User blog comment:Plexioth- xD/Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate/@comment-98.192.166.156-20120928040511/@comment-5089728-20120928134426

Originally, Tri was meant to have 12 people per city.

EXAMPLE 1: 3 tables, each holding four seats.

EX 2: Four quest slots.

EX 3: It gives you the option of hiding the hunter list in a city. This was built so if like 10 or 12 hunters were in the city, the list wouldn't get in the way.

EX 4: In one of the Tri trailers, you see a scene in Loc Lac where two hunters are arm wrestling, and 8 hunters of in the back, cheering.

EX 5: The manual itself states that "You can even invite up to 9 other hunters into your house as guests!"

Obviously it must have been changed at the last second, Evidence is all over the place in Loc Lac, and there's even stuff in the manual that they decided not to change because it was such short notice. They could do this so quickly too, because all they have to do is change the size max of the cities, a simple server tweak.

I'll bet you that those very same cities are still able to hold 12 hunters if Capcom just tweaked the max for the cities. An exciting thought....