Shooting:
Your FE detects the hits on an object, the location you must shoot at corresponds with what you see on your screen. Once there is hit, a packet is sent indicating such event, and after awhile you get a return packet telling what was destroyed if anything from the object. Then you will see wings fall off or the object explode, albeit with a little delay.
Collisions:
Your FE detects wether you have collided with anything, leave out ( enemy or friendly ) bullets, bombs and rockets ( ? ) since that is done by others' FEs. This implementation makes the collision parameters consistent. When you see ( your FE detects ) your self flying into something, you die/get damaged.
Why many of you think you 'lose' every collision is that you have no idea when the other guy collides with you most of the time.
Imagine a common HO, where you both come in guns blazing and connect a few hits. Then you switch to six view and see the enemy disintegrate mid air, and get the feeling that burst you got in must have hit fuel or something important. Have you ever considered that he just _collided_ with you and your hits in fact did no mortal damage?
To anyone smocking crack and playing AH... err thinking that _both_ should die/get damaged if either FE detect a collision. Imagine the previous sittuation again. You would have now died without any reason. Also because of varying pings ( positions ) there would be no consistency when you would collide and when you wouldn't. At times you could fly just 10yds from an other plane, but the next time it might be 200yds and you still die from a collision for no obvious reason. This implementation would occur in most frequent collisions, so think carefully what you wish for. If you think you die too often in a collision now...
If you say that both die/get damaged when _both FEs_ detect a collision you still fail to grasp how varying pings would affect the sittuation. Collisions would be less frequent, but they would still happen under inconsistent circumstances. It would mean at times you can fly straight through the other player and at times you couldn't. Most would agree this isn't very good sollution either?
Ping time and collisions:
player A has ping 10.
player B has ping 400.
A and B start flying towards each other in a HO. At the last second B pulls up, A doesn't because he figures B is chicken and he can plough through. On B's FE B misses A slightly. On A's FE B is still flying _straight_, because the fact that B has pulled up comes 410 units later, and A now collides with B. Before you say A died unjustly for having a better connection, remember A did very well see what was about to happen. A didn't do enough to avoid the collision and died/got damaged justly.
A and B fly in a tail chase. A is chasing B's plane. Both fly perfectly straight. A will again die in this sittuation before B. But again it's not that he was penalized for better connection. A saw that range indicator to go to 5, or how ever long his plane's nose is, before receiving damage and would have been able to at least maneuver at some point prior to that.
The point being, with the current implementation when you die in a collision it is your own fault. The other guy didn't ram you or anything, because that is simply put quite impossible. Ramming someone _on purpose_ requires you to know both player's ping, and then be able to calculate in your head how to maneuver for your aircraft to hit on the other player's FE.
// fats
