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Blacklight: Retribution |OT| Bokeh Dreams & Hardsuit Fantasies
- Thread starter Tokubetsu
- Start date
Play on proving grounds. Steal weapons from dead enemies. After just a few games you can rent all the cool shit you want. Hardsuits don't care about your awesome rifle
I certainly think it's not 100% balanced, but I don't think my standard issue rifle is that much worse than some other guys pimped SMG. He loses a lot of range. The only thing I want is a red dot or some other scope...
Tokubetsu
Member
Play on proving grounds. Steal weapons from dead enemies. After just a few games you can rent all the cool shit you want. Hardsuits don't care about your awesome rifle
I certainly think it's not 100% balanced, but I don't think my standard issue rifle is that much worse than some other guys pimped SMG. He loses a lot of range. The only thing I want is a red dot or some other scope...
Yea, it's sort of an obtuse system and not very noob friendly at all but you can totally rock level 10+ guys when beginner gear. The biggest problem are dudes with a ton of armor. They just simply outlast you in firefights, it can be rough.
catapult37
Member
came for the bokeh. where's the bokeh?
I've been playing the game for a couple weeks and really like it but there are some flaws in a variety of areas. I'll list some pros/cons
Pros
Graphics: For a free to play game the graphics are surprisingly good. Being Unreal Engine 3 this is somewhat to be expected. The game is very presentable with the maps and models looking good and having a degree of variety.
Item system: This is where the game excels. You get to customize your character with helmet, torso, and leg armor which changes up your speed, HP, stamina, HRV recharge speed, headshot damage reduction, and equipment slots. You then get to select up to five pieces of equipment with one being a tactical item (heal injector, revive shot, cloak, etc etc) and the other four being melee weapons, grenades (frag, HE, EMP, shock, digi, and toxic), and mines. Finally you get a primary and secondary weapon and get to customize barrel, muzzle, stock, magazine, and scope plus color and tags. This leads to a great deal of available weapon tweaks with every piece usually having pros and cons. Do you want a assault rifle with high damage and range with incendiary ammo at the expense of high spread or do you go for a much more stable platform with lower damage and perhaps EMP ammo for slowing hardsuits?
HRV vision: The importance of this tool cannot be underestimated. It is the single biggest addition this game contributes to the genre and allows for a much greater awareness of the battlefield. If properly used it allows you to better plan an assault or counter one, recognize a flanking opportunity or again counter it, and identify dangers. Failure to use it will get you killed by someone who does take advantage.
Mixed
Map design: The game has a good variety of maps but there are a few that have areas that need to be tweaked and have more routes through. Some of them have areas that are a bit too advantageous in certain game modes like domination or king of the hill. There is a map in a sort of china town where the first king of the hill spawn is put on the roof of a tent market. A team can make capture progress while hiding in a a second level stall that cannot be shot through from the three sniper perches in sight of the rest of the area or even by someone standing on the point. You have to go up and around or lob a grenade in from a corner on the bottom level.
Weapon types: Like in other shooters there are some weapon types that are superior to others either because their own stats are too powerful or the stats on the other type are underpowered. Assault rifles and SMGs are an example of the latter. Assault rifles can easily be built to have absurdly low spread and very manageable recoil. SMGs on the other hand have absurd spread values with both hipfire and aiming and the recoil statistic, despite being lower than assault rifles, results in less manageable shots because you have to deal with more horizontal recoil than AR's have. The times I've seen ARs outshoot SMGs at close range is rather silly. But for the most part the balance is good for other weapon types.
Cons
Underused ammo types: A recent patch did a small amount of tweaking to address this but it still has a ways to go. As it stands the elemental ammo types aside from incendiary are underused because of how they're designed. Normal ammo does the full damage listed in the weapon statistics, incendiary deals 70% of listed up front then 40% over time, with weapons that do low damage dealing the DoT faster and high damage weapons (like sniper rifles) having a slower DoT. Toxic ammo is like 60/50% over 10 seconds and partially clouds enemy vision as well as dealing even more damage to people infected previously. EMP ammo is 90%+20% against hardsuits, turrets, etc etc. Unfortunately hardsuits have 15,000 HP so unless you're hitting their weakpoints, and even then that 10% extra damage isn't going to add up to something meaningful, and while EMP ammo does slow the turn speed of a hardsuit it is rare that you'll be in an area open enough to take advantage or be able to corner a suit without his team killing you. And this doesn't even take into account depot items like armor stingers, flamethrowers, and man-portable railguns which are many times better at taking on hardsuits. Most ammo types, aside from incendiary, are barely used because of these facts. Statistically it is far more advantageous to bring normal ammo for most weapons since usually it will allow you to finish a fight still alive as long as you have good aim where elemental ammo will usually kill a target -after- he kills you, resulting in a simple kill trade.
Armor and equipment separate from weapon loudout: By level 5 you get two loadout slots, with the option of getting up to three more (with a cash shop purchase). These loadout slots, however, are just for primary and secondary weapons, not for armor and equipment, so you can't have one loadout slot be an ultra-speedy armor set with a fast SMG and a second loadout slot be a suit of tank armor with a mid range assault rifle.
Pros
Graphics: For a free to play game the graphics are surprisingly good. Being Unreal Engine 3 this is somewhat to be expected. The game is very presentable with the maps and models looking good and having a degree of variety.
Item system: This is where the game excels. You get to customize your character with helmet, torso, and leg armor which changes up your speed, HP, stamina, HRV recharge speed, headshot damage reduction, and equipment slots. You then get to select up to five pieces of equipment with one being a tactical item (heal injector, revive shot, cloak, etc etc) and the other four being melee weapons, grenades (frag, HE, EMP, shock, digi, and toxic), and mines. Finally you get a primary and secondary weapon and get to customize barrel, muzzle, stock, magazine, and scope plus color and tags. This leads to a great deal of available weapon tweaks with every piece usually having pros and cons. Do you want a assault rifle with high damage and range with incendiary ammo at the expense of high spread or do you go for a much more stable platform with lower damage and perhaps EMP ammo for slowing hardsuits?
HRV vision: The importance of this tool cannot be underestimated. It is the single biggest addition this game contributes to the genre and allows for a much greater awareness of the battlefield. If properly used it allows you to better plan an assault or counter one, recognize a flanking opportunity or again counter it, and identify dangers. Failure to use it will get you killed by someone who does take advantage.
Mixed
Map design: The game has a good variety of maps but there are a few that have areas that need to be tweaked and have more routes through. Some of them have areas that are a bit too advantageous in certain game modes like domination or king of the hill. There is a map in a sort of china town where the first king of the hill spawn is put on the roof of a tent market. A team can make capture progress while hiding in a a second level stall that cannot be shot through from the three sniper perches in sight of the rest of the area or even by someone standing on the point. You have to go up and around or lob a grenade in from a corner on the bottom level.
Weapon types: Like in other shooters there are some weapon types that are superior to others either because their own stats are too powerful or the stats on the other type are underpowered. Assault rifles and SMGs are an example of the latter. Assault rifles can easily be built to have absurdly low spread and very manageable recoil. SMGs on the other hand have absurd spread values with both hipfire and aiming and the recoil statistic, despite being lower than assault rifles, results in less manageable shots because you have to deal with more horizontal recoil than AR's have. The times I've seen ARs outshoot SMGs at close range is rather silly. But for the most part the balance is good for other weapon types.
Cons
Underused ammo types: A recent patch did a small amount of tweaking to address this but it still has a ways to go. As it stands the elemental ammo types aside from incendiary are underused because of how they're designed. Normal ammo does the full damage listed in the weapon statistics, incendiary deals 70% of listed up front then 40% over time, with weapons that do low damage dealing the DoT faster and high damage weapons (like sniper rifles) having a slower DoT. Toxic ammo is like 60/50% over 10 seconds and partially clouds enemy vision as well as dealing even more damage to people infected previously. EMP ammo is 90%+20% against hardsuits, turrets, etc etc. Unfortunately hardsuits have 15,000 HP so unless you're hitting their weakpoints, and even then that 10% extra damage isn't going to add up to something meaningful, and while EMP ammo does slow the turn speed of a hardsuit it is rare that you'll be in an area open enough to take advantage or be able to corner a suit without his team killing you. And this doesn't even take into account depot items like armor stingers, flamethrowers, and man-portable railguns which are many times better at taking on hardsuits. Most ammo types, aside from incendiary, are barely used because of these facts. Statistically it is far more advantageous to bring normal ammo for most weapons since usually it will allow you to finish a fight still alive as long as you have good aim where elemental ammo will usually kill a target -after- he kills you, resulting in a simple kill trade.
Armor and equipment separate from weapon loudout: By level 5 you get two loadout slots, with the option of getting up to three more (with a cash shop purchase). These loadout slots, however, are just for primary and secondary weapons, not for armor and equipment, so you can't have one loadout slot be an ultra-speedy armor set with a fast SMG and a second loadout slot be a suit of tank armor with a mid range assault rifle.
Woo-Fu
Banned
Been having fun with this the past couple days. It is a nice change of pace from just about everything else I play. It will never be my main game but definitely will be something I spend a few hours with each week.
Very fast-paced and the built-in wallhack means there is very little camping, well, effective camping.
Item customization appears fairly complex but in practice it isn't. Sure, there may be 10 different barrels you could use on that gun but in practice there are only a couple you would use.
Maps are good, very few deadends, plenty of verticality, lots of cover, most rooms or areas have at least 2 access points, often more.
The overall presentation is consistent, does a good job of building atmosphere and the music fits very well to the atmosphere.
I tweaked a build today for max endurance/speed and then ran around with a knife backstabbing people, it was a hoot. 1-hit kill if you hit them in the head.
Oh, and plenty of variety in the game modes. There is something here for everybody, at least everybody who likes team FPS games.
Very fast-paced and the built-in wallhack means there is very little camping, well, effective camping.
Item customization appears fairly complex but in practice it isn't. Sure, there may be 10 different barrels you could use on that gun but in practice there are only a couple you would use.
Maps are good, very few deadends, plenty of verticality, lots of cover, most rooms or areas have at least 2 access points, often more.
The overall presentation is consistent, does a good job of building atmosphere and the music fits very well to the atmosphere.
I tweaked a build today for max endurance/speed and then ran around with a knife backstabbing people, it was a hoot.
1-hit kill if you hit them in the head.Oh, and plenty of variety in the game modes. There is something here for everybody, at least everybody who likes team FPS games.
That's too bad. I like how the game controls. For me it certainly feels on point.
AwesomeSauce
MagsMoonshine
element
Member
Just released this weeks patch video. This week we focused on code fixes, and pretty sure we knocked out a major crash when you are in the interface.
We also answer questions left in the YouTube comments.
Now go watch it! Blacklight Retribution Patch Minute 0.963
We also answer questions left in the YouTube comments.
Now go watch it! Blacklight Retribution Patch Minute 0.963
Tokubetsu
Member
Too bad I don't have YT comments on =O
Tokubetsu
Member
You can grab the torrent version which doesn't do this IIRC. Which was brought up already.
I think we can establish Pando Media Booster does more harm than good. Even if its a non-issue to some people, its the equivalent of installing malware to alot people. This can translate to lost revenue due to people being put off the game.
It really isn't worth the hassle just to save yourselfs afew dollars on bandwidth costs. I implore Zombie Studios to get rid of it and build some trust with people.
Tokubetsu
Member
You can. Should be listed under uninstall programs.
element
Member
We are telling fans to download the torrent. While not the best solution (some people don't like torrents), it is the clean installer. No additional software is included or needed to run Blacklight.
If you did download using the Pando Downloader, you can simply just uninstall it once you have downloaded the Blacklight installer.
sprague1980
Neo Member
Awesome! Glad you are having fun.
sprague1980
Neo Member
Shouldn't be any performance changes in the patch...are your video settings different than normal?
MrCompletely
Member
Spent much of the weekend playing this game. I think it's fantastic! The gunplay is spot on, guns feel great. It's easy to be competitive without having to 'buy' or 'rent' too much equipment, and even so, it's easy to start building a load-out after only a few rounds. The presentation is ultra slick and high quality. It also runs great on my lower end machine. There's a good variety of modes and it's great that there are servers that cater to new players.
It's a bit tough to navigate around the menus and somethings simply aren't explained. For example, can I get an additional loadout slot with GP somehow? Outside of premium content, is the "receiver" gun component the only way to differentiate the class of gun?
Also, would love a more tactical, less chaotic mode.
It's a bit tough to navigate around the menus and somethings simply aren't explained. For example, can I get an additional loadout slot with GP somehow? Outside of premium content, is the "receiver" gun component the only way to differentiate the class of gun?
Also, would love a more tactical, less chaotic mode.
sprague1980
Neo Member
Awesome!
You get another loadout at level 5 other than that you can get more with Zen.
Not sure what you mean by "Outside of premium content, is the "receiver" gun component the only way to differentiate the class of gun?" but changing the reciever will change the class of the gun. You can completely customize your gun (other than camo) or use other gun "classes" without Zen.
Tokubetsu
Member
They're the same, everything is just running at a really low FPS now. I just tried again, seems like everytime I close the client now too, it just crashes instead of closing. I'm gonna reboot my comp in a bit, see if it helps. Working on a PS project atm though.
Okay, restart fixed it.
sprague1980
Neo Member
Great!
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
Only played one game, seems pretty cool. Little laggy, but that may have been that game. My team won and I was the second highest player, so that was an awesome start. Bitches drop quick if you shoot them in the face it turns out. Menus are a little overwhelming as far as equiping shit.
CrazedProfessional
Member
Game has aimbots already, abandon ship.
Met one already but the people on the server talked him into leaving lol
Edit: fixed errors, damn phone
CrazedProfessional
Member
It's so obvious too, you get the jump on a guy and his torso just autoclips around and shoots you in the head.
No one in this game knows how to use the kick function :|
No one in this game knows how to use the kick function :|
element
Member
Report them.
CrazedProfessional
Member
I did. The point is why isn't punkbuster banning them?
Punkbuster isn't the fastest of AntiCheat tools. Nor the best :/
Anyone got an answer to my question one post up?
sprague1980
Neo Member
you can change the channel by typing /t your message
next time you talk it will also be in team
/l to go back to lobby
in the chat panel you can type /help to see all the cmds
Reached lvl10 yesterday and i'm still having a really good time. I have an assault rifle and SMG combo in my 2 loadouts but neither of them causes as much destruction as the Revolver!
I've encountered 1 guy that obviously used an aimbot but he quit after one round of the chatt asking him to leave.
I've encountered 1 guy that obviously used an aimbot but he quit after one round of the chatt asking him to leave.
sprague1980
Neo Member
Oh man just went 35-0 in a game and was called cheater
People on proving grounds more often than not do not know how to counter a hardsuit. (or call in their own for that matter)
Wow Nice....well that's why we have training. If they skip it I guess that is their fault.
Yeah I know. The turtorial does the job pretty well, although I would include the info that a hardsuit has a weakpoint and flamethrowers kill the person inside the hardsuit. That's something I found out rather late.
Any news on Netwar and Siege mode coming?
sprague1980
Neo Member
Couple new things going on:
New Premades and Weapon Parts added!
http://blacklight.perfectworld.com/news/?p=527341
Sale! Metallic Weapon Camos and Weapon Tags!
http://blacklight.perfectworld.com/news/?p=523771
Also 20% bonus GP for playing between 5/9 and 5/15!
So get your GP on!
New Premades and Weapon Parts added!
http://blacklight.perfectworld.com/news/?p=527341
Sale! Metallic Weapon Camos and Weapon Tags!
http://blacklight.perfectworld.com/news/?p=523771
Also 20% bonus GP for playing between 5/9 and 5/15!
So get your GP on!
I can't really give it attention if there is no Australia/Oceanic servers.
So is this meeting their expectations in terms of player count or money? I just played it last night for the first time since the first closed beta and loved it even more so the break from it made it feel refreshing again.
The gameplay is good but the F2P model gets a little annoying in terms of pricing and basically just renting most things...lol. The graphics for a F2P game are what blow me away. To have THAT many features when most F2P games don't look so great due to trying to be accessible, but this and Tribes have ushered in a new era of F2P gaming and might help PC gaming out a bit.
I just wonder how this is doing because it does deserve success for making a quality game. Sure, there's problems but it's still a lot of fun. Tribes' F2P model is bloody genius though...lol
The gameplay is good but the F2P model gets a little annoying in terms of pricing and basically just renting most things...lol. The graphics for a F2P game are what blow me away. To have THAT many features when most F2P games don't look so great due to trying to be accessible, but this and Tribes have ushered in a new era of F2P gaming and might help PC gaming out a bit.
I just wonder how this is doing because it does deserve success for making a quality game. Sure, there's problems but it's still a lot of fun. Tribes' F2P model is bloody genius though...lol
Phoenixazure
Member
Just tried out the game today and I like it so far. Its a nice mix of COD and that HL2 mod Neotokyo. I'm curious if there's anyone that plays it consistently to roll out with.
Also, how do you take down those power suits, its hard to flank these guys and they seem to take non stop punishment.
Also, how do you take down those power suits, its hard to flank these guys and they seem to take non stop punishment.
Any word on this? ETA?
Phoenixazure
Member
Also it looks like its coming to steam?
So, I'm not sure how active Gaffers are as far as this game, but I got this promo code for some in-game items bundled with my new G9X. Probably don't have time to really get into another F2P besides good ole TF2, so I'll leave it here for someone else to make use of.
Quote to reveal --> <--
- A36 Brimstone Airstrike [perma]
- metallic black weapon camo [30 days]
- shotgun secondary weapon [30 days]
(I found the concept of non-permanent items a little odd, probably part of the reason I'm not really keen on trying the game.)
Quote to reveal --> <--
- A36 Brimstone Airstrike [perma]
- metallic black weapon camo [30 days]
- shotgun secondary weapon [30 days]
(I found the concept of non-permanent items a little odd, probably part of the reason I'm not really keen on trying the game.)