I know a little bit about "lag" and the fact that instantaneous feedback to all players is not possible, but I can't understand how the collision model works. A player flies into me, I go down and they keep flying!!??, now if I flew into them I could understand it.
Hitech or Skuzzy, would you be so kind as to give us a "general" explanation of how it works? It maybe all me, I just don't understand it.
Your data has to travel to your enemy's computer to display your position on his screen. This takes time, so when you are rendered on his screen, you are already in a slightly different postion on yours. It's the same the other way around. That's why your and the other players 'realities' differ a bit.
Because of this, there can be a collision on one screen and not the other:
This is the moment of collision, as seen by the P-47's pilot. The Mustang runs into his plane - but only on the Mustangs screen. And that's why only the Mustang takes damage.