I've made tons of comments and threads over the past couple months that begin and/or end with me saying something bad about NRS -- rather it's about the netcode, KP2 characters, poor PC support, etc. I figured it would be pretty cool to actually make a thread thanking NRS instead.
I've said it before and I will say it again: The entire reason why I basically "quit" MKX and gave up on it was because of it's poor netcode. I don't have any locals, and I don't know anyone that is actually interested in playing "competitively" or just trying to level-up and get better. So I rely on online to get the closest thing to competitive gameplay that I can get. Even if I wasn't trying to constantly level-up and get better, and was just trying to have fun, the online would still be very important. It's a action-multiplayer fighting game in 2015/2016 that we are talking about here; the netcode is more important than getting DLC characters or any sort of additional content (I know everyone here will agree with me when I say that, it's TYM).
With all the people who said they knew how netcode "works" saying that it was basically impossible to fix the netcode, and with the fact that I thought NetherRealm and Warner Bros. would not want to waste time and resources fixing MKX when they could just move-on to Injustice 2 (and make more money), I honestly thought the netcode would never change and I would never be interested in playing Mortal Kombat X at the highest level I can -- and that it would basically just be a "party game" to play with friends/family and nothing more. It seems that I was wrong.
Like you probably (most likely) already know, today NetherRealm Studios announced that Mortal Kombat X will be switching to GGPO-like based netcode, hoping to drastically reduce lag and just have better online gameplay all around. That isn't even it though, because they are going to Beta test the netcode before adding it into the main game. This means that they actually care about developing good netcode before implementing it into the main game, rather than just quickly throwing in something that could potentially be just as bad or possibly even worse. This is literally the best thing NRS/WB could do for MKX. And it also means that they listened.
This, along with the new KP2 content coming (I'm excited about Tri-Borg, Bo' Rai Cho and The Pit), I'm actually interested in playing Mortal Kombat X at the best level I can. I will definitely be signing-up for the Enhanced Online Beta. Of course, this doesn't fix all the mistakes NRS/WB has made with MKX. There's still microtransaction/DLC shenanigans, poor PC support (it seems like KP2/Enhanced Netcode won't be coming to PC?), the story was the most disappointing out of MK9, Injustice and MKX, etc. Who knows... this netcode could still end up being terrible despite it being rollback + having a Beta. But this is still a HUGE step in the right direction for NRS (and MKX), and could actually mean that their next game will have GGPO-like netcode from DAY ONE. And you know what, it just feels good to actually be smiling about MKX and looking forward to playing more again vs. being disappointed all the time.
I doubt anyone from NRS/WB will actually see this, but if someone does: Thank you.
