As always, tons of misinformation flying and lots of misinformed folks entering the conversation. I love that you are all passionate enough about this to discuss it, but sometimes I see a post so wildly uninformed that I feel like I need to comment. ArcadePC; I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, I just want to correct the things in your post that don't make any sense (which is pretty much all of it). Hopefully you'll keep learning about the topic. Much love!
Problem with fighting games and online is that you are not certain how things are on the other player side.
Did a move that appeared fine and smooth on your part also happened to the other player?
Did an input recognition register on your part but not to the other player or vice versa?
In cases where both player press multiple buttons and you are not able to hear the clicks, it becomes really confusing and you are not able to tell which ones were registered by the game online.
You aren't sure, but any well made game is sure. If things are different on each end, the game is desynced. Top tier netcode will detect this and end the match. Network engineers and designers work really hard to make sure the game wont desync online, and they do this with tools that let them play online side by side with simulated packet loss and as much delay as they want to really push it and try to break it.
Even the best made games may have desyncs, but those get discovered and patched out as the game gets updated like any other bug removal.
If your inputs are getting lost, its because you are playing a game with poorly made netcode (delay based does this all the time with packet loss). Rollback is built in a way to specifically avoid this from ever happening to you.
Bottom line, this way of thinking about being unsure as to what is happening on the other side is needless. The simulations are synced, you are both playing the same game and seeing the same results. If you are playing a game with well made rollbacks, you are not dropping inputs unless you and your opponent have an absolute nightmare connection, the kind no netcode could hide.
Does you being the host work more favorably when it comes to delay and response time?
Does one player have a better computer with different settings ?
In cases the other player is better such things play a minor part but in case of equal players, even in casual mode, this can make a difference. This happens also on rollback.
Fighting games are Peer to Peer. There is no host and there is no client. Your data comes to me at the same speed my data goes to you. We both run an authoritative version of the game and only send each other inputs and timestamps and such. You don't ever need to worry about host advantage, it isn't a thing.
Fighting games are frame locked. Having a better PC wont give you any advantage. It is possible that having a worse PC that cannot run the game at full framerate could give you an advantage, but many games force you to run a performance test to ensure your rig can run at full framerate before you are even allowed to play online. So you also don't need to worry about PC power.
So, in summary, none of these things are actual worries you need to have and don't actually play a part in P2P online fighting games.
