Why is internet play so much worse than LAN play?
To coin a term, What You See Is NOT What You Get in online Descent3. The way the client and server interact using the D3 network code under internet conditions is far from perfect. Strange phenomena can result, including being killed instantly, being killed by invisible weapons, ships skipping around at deceiving velocities, ships shooting rapidly, and ships not taking damage. Playing online is a complicated process, requiring that packets be sent between the server and every player in the game. The server runs the game, and what happens there dictates where ships and weapon shots actually are. Unfortunately, information can be lost or delayed between the server and the players, so the players may not see things on their screen as they are actually happening on the server – and the server IS the game. So sometimes WYSInotWYG, and the results can look awfully strange to the players.
