IIRC rift have a zero tolerance policy to dry firing in the safezone, anyone caught doing it is immediately sent home. While this may seem a bit harsh it only takes one person to accidentally leave 'one up the spout' for someone to have a very bad day
as a regular player at RIFT sites, i can report that they do indeed have that rule in place, and they also enforce "mags out, weapons clear" before entering the safezone. players have to dry fire 3 times in front of marshal before allowed to enter the safezone.
this probably isn't going to come as a great revelation to most but i figured it's an interesting story that maybe merits use as a means of reminding people about the greatest of airsoft sins- the non hit taker.
so to preface this we all know the cry, "call yer [redacted] hits you [redacted]", a yell of frustration at the perceived sin of a player breaking the honesty on which our game is based. it's a trap we've all fallen into and i won't deny having fallen for it many times myself.
of course the key word there is "perceived", to many the issue of crying foul is just as egregious as cheating in the first place, no doubt born from having been on the receiving end of such accusations and knowing that the supposed "hit" flew wide (or in my case dropped short).
oh i have been on the recieving end of those calls all too often. nearly always from players whos shots are falling short, and a couple that flew wide.
worst one was a couple of weeks ago. i was playing at a site and defending the flag at a pumphouse building, and was inside a room where the window looking in the direction of the enemy spawn is up high, and has steps built up in front of it to allow people to step up to the window to fire, and then step down or duck either side of the window to avoid return fire, all while being inside a darkened room. ricochets and weapon hits don't count. so im stood by the window and firing at enemies as they approach and i have incoming fire, so im popping up, firing a burst, then ducking back into cover. enemy fire is mostly dropping short, and there are only a few shots that do manage to reach my position, but are visibly ricocheting off the window or the sandbags on the window sill, yet i still have several of the enemy team shouting at me to "take your f*****g hits"...
fortunately for me, the head marshal is outside the building while patroling the game area, and shouts that hes watching their shots fall short, and verifies that the few shots that did make it to my position were ricocheting around the small window and not hitting me directly.
one player claimed that hes watching his tracer bbs bounce off me, and had to be corrected that his shot trajectories were hitting the sandbags first, and then bouncing up into the room, and not only that, but i wasnt even stood at the window when he fired at me... because the marshal saw me through the doorway, in cover below the window level reloading my P90, so there was no way he was watching tracers bounce off me.
still... i just shrugged it off that they were simply pissed off that i had such a good position, that i was able to hold the pumphouse solo for around 30 mins and stop them from capturing the flag... and that i had a killstreak long enough that if it were call of duty i could have called in a nuke =P
Absolutely, the other fun fallacy is when folk seem to assume that because you're reaching out to their position that their own rounds are doing the same.
Which is as ridiculous as the opposite trope of assuming every gun with a scope is a sniper and therefore shoots further.
this... very much this.