Some of this is true. Some not.
A certain player took up the #1 acm tactic of constant ramming and ho.
4-5 encounters he rammed me every time. Every time I took the damage, he got the kill. Even while I try to avoid a HO he turns right into me and scores a kill. Is it more of a connection issue?
If you get the message "so and so has collided with you" HE takes damage from the collision
If you get the message "YOU have collided with so and so" then YOU take the damage from the collision.
If you see BOTH messages you BOTH take damage from the collision.
On the other hand if you avoid the collision and he is firing a couple hundred rounds of cannon at you as you pass you WILL take damage from the cannon rounds. Avoiding the collision doesnt stop the rounds from hit you.
In the collision model it's as if you plane has a ghost directly behind it and if they enemy plane hits that ghost they will die and you will take no damage. You could pull up directly in front of a bomber for example and if you time it right they will hit this ghost and die. I have experienced this when I've made some poorly lined up passes on bombers and was trying to avoid a collision. Some exploit this.
I've also heard that if you look behind you when you are about to collide that it will mitigate your taking damage. I have not been able to verify that this is in fact true as I have not tried this.
Either way the collision model isn't the best I've seen.
This is BS. It comes from the way people explain the collision model. Most say if you "SEE" a collision you take damage. The right phrase is if your COMPUTER detects (sees) a collision you take damage. So "looking away so you dont "see" the collision doesnt save you from damage.
The damage moel works very well. If you maneuver your plane and avoid hitting the other plane there is no reason you should take damage. So all you have to do is avoid hitting other planes and you wont take damage. Very easy to understan, but very tough for some players to do as all they want to do is HO