MVC3 has "speed of light" netcode

Fighting game fans who enjoy the thrill of online competition hate one thing more than any other: lag.

But with Marvel vs. Capcom 3, lag of any significance could be a thing of the past – according to creator Capcom.

"Other than geographical lag, I don't see any problem in our current system," boasted producer Ryota Niitsuma to Eurogamer.

"It's the speed of light, and maybe a little bit of influence from infrastructure depending on where you are. So, if you're playing from Japan against someone in Sweden there will be some lag due to the distance. But it's all quite satisfactory."

Unlike Super Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a three-on-three fighting game, which means there are six characters involved in a match.

This, Niitsuma said, made combating lag more challenging than with Street Fighter.

"Because I'm not on the Super Street Fighter IV team I don't know exactly what their netcode is like," he said. "But I know we have a lot more information, or we have more data transfer due to more characters and more effects. And actual game flow is a lot faster than in Super Street Fighter IV."

At the beginning of a MVC3 match players must choose three characters and, for each, costumes from a choice of four and assist types from a choice of three.

This process, for those who have nailed down established teams and strategies and wish to play online for tens of hours on end, would mean a frustrating amount of wasted time – if not for a clever new system.

"Our concept was about repeatability," Niitsuma explained. "People are going to play again and again and again. We had to make sure it's comfortable playing it.

"In terms of online modes, we haven't actually announced all the modes yet. But, again, it's about repeatability. That's our motto this time. We have three characters to pick and then you have to pick three different assist modes. We gather people who play 400, 500 matches a day don't want to do this 400, 500 times a day.

"So we've implemented a type of profile. You create your own deck and then you pre-select your characters and pre-select your assists – alpha, beta and gamma – and you can just have that as a slot. So you can just pick your combination when you want."