Blacklight Retribution F2P Catch-All

Machinima put this up as an intro/how to get started type of thing:

MannishBoy wrote:

I keep meaning to check back in and see what they changed, but I haven't played in awhile. I kind of didn't like the gun feel and the crazy headshot multiplers, but I think they've changed some stuff around (including player starting health).

EDIT: Loaded it up and played a round of DM. Looks like they may have finally fixed my freezes that were happening in the menus. Not sure. So I might play it occasionally.

I just have more fun in stuff like Tribes and Gotham City Imposters. Maybe if I start renting guns in BLR I'll find something that fits a bit better.

I played a few rounds and it didn't do much for me. Tribes is the only game that has scratched my shooter itch. And I have BF3 for when I want a military shooter. BLR is a well-made, deep F2P game, but it isn't for me.

I'm in the process of updating the game (the whole thing apparently, ugh), but I'll be giving it a shot and reporting back.

Swarfigo wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

I keep meaning to check back in and see what they changed, but I haven't played in awhile. I kind of didn't like the gun feel and the crazy headshot multiplers, but I think they've changed some stuff around (including player starting health).

EDIT: Loaded it up and played a round of DM. Looks like they may have finally fixed my freezes that were happening in the menus. Not sure. So I might play it occasionally.

I just have more fun in stuff like Tribes and Gotham City Imposters. Maybe if I start renting guns in BLR I'll find something that fits a bit better.

I played a few rounds and it didn't do much for me. Tribes is the only game that has scratched my shooter itch. And I have BF3 for when I want a military shooter. BLR is a well-made, deep F2P game, but it isn't for me.

This has been my overall impression, too. Feels like a solid game when I have played, but it just feels like it's lacking that special something that makes me want to play more.

I think part of it is that with all the gun and kit options, I feel paralyzed by choices. Especially if I was going to spend $5-$10 to outfit a gun or something.

But for the feel of the game in general, it's kind of like back in the Quake vs Unreal days. I could occasionally have fun with Unreal games, but the feel of Quake was just so much more too my taste that Unreal felt like I was playing left handed or something.

That's my problem too. I actually really like the gameplay but the level of customisation is overwhelming and not at all intuitive to figure out. There's a million options and almost anything can be bought either as a temporary or permanent unlock. But the permanent unlocks are so expensive that it will take forever to earn even 1 unless you spend real money. I'm debating buying like $20 worth of Zen just to see how the experience changes if I do. I will definitely take Tribes over this any day but I could see it being a good secondary option if I can find a good mix of equipment.

So, I played around with the game a bit and unlike you guys I like the customization, but don't particularly care for the feel of the shooting. I need to try out some of the other guns that were loaned to me in that gift bag they gave at the beginning.

Also, I've been spoiled by BF3 maps. Tight, corridor shooting might take me a while to get use to.

tl;dr I need to play a bit more, but the customization is nice.

New maps, new modes, new gear. I'm back baby.

I don't really know what it is with this game that doesn't grab me. I think it's the shooting, but then I'm not sure. I think it's the overly complex gun system and the fact that unless I spend a lot of money or a lot of time, I'll never quite get a gun that feels right to me, but I'm still not sure that's it.

Every time I try to go back in, I just feel like I'd have more fun with either Tribes or BF3.

Not uninstalling it, but rarely play it.

Just played it through Steam. I like the feel of the maps, and the basic gun I had. Later I'll try the two guns I unlocked. Went through three maps, made 2nd level, and had enough money to unlock 2 new primary weapons to try next time.

Only complaint is that personally I like a little teamwork, a little chatter. Since in the CTF maps, everyone is either following their own flag, or the other guys, people do seem to head in the same direction on my team, but that's it as far as teamwork goes.

If you all already play this not through Steam, can you hook it up to Steam? Maybe if I had some GWJers to play with...

Every time I come back to this game to see how it's going, I remember how much the actual mechanics of shooting people really feels horrible.

Some of the other stuff is cool. But when the core mechanic just feels so wrong, I just can't have fun.

I don't even know what it is that I hate.

Started playing tonight (it hit Steam) and I'm having a blast. I understand having to rent or buy weapons and accessories, but putting loadout slots behind a paywall at $10 a pop (when you only get one for free) seems like a bit much.

Edit2: I unlocked another loadout slot at lvl 5. Blacklight devs really should have more information about the loadout slots, since all you can see is a paid "unlock now" option.

Edit: I'm starting to get random freezes in game. I Hope the support forums have something to say about it.

How does the login work? Does Steam simply bring up a launcher for you to use a Perfect World account on?

Tamren wrote:

How does the login work? Does Steam simply bring up a launcher for you to use a Perfect World account on?

There's a PW login after the launcher. To buy stuff, you link your PW account to your steam account through a separate process.

There isn't any way to make it fully steam integrated ala Spiral Knights?

Tamren wrote:

There isn't any way to make it fully steam integrated ala Spiral Knights?

If you mean not having to go through a login screen, I don't believe so.

so I downloaded this 2 days ago...I haven't been able to get into a game yet. every time I try to join a server it loads for a few seconds and then I end up back at the main menu for some reason. from what I can gather this is happening to a lot of people. any idea how to fix this? the in game chat is pretty worthless because its nothing but people spamming memes and other nonesense all day.

I had this happen about half the time. The two fixes I found were to try "quick joining" a game, and that only works like 1/4 of the time. What worked better was to keep hitting the refresh button after every failure to join a server, and keep clicking on one of the top three choices it gives you, in between clicking Refresh. Usually I get in within a minute, now that I just spam refresh and clicking...

Roo wrote:

I had this happen about half the time. The two fixes I found were to try "quick joining" a game, and that only works like 1/4 of the time. What worked better was to keep hitting the refresh button after every failure to join a server, and keep clicking on one of the top three choices it gives you, in between clicking Refresh. Usually I get in within a minute, now that I just spam refresh and clicking...

Yeah, the server browser and quick join are busted. I usually have to join four or five games before I can play (either the game is full, or it's a false start), but I'm chalking that up to the influx of new players from steam. They should really get their sh*t in order.

Yeah, the game was running fine back before it released on Steam. Steam release is a blessing and a curse.

I keep trying to like this game. I don't know why I don't just uninstall it.

I can't even figure out the store. There are things like premade guns and heroes that say "award" on them when you're browsing, but it doesn't tell you how you get them awarded. Is there some task I should boldly go do? Does someone bestow this guy with a square bucket on his head to me?

Then in the award item text, it will say it's also available for purchase with Zen, so that implies to me that there's some way to unlock it without actually buying it, but you know, the game doesn't tell you how. Maybe there's a gun fairy that awards valiant warriors with materiel?

Also a lot of the user made guns in the store have virtually no description other than the class of the gun and who made the gun. I'm figuring they wouldn't have been chosen to be featured by Zombie unless they were competent weapons, and since I don't know what makes a competent weapon in this game, I figured I should try renting them, but out of the 20 or so, I have no idea which one fits my game style.

Why would I even rent something that I have no idea what's it's intended strengths are? I can't tell from looking yet what attachments do what, because there's so many that are just hundreths of decimal points apart on their stats.

So after spending 5 minutes checking my mail (Love getting mail in a game. Everybody needs more email in their games, right?), then another 5 minutes trying to figure out how to get a bit better gun setup, I give up and just go shoot people for a round or two with the bone stock stuff.

I really want to like this game, but it makes it so hard to do so.

I like the style and customization of this game, but I'm not sure it's for me. It seems like a very hardcore shooter and I'm just not good at those anymore.

Not sure about most of the award stuff, but I know that the orange portal gun tag is part of some promotion to do with the Steam release, and that if you get 1000 kills before some date you get a helmet that'll match your body camo color... which really seems like it ought to be in the main game.

Yeah, it's the continual problem with this game. There's a lot of good going on here, but the unlocks and the way you pay for them seem just a bit too high.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Not sure about most of the award stuff, but I know that the orange portal gun tag is part of some promotion to do with the Steam release

I figured out the Portal tag. It's a limited time thing that costs 1337 GP to buy. Gun tags give you some kind of minor buff for the most part. I think I'm using a bulldozer for some reason.

In the end, I rented "The Regulator", which seems to be a long range AR. It's OK, I've been generally staying positive KD in TDM and KOH.

I think I'm sitting on close to 6000 GP now. I'll keep experimenting around with different types of guns and stuff. I figured out I can rent some armor and a primary for about 600 GP a day, and I'm earning about 175-220 GP a match. So that's sustainable until I decide if there's something I'd buy.

The whole "Node" thing is also weird and unintuitive. They're basically perks, and you seem to randomly be awarded some as you play. You can "fuse" nodes together to make better nodes at the risk of losing the lower quality node of the pair. Whole thing of ranks of nodes, quality levels, etc.

I guess you could hop in and casually play this, but there's a ton of depth here, and it's all very murky.

I keep coming back to not really liking the feel of the guns. It's very odd.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the shooting, which is why I have it installed, but can't seem to be bothered to play it.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I like the style and customization of this game, but I'm not sure it's for me.

The biggest issue I have with the game is how limited the gun customization options are for free players. Purchasing a single gun part permanently with in-game currency (something like a stock, scope, muzzle break, not an entire weapon) is so expensive that there's really no reason to do it. Renting individual parts isn't much better, since you'll have to dedicate a few hours of play to recoup the cost, and your parts will vanish after the rental period.

The only viable option for free players (otherwise it would be Pay to Win™) is to rent pre-fab weapons which cannot be customized.

You still have to rent armor, perks, and gear, but each of those rentals can be recouped after one or two games.

It's almost as if... they want to you spend money.

Deadmonkeys, what's your BLR name? I thought I'd add some people to my friends list. I can't seem to find "Deadmonkeys".

MannishBoy wrote:

Deadmonkeys, what's your BLR name? I thought I'd add some people to my friends list. I can't seem to find "Deadmonkeys".

I'm looking for BLR friends too. My character name right now is Saurus because their site wasn't clear on how naming worked when I signed up and made it seem like I couldn't use my account name as my character name.

I agree the store is very confusing. For anyone who isn't sure, I recommend watching TotalBiscuit's WTF Is... of this game as he goes over it some and make it a bit clearer.