where the hell the monster just went.

You'd have no idea if you didn't know that monster. But back in the day me and my bros playing on PSP, even without it being painted, we knew exactly where it would go. And in the case it would go to 2 possible areas, we'd split to reach either and when one found it we could signal to the other one. That was part of the hunt.

[Ankanator]

Originally posted by MeteoImpact:

Though let's be real, no one enjoyed paintballing a monster, fighting it, then at some point the paintball expires and now you have no idea where the hell the monster just went.

Yeah, there were times when that was annoying, but don't take that option away from the players. I mostly enjoyed it.
I already beat the available content and feel like I don't actually know the maps because I just let the mutant chicken take me there. I don't have to explore around to search for the monster.

[Silyon]

I recall next to zero actual "tracking" taking place in World. The closest thing would be collecting the scratches, hair, and marks left behind by the Elder Dragons when you were investigating them for the first time, and you didn't actually fight them on the same outing anyway. Anything else, sure you could go looking for monster leavings but a lot of the time you just ended up tripping over it anyway because most monsters barely wandered through a third of the area map to begin with. World's maps were straight up not large or complex enough to make tracking really be a thing, even after the Guiding Lands were added.

And lest we forget, once you encountered a given monster in any of World's areas, it was permanently revealed on your map and you even magically knew exactly where it was going when it decided to move. In this respect, all that Wilds actually does for you is let you move towards it while sharpening and doing inventory management at the same time. If it's more a matter of finding monster leavings like hair, scales, or scratch marks, all of those still exist if the monster's allowed to do it's thing rather than get blitzed and you actually get drops for collecting them now.

[FallenActual]

Originally posted by Ankanator:

I have only played MH worlds before this one, and I don't know if other MH did this, but I really miss the part of checking for monster scratches and foot prints to actually get the fireflies to start tracking the monster's location. Going straight to the monster felt good at the beginning, but after some time of playing, it makes things feel monotonous. The tracking was part of the hunt, and without it, this game is only "Monster Whacker". Or am I miss remembering how things were?

Capturing a monster is also lame compared to worlds.

I do miss the tracks system to be honest

[Tenz]

Originally posted by MeteoImpact:

Though let's be real, no one enjoyed paintballing a monster, fighting it, then at some point the paintball expires and now you have no idea where the hell the monster just went.

You can still paintball. You have unlimited paintballs now.