I never intimated magical hits. Crosshairs on him, trigger pull, bullets go downrange, then, 3 seconds after they pass, the bullets hit.
Right, because the way the gunnery model works from the shooter's perspective is:
- You shoot at the guy's image on your FE.
- The bullets either hit or miss on your FE.
- Damage to his plane is calculated on your FE.
- Damage information about his plane is uploaded to the server from your FE.
- Damage information about his plane is downloaded to his FE from the server.
- His FE displays the damage to him.
Looking at it from the shootee's perspective:
- He shoots at your image on his FE that's lagging a little bit or a lot behind where you are on your FE.
- The bullets either hit or miss on his FE.
- Damage to your plane is calculated on his FE.
- Damage information about your plane is uploaded to the server from his FE.
- Damage information about your plane is downloaded to your FE from the server.
- Your FE displays the damage to you.
The larger the delay in the upload/download phases, the more noticeable the delay is between you seeing him taking the shot and your FE showing you the damage. Also, if there's a delay in those upload/download phases, there's also likely a delay in the position updates of each of your planes, making the difference between where the two of you see each other larger.
All other airplanes' bullets on your screen are mere approximations. About all they tell you is the general direction of their fire.
Collisions are simply calculated on your FE. Wherever your FE puts his plane, if you intersect with it, it will cause you damage. Any other way of doing it means you can't trust what you see and will run into situations where either you see yourself go through an enemy plane and take no damage, or you see yourself pass by an enemy plane without touching it and magically take damage. Both of which options are poo.
The buff thing is probably the single greatest issue with it, but frankly, it's easier to shoot the buff down with guns than to try to drag your invisible trail plane through him.
Wiley.