Nothing random about -if you crash him, you will die-
Don't make the mistake of thinking the general population at AH is represented here ... There are a LOT of players UNHAPPY with the collision model, most of them just aren't interested in dealing with the "party line" types that frequent the forum and attempt to make life miserable for anyone that doesn't KA ... My perception is that the "Vast Majority" don't understand the present collision model and once it's explained ... THEY STILL DON'T LIKE IT ... Planes do not fly away from Mid-Air Collisions in the real world, is what THEY understand.
If you crash, you die is exactly how it works now.
People who have no idea how and why the collision modeling works can be frustrated. Experience shows that if a player comes to grip with why and how the system works, they are fine with it as they understand there is no better alternative.
Not precisely, but it can be approximated (ask Skuzzy) ... AND it's not really necessary to KNOW that ... Collisions (on both ends) aren't HARD to avoid when you REALLY WANT TO.
Uh, no, you cannot approximate it. In order to do so, you would need to know the physical location of the other player, his Internet connection quality, the Internet quality between him and the servers and your Internet quality between you and the servers.
The 'quality' of the Internet connection constantly changes. Just as an example. At 400MPH, there can be as much as a 58 foot distance displacement for every 0.1 second of time differential between you, the servers and the other player. You also have no idea what direction the displacement is.
By the time you figure it all out, the information is invalid.
Your Screen says you were ...
The screen says what happened. If you collided with someone, you take damage and you get a message about colliding with someone. If the other player collided with you, you do not take damage, but he does and you get a message he collided with you. If you both collide with each other, you both get a message about being damaged and you both take damage.
This all happens on the respective desktops. Under complete control of each user, where it should be.
Obviously, I disagree ... This might be Mr. Spock's thought process, or a computers decision ... But humans have this little gut monkey that's REALLY nervous and starts screaming -YOU WILL DIE - YOU WILL DIE- and just won't shut up ... (even in a computer game). We all (mentally healthy anyway) try and keep that monkey QUIET.
Please note : I said early on that the present collision model was REASONABLE and I DO understand why it was adopted ... But it isn't popular, and the idea that BOTH PLANES Crash -is- the general perception of the result of a mid-air.
People get irritated because they did not avoid the collision and the other player did. They get irritated because they refuse to accept the current system is the best compromise of all systems.
The only players who would be happy with what you propose are the ones who cannot avoid collisions or want to use collisions to thier benefit. The players, who in earnest do everything they can to avoid a collision, would leave the game with your system. Who could blame them?