Clientside hit detection opens a bit of a scary can of worms for squadwars, I don't mind the idea but due to some of the quirks with some of the lag bugs clientside hit detection actually would seriously put a laggy player at a massive advantage.
Thaeris;
Again; FS2 is completely playable at about 200 ping, a local 56k connection (local meaning; national european sized countries) would register within this range to another 56k host.
A local (again, national), 1.5mbit host equates to anything between 10 and 80 ping, which is very very difficult to tell whether there is any actual lag or not.
A British 1.5mbit host to western america is about 150-200 ping, where people less able to cope will start finding problems.
To austrialia, probably close to 300, 400 ping.
the exaggerations of a great many people about the netcode really irks me.
For something like tach, or a FPS of the day (looking at you tribes) with many many players, no, FS2s netcode would not have been agreeable, however, considering the PXO community survived for 4 years? 5? with no memorable lag complaints for a patch on the network code - I personally think you are one of those crying about nothing.
Sure - compared to modern day games there is a massive difference, and sure, there is massive room for improvement, but honestly, having played this game for over 2 years on a 33.6k modem, and, normally for most of that on a .5mbit cable host in HAWAII, I honestly think most people can STFU. Simply in terms of global networking FS2's latency has improved and honestly so long as you get over your stupid predisposition about where **** should be instead of actually thinking about where it is the lag _doesn't_ effect you.
There is no "host advantage" (well....with two notable exceptions, hosts are the only ones that can /effectively/ shoot down bombs (I can sometimes on american hosts..most of the time on european hosts.. but no one else seems to be able to, and for me it's basically only because I move into a position where I'm actually shooting down the bombs path, if it's arcing I can't hit it at all)), and debris/spiny bits on ships don't work client side at all... debris is on the host and is invisible to the clients, clients debris is not on the host and intangible.
Other than that, in terms of **** moving around, and being hit by projectiles, is it so damn hard to think "well actually, where will this ship be in .2 seconds time?" - or if your ping is less than that, unless you're aiming at a subsystem on a fighter you just don't need to care.
to quote the second link on chiefs' post;
Why does it feel so smooth on my client even with high ping?
If you have played on a server with very high ping you feel that the weapons still are dead instant, when you hit that fire button the weapon reacts immediately and is being fired. In the new engine much of the multiplayer information is calculated on the client for visual effects. The client estimates were players are, it adds blood when you hit and also adds those bullet holes and marks on walls. But those are not true, they are only estimations and you never know if they are real. Only the server knows, and when you receive the correct update from the server the player that you aimed at will eventually die. And then you know for sure.
FS is the same.
Really, exactly the same.
While I do agree that something needs to be done to see if we can improve it (naturally, improvement is always good), the people who complain about it right now, are honestly just whining of the sake of it, and it grates on me because it puts people who would other wise have a fine time in multi, off playing it.
No, the netcode isn't perfect, but it's far from unplayable, so stop suggesting it is.