Il be on in a few hours if anyone is down. Got me a decent armor set and stuff woot! im ready.

Yea, I was thinking multi was perhaps just with friends but that is local multiplayer.  Network is for multiplayer online.   We only failed one quest (Rathian) because each person (only had 3 that quest) died once.  We beat the bird, royal lud, and 2 collection quests total.

What set do you have?  I'm still in all leather...  I probably can make a piece or two of something...  Not sure what set I'll go for first.

Great fun guys, thanks again seth for the info, The game has voice chat thru the gamepad just in case anybody asked! Its alot easier, you can also text(but you cant move)

I'm still not over the fact that I confused the local multiplayer (labeled multi mode) as multiplayer with friends online... I should have known better! Probably was thrown off considering the only local co op you could do for MH3 Wii version was arena mode from the start menu.

What are armor "sets"?

Is it better to get all the same kind of armor than random mix and match?

also how do skillz work.

Usually best to get all of one (usually get 2-4 boosts (+) on a different stat with a full set) but then most sets have a negative to a stat if you have all so you either have to gem your set to prevent the negative or just let a stat be negative (like thunder res down, attack or def down, etc).  Sometimes it works out to mix a few and sometimes you don't have a choice (still in process of building the entire set) to mix and match.

If you have enough + to a certain stat ( this example I'll use attack) then it will increase your attack a little, medium, or by a lot - believe it is like +5 or 10 - for a little +10 or 15 for medium + 15 or 20 for a lot or something like that ( Attack (S),  Attack (M),  Attack (L) )

So you have to try and get as many bonus to skills as possible by gems (sockets) along with matching gear. Each set adds to only certain stats while providing a negative to one stat which if -10 or whateva (depends on stat) on stat will make you have a negative attribute. Someone else can probably explain this better.

Armour sets are sets of different armour (obviously) and they are crafted from the drops of monsters, so you need 4 Rathalos Tails for a Rathalos Armour set, for example. Having one whole set looks better, but I'm not sure if there's a real boost from it.

And the skills just go up and down and affect your performance depending on the armour you have equipped. So a Rathalos armour would help Heat Resistance, but may make you weaker to water, whilst a Lagiacrus armour set would help protect against thunder attacks and help you breathe underwater for longer etc.

Hmm, got it and started to get back into the game. It seems the monsters give lesser carves than in Tri and there are fewer resource gathering points. I may be wrong about this, but it seems so to me, that Aptonoths gave 3 carves instead of two. Also there is no longer a night? And the cave is bright?

A lot more different weapons and they are all available from the start in the box. That's cool. I have to try some stuff. Now: more hunting!

There are other factors too, like Armor item bonuses that stack and gems you put into your armor that improves things like sta drain, or swimming speed, or resistence to wind blow or dragon roar etc. You can make a pure STR armor or pure resistive armor for different situations, my perfonal fav is Barroth armor because you can run forever in that thing lol.