It seems that people on this reddit are finally realizing that, when fired on full auto, an AR (meaning non-designated marksman rifles) does not vibrate everywhere and snap your neck in half in an uncontrollable vibrator fest in real life. Now, I want to remind everyone who is already running down to the comment section to smash their faces into the keyboard "ITS NOT REAL LIFE ITS A VIDGEO GAME REEEEEEEEEE" Nikita and BSG has stated multiple times "As realistic as playable." Obviously, there have been some changes along the way (the medical system) that stray from that realism aspect, but its important to discuss these things so we can understand where and why the needle should be dropped on the realism-fantasy scale.
Every single Assault Rifle (colloquially speaking) designed since the AK-74, that is currently in the game, has been designed with the stated intent of "easily controllable while being fired on full auto" (or some facsimile thereof). That is also a design requirement of all contemporary munitions that would fall into this caliber, or similar (even those designated as intermediate calibers such as 6.8). This, obviously, is excluding designated marksman rifles. Now, does this mean in a real life combat situation you would proceed to mag dump in almost any circumstance? No! Even though a properly kitted m4a1 has incredible tight groupings out to 50ms (and if you're really skilled 100ms) where you could dump a 30 Round mag into center mass just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.
In real life there's a numerous amount of factors that goes into "why you never full auto," but NONE of them have to do with the weapons capabilities at tight groupings. They are, namely: logistics and accuracy.
Logistics is easier to break down, so lets start there. Weight is a massive concern when it comes to deploying infantryman. Firstly, there's just the flat out COST ratio that goes up exponentially when factoring in weight to fuel expenditure that we won't even touch, but more importantly is the weight a soldier can carry everywhere. To the surprise of only the mentally braindead: ammo, and their magazines (or clips hue hue), weigh something. Every extra bullet, every extra magazine, is taking up the capacity of something probably more important. Not only that, it also costs money, and so every soldier is deployed with the minimum that an army can get away with or minimum expenditure necessary. Since these limitations are necessary, your average soldier will often be in the field, for days if not weeks, with ONLY this amount of ammo. Not only that, even if they were to run out of ammo and be relatively close to somewhere that could resupply them it would still mean someone would have to deliver those supplies when they could be doing something else. In essence, this is the number one reason every single military in the world trains their soldiers to place their shots accurately and not hold down the trigger in their best John Wayne imitation.
Now lets get into accuracy. The most accurate way to fire a rifle is to tap fire it, followed by bursting, then full auto. Short controlled bursts are, typically, going to be the way most guns are fired due to a wide variety of reasons from typical engagement distance being at 100ms or more to how there are SO MANY ENVIROMENTAL FACTORS that can effect a single round. Remember, we're discussing ARs (colloquially), not designated marksman rifles, so they aren't exactly known for needle point accuracy. Additionally, due to power loss over distance a single round against modern militaries usually won't get the job done. If you hit a plate at 100ms or more they won't even notice, and if you don't hit anywhere critical they also probably won't notice. So burst firing will, statistically speaking, drastically increase the percent chance of landing at least one good hit (usually more) and disabling or killing a target. But, remember this isn't "if you had a choice you would always" because if you had the ability to land a one tap you'd just do this, this is taking into account the probability of partial obfuscation of the target which is what happens most of the time. People aren't trained "One shot, one kill" for no reason (even if the reason is largely logistical). Essentially: when dealing with numerous factors bursting, when dealing with limited factors tapping.
Now, there's a further addendum to accuracy that needs to be addressed: what happens if you miss? This is an oft overlooked fact that drives a major part of WHY you wouldn't use full auto. If you miss your mag dump and they can see you you're almost CERTAINLY dead, and, even if they DON'T see you, since you just very loudly announced your location by holding down the trigger for a full 2 seconds they almost certainly know exactly where you are. Soldiers are trained to fight in a way that best helps them survive, and part of that training understands that people don't always hit what they're aiming at. If you miss the first bullet out of your mag, congratulations you have 29 more bullets to disable your target. If you miss 30? You're probably screwed. And not ONLY that, you probably also screwed your buddies who are also probably very close to you.
So when people say "Full Auto is useless" (in real life) they aren't discussing "Guns aren't controllable enough to be fired on full auto," they're discussing that there's SO MANY FACTORS that make it impractical. Its literally talking at cross purposes, its not even the same conversation that people are trying to have on the subject. One person is say what the gun can do and another person is discussing why its impractical in real life circumstances.
So when you strike up a conversation with someone in the comment section about full auto being useless try to clarify their talking points rather than telling them how wrong they are.
As far as how this all relates to Tarkov? Well I'm GLAD you asked. Full auto should be easily controllable on guns that are controllable in real life because the factors that are going to add logistical limitations to this aren't in the game yet, namely: open world. The reason why everyone mag dumps has to do with the biggest factor: the raid is only 20-30 minutes long and I can leave when I want to get more ammo. When you suddenly have to cross Customs, Shoreline, Lighthouse, and then BACK again before you can get more ammo people are suddenly going to play A LOT more conservatively with their ammo. Food for thought.
