TL;DR: Netcode is great in party mode; go try it for yourselves!

With KOF XIV offically released yesterday, many fans have already hopped online to try out the new netcode. Early reports indicate that the netcode is a hit-or-miss experience. While some reported very good connections, a lot reported slow and sluggish matches with people who are located closeby and have good connections in other games otherwise.

The consensus so far seem to be a hit-or-miss experience. When it works, it works very very well. But when it doesn’t, matches are slow and unbearable.

What is the root cause of this huge discrepency?

The community is quick to figure out potential solutions to the netcode. One promising solution so far is the party mode. For some reasons, the netcode is great in the 3 vs 3 player party mode.

Last night, we hosted a lobby with people from the Dreamcanel Discord and played for hours. All of the matches were great and felt very smooth. We have players from around the country including San Diego, NorCal, Illinois, Alabama, New Jersey, Minnesota, Florida in the room. Everyone reported that their matches with one another were excellent in terms of lag and smoothness.

In particular, we noticed that the same players who previously had underwhelming connections in free battle mode now have excellent connections in party mode. We checked other settings including switching hosts and are happy to report that they do not seem to affect the experience.

Check out the stream with our lobby below:



Separately, Mad Kof in Korea also experienced the same phenomon. His connections are nothing but smooth in the 3v3 Party Mode.

So with these findings, could it mean that there is a bug in the game that hampers online experience in free matches but somehow does not affect Party Mode? Try it out yourselves and let us know how it works for you!