Dam u need wyvern stones and all for upgrading high rank armor? Geez. As if hard and heavy armor spheres weren't bad enough

Well I guess they *had* to keep something exclusive to the offliners.

lol when i saw diablos appear yesterday during peco, i instantly remembered your rants...and lol'd. We played a peco before you came in too, and in that one deviljho decided to pay a visit. In low rank I would have entertained these guest appearances but one hit from these guys and I would be almost dead. Don't think hatter was too pleased with me kinda running away and stuff.

I'm having a blast now. I still get tad anoyed for how hard to get good weapons and armors is, but I'm happy for now, I don't need anything I don't have.

It also feels extremly rewarding.

I think the only online issue though is the fact that in order to get to new awesome quests, and to join many, you have to redo those anoying collecting quests, and no one wants to help. And they're even harder because there are even more mushrooms to collect.

As of now, it's a solid 9.0 for me.

I don't think you have to do any of the collection quests to advance online.  They're there, but you don't have to do them.

The really annoying thing for me when i started was the fact that this guy (or gal) had to strike a superman pose or rub his tummy ecstatically without realizing there's an obviously huge fucking world of pain bolting in your direction.

stop posing and run fothermucker!!

After offline 5-Star, you need to beat the last boss to unlock the last set of quests.  It's made clear when you're going to fight the final boss, so if the option isn't available you probably need to beat one or both of those unfinished quests to advance.

It wouldn't have been bad if one of us had had Sonic Bombs. Diablos is easy to avoid or just defend against (just really hard to kill), except for the burrowing. I've learned to run like hell from the burrowing if i can't stop it.

I think it's Diablos that is required, and Rathalos and Barrioth that are optional. I've done everthing except Diablos and still don't have Ceadeus opened.

You and any other potential quest participants have to be in the same City. You sign up for a quest at the counter (just like offline where the colored tag appears above your head), and then other people in the city can sign up at the quest board next to the counter.

The password (i imagine, i've never seen it used) is when you want to keep other people in the city out of your quest. I would think it's rather pointless, because the quest-initiator has so much power over the quest otherwise, it's kinda hard to let unwanted people in, especially since no-one else can join once you've embarked.

You can set the number of players also as a way of excluding people, which is again, a little pointless, since you and the people you want with you can just leave without all quest members (it's easier to make the mistake of leaving quest members behind, actually, which i've both seen happen, and have had happen to me...), though setting a limiter on the number of players might (and don't quote me on that, as i have no idea what i'm talking about on this point) alter the strength of the monster. A quest intended for four might have a monster that can reasonably take a beating from four players, though i'm only speculating that because its one of the few ways such an option would make sense.

Long story short: password and player limits might be pointless, other people sign up for quests you initiate, but once the quest is embarked, you're stuck with those players, only quest with those in city (limit of 4)

Yeah, monster strength is unaffected by the number of players.  Which is unfortunate, because they're too much for one player, and too little for four.