4Game

I've been thinking about recoil and trying to discover for myself which guns have low recoil but I ran into this problem where it's difficult to predict how the gun will handle without actually buying it and modding it. Since I'm no chad and pretty poor I can't just buy one of each gun and mod it. I also only have access to LL3. So I need some way to design a gun and know if it's going to handle decently. Basically I want to know how much it's going to kick in the first few shots and if it's going to stay on target. The recoil stats shown in-game aren't sufficient. Everyone knows that the vertical recoil number isn't consistent but maybe there is a number we can derive from the stats we see that will be consistent?

I found this video and things started to click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dxYfYEiytI
When you combine this with the video posted last week we can find the solution: https://www.reddit.com/r/EscapefromTarkov/comments/ulk1wz/an_interesting_breakdown_of_tarkovs_recoil/

If we consider RPM and factor it into vertical recoil we can derive a new recoil number that is far more consistent at predicting handling. Not sure what to call this but it's basically the net impulse of the gun over 100ms. Let's assume that the vertical recoil stat in game is some measurement of the impulse on the gun per bullet that causes the gun to kick upwards. Then the formula for the net impulse for a gun firing full auto would be something like:

Net Impulse = Vert Recoil * RPM

But of course that results in some big numbers that are harder to compare so we might as well just reduce this to rounds per 100ms:

Net Impulse = Vert Recoil * (RPM / 600)

Take the first video for example. At first I was astonished that the MK12 was 76 recoil but was shooting like the 29 recoil Vector but when you do the math you get:

MK12, 600 RPM, 76 recoil
76 * (600 / 600) = 76

Vector, 1100 RPM, 29 recoil
29 * (1100 / 600) = 53

Which still seems like a big difference that doesn't appear in the video. Well the same video also mentions that recoil was increased by 20 across the board but the numbers shown stayed the same. So 76 becomes 96 and 29 becomes 49. With those new numbers the results start to look more promising:

MK12, 600 RPM, 76 recoil
96 * (600 / 600) = 96

Vector, 1100 RPM, 29 recoil
49 * (1100 / 600) = 90

If you look closely in the video you'll note that both these guns shoot a little high even after the PMC mitigates the first bit of kick. The guns in the video with even better recoil show the calculation seems to be accurate. The Mutant seemed to stay on target better but not significantly better and it comes out to 81 net impulse. The 74N is calculated to be the lowest recoil in that video at 65 net impulse but it's hard to tell if it's actually handling better or not. One problem with this video is that it's hard to tell if he is compensating manually for the recoil or not. It does seem to settle into a smaller circle than the other guns and doesn't have nearly the same kick (first bullets) as the MK12 does.

Also keep in mind we can't see any information about the rounds used in the video and they can make a big difference in these numbers as well.

What do you think? Do these numbers line up with your experiences? What guns do you have and do the numbers make sense for them? Generally I hope to see that all guns follow this pattern and with a calculated net impulse I expect to see that guns in the 90 or less range have "good recoil" and less than 60 they have "great" recoil.

Here is another video I just found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mpMdhk9xgA
Jump to 10:30 or so.
The gun is calculated at 53 net impulse. It feels much much better than the 74N at 65 net impulse but again it's hard to say how much the player is compensating for the recoil.