It seems like there are two types of lag.
1. Generic lag for all caused by server reaction time. This you've been addressing by finding faster servers.
2. Individual lag caused by slow connection speed of a particular device. As you say, you can't fix it.

I started to think, if you can't fix 2, then what is the best way to deal with it?

Assumption about how the game works: Each device calculates its new xyz coordinates and xyz velocities, and transmits the parameters at set time intervals to the server, which then broadcasts them to the other devices in the game. Each device then does calculations to predict where the other devices will be, to cover the time until they get a new update of positions. The jumpy effect we see is caused by a longer than normal time period between between a lagging devices transmittions, causing a large discrepancy between predicted data and the new data when it finally arrives

Possible stratagy: Every game has an extra player, a non active dummy player, possibly part of the server. This dummy player accepts the broadcasts, and does the prediction calculations like the other devices. The broadcasts back to each device contains both the other devices positions and where that device is predicted to be.
When a device recieves the dummies prediction where it is expected to be, it compares the parameters to its own values. If the discrepancy is greater than a certain margin, (than a sensible difference expected under normal manouvering), it corrects its own parameters to match the dummies predictions.(or maybe 1/2 way in between), and carries on. Thus if one device is lagging badly, to the other devices its new position is where they predicted it would be, the lagger doesn't jump. The lagger is the one that experiences jumpy motion, which is fairer, seeing he is causing it. A warning message can appear telling him he is lagging and suggest trying different server, and because he is the one experiencing the jumpy behaviour he has incentive to change.

Downside: More lines of code in the device app.

This is all guesswork, maybe my understanding is way off the mark, maybe your doing something like this already....

this has been done since version 1
and... I removed the message to switch servers because people were complaining massively about it. They didn't care to know they were lagging, they still wanted to play on that server... and lag everyone else btw.

Cool.

Suggest you put the message back.
It was useful, you don't always get told by the others in the game that it is you who is the one that is lagging.

If the game code is already optimised to minimize effects of lag, maybe improve what the players can do to self regulate it. Empower the players to be proactive instead of powerless, becoming frustrated.

1. On the menu where we choose a server/zone, Is the server speed bar showing that servers reaction time to everyone, or the lag time for me personally? Either way it seems to be a coarse indicator.
Maybe we could get a number instead that it is clear it represents our personal "ping" time to that server. A dynamic number would allow us to see how it is varying.

2. In game, if the "players scores" menu also included each players ping number, the players can quickly identify who is causing the lag, and (in most cases !) will do something positive about it.
The number could even appear dynamically as part of the ingame id tag above each plane. That would trigger very fast player policing !

3. Could even have an ingame voting system, so that if all players agree, they can eject a lagger that refuses to leave.

ping number, per se, isnt a reliable number to measure one`s conn speed. It would be necessary to take an average ping from, say, the last hour...

Sincerely, I strongly believe that people should learn to live with lag. Zup knows this is an issue, we know he spend time and effort to minimize it, and we all know that there is no way to fix this lag.

Lag is like hair: we shouldn`t have hair (specially around some shady areas of our body), but we learned to live with it, huh?

(And no, Rudolf, no brazilian-wax-jokes for now)

zuperman wrote: this has been done since version 1
and... I removed the message to switch servers because people were complaining massively about it. They didn't care to know they were lagging, they still wanted to play on that server... and lag everyone else btw.

I think the major complaint about that message was that it covered most of the screen during play.... would it be possible to put it back but just somewhere off to one side or in the chat... in RED!!

then maybe after a minute or two 'the Boot'...that way one could at least know that they were lagging and say hi and bye, leave that round and re-try...

.

Interesting topic. What lag is the game normally dealing with?
Does anyone know what the typical expected transition time for internet data across the world?

For example, if I in the South Pacific am watching a live internet broadcast of Man United playing Barcelona, how much time am I behind the game?

What sort of time difference does it make if I choose to play on the Europe server instead of the East Asia or West Americas server?

And what sort of time delays for a poor data connection, say out from Outer Mongolia?