Tomorrow (December 17th) is a big day for Monster Hunter Online players worldwide, though MHO doesn't have an English version, all players can join in the pre-open beta as long as you have a QQ account (see how to register & download). Before the open beta, Chinese gaming media Sina has interviewed MHO producer Tao Weishi, explaining MHO's current status and future plans.
Q: MHO just started non-wipe closed beta on November 17 and then Tencent announced the pre-open beta date will be on December 17. What makes Tencent to conduct open beta so soon? What development state is the game in?
A: Pre-open is coming so fast is because we don't want players to wait any longer. We know players have waited MHO for a long time. Since the servers run kinda stably in the non-wipe closed beta so we think it is the time to start open beta. The game
Q: Are you happy with the non-wipe closed beta? Any testing data you can share with us? For example, which weapon is most popular?
A: Yeah, we are content with the final closed beta. As for the testing data, I can tell you that the most popular melee weapon is Tachi while the ranged weapon is Bowgun. Tachi is popular in the final closed beta
Q: How many online players you expect in MHO open beta?
A: Well, the more the better lol. We hope more and more players will have a chance to play MHO and like the Monster Hunter series.
Q: What new weapons we can expect in the open beta?
A: Players will see Hunting Horn in the open beta as a new weapon debuting in MHO. We've done a lot of changes to the Hunting Horn to make it easier to use and more friendly to beginners. New weapon - Hunting Horn
Q: How many new monsters we'll see in the open beta?
A: There are 4 new monsters announced so far but if you count subspecies and those special monsters, they are far more than 4! We'll release them in the subsequent updates.
Q: Players were experiencing long waiting time in the queues (sometimes more than 1 hour) in the closed beta. How you plan to fix this?
A: We'll open more servers in the open beta for sure and at the same time, expand the server capacity . We found that players like to flock in the hot servers but in fact, some newly opened servers are vacant so we highly recommend players to choose a not-that-busy server to play.
Q: Any plans to increase the inventory slots?
A: Hunters can expand their storage and as for the inventory slots expansion, we adopt Monster Hunter's original setting but we'll assess it according to player's feedbacks.
Q: Will Tencent intervene the in-game chat channels, like using the trumpet item to spam in the chat channel?
A: We won't be involved in player's chat but if some players use chat channel to cheat others, we'll definitely take care of it.
Q: What's the end game plan for Monster Hunter Online?
A: On the one hand, we'll add new monsters, new weapons to the game and on the other hand, we'll employ more fresh features, like the team hunting, group hunting to make MHO a bit competitive.
Q: How often you plan to update MHO in the future?
A: We haven't decided that but we can assure you that we'll bring new content to MHO constantly to make it fresh for hunters. New weapon - Hunting Horn
Q: Does Tencent have other plans based on the Monster Hunter IP?
A: Definitely! Besides MHO, Monster Hunter Mezeporta Reclamation, a web browser game based on Monster Hunter, will also start non-wipe closed beta very soon! In addition, a Monster Hunter themed cafe was opened in Shanghai lately. We'll push out more content/products based on the Monster Hunter IP, including Monster Hunter peripherals, original soundtrack etc.
Q: In the end, can you tell us Tencent's future development plans on MHO? Can we expect PvP in the game?
A: We'll release more new monsters in the game, which will be MHO exclusive and currently, we are developing new MHO exclusive weapons. As for PvP, you know it is a discreet topic in Monster Hunter because PvP is not allowed in the original Monster Hunter series. Therefore, we don't have any plans on PvP so far. However, we'll have some PvE team tournaments in the open beta.
