Agents,

All good things must come to an end, and so it is with Blacklight: Retribution.

Thank you for so much for your loyal support, and love over the years. From the initial PC Closed Beta in November 2011 to today, it has been a great 7+ years. The joy that we got out of Blacklight: Retribution is a testament to you the fans; your loyalty, dedication, support, and ultimate willingness to try our fun, quirky FPS.

Why is this happening? The reality is Hardsuit Labs has been engaged for some time now in some very interesting projects that require the full focus of the development teams and leadership. The studio capacity and resources are and have been entirely engaged with these projects and will be for the foreseeable future. As such, we officially will no longer be patching, updating, or doing technical support for Blacklight Retribution. Account migration will officially shut down as of today, as will the official support site.

Starting today, all items in the PC store will be made free, and we hope that you continue to enjoy the game and items up until the PC servers are shut down on March 11th, 2019. The PS4 version of Blacklight Retribution will continue to operate as-is since there are no game servers being hosted for it.

We welcome your feedback, comments, questions, and memories on our social media @PlayBlacklight or @HardsuitLabs, our Reddit community here and the BLR Discord channel.

As a studio, Blacklight: Retribution will always have a special place in our hearts. One that is largely due to our amazing community, so thank you to all the Blacklight: Retribution fans out there.

Important Dates
February 8th
* PC Store unlocked and free
* PC Account migration shut down
* PC and PS4 no further updates or patches
March 11th
* PC game servers shut down permanently
* Support shut down for PC and PS4

12-Feb-2018

• HRV ping fixed
  
• Weapon updates to: HAR, LMG, M4X, CR, TSMG, AR
  
• Collision fixes on multiple maps
  
• Camo fix for Matte Orange
  
• Arc Camo issue fixed
  
• Community camos added to game
  
• Tool tips updated for armor where sockets count has changed
  
• Fixed Steam Zcoin issue – Now able to purchase
  
• Added “close game” option to screen login

• Added a restriction that forces players to have a playlist selected when quick joining. If the player is above rank 35, remove stomping grounds from the scope
  
• Hopefully fix scaleform timer heap corruption
  
• New scaleform libs for windows
  
• Rebuilt windows libs
  
• Fixed hard locks when attempting to exit out of View Last Match
  
• Fixed game crash when selecting Region in the Custom Match Creation Menu
  
• Fixed game crash when navigating the settings menu
  
• Fixed join match on friend in passworded match displaying an error instead of requesting a password
  
• Query Steam's preferred language for game language
  
• Refactor to team rebalance, added additional logging
  
• Possible fix to error message arising when joining an in-progress onslaught official server
  
• Updated News
  
• Removed Playlists from custom match selection if the player is outside of the allowed levels
  
• Fixed collision flags on Pipes in Containment
  
• Weapon updates: HAR, BAR, LMG, M4X, Revolver, CR, LRR, TSMG, BPFA, BFR

Current Arc game servers and player accounts will be migrating to new servers and relaunching on HSL hardware next week.

Starting Jan-18 and running through Jan-24 player progression will be paused and the store will be temporarily open for free on US and EU Arc PC servers. On Jan-25 new PC servers will be going live and the updated client will be pushed out via Steam. The BLR store on Arc PC being open free means all items in BLR store will be zero costs in terms of GP. This allows players to play with all items, though note that these free items WILL NOT be kept on the new servers. This is specific to PC only during this update.

PC Player migration will be triggered the first time you log into the new Blacklight client. Make sure you have Steam Overlay enabled, as we will be opening the migration website via Steam browser. It will prompt you to log in to your Arc account, and will then associate that account with your Steam account. We will NOT be storing any Arc data on our servers. The webpage merely passes the login information to Arc via their provided API.

PC Region merges will happen prior to the new servers going up. We will be merging the PC EU and US player databases, based upon Arc ID information, and your player name will be based upon the amount of XP in either account. If you have the majority of XP in US then your player name will be from your US account and appended with [US], same with [EU]. We are not and will not merge alt accounts into main accounts.

The PC store on the new servers will be closed for a short period of time (yet to be determined) so that we can troubleshoot any potential migration issues that were missed during testing.

Additional FAQ info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Blacklight/comments/7koa9v/community_faq_upcoming_patch_jan_2018/

Hotfix 2.17 is about to turn live! We are releasing a quick hotfix to resolve some issues. We had some issues that we rushed out a fix for so you can continue the fun BLR experience.

Bugs fixes for PC:

• Crash fixes
• Fixed a bug using a taunt in more than one slot
• Fixed a bug where carrying Rival Agent / Warlord when switching teams
• Suicide notifications are now fixed
• Various bugs with the Revival Injector
• Fixed a bug in Onslaught where the dead player's body would be deleted too quickly
• Fixed a bug in Onslaught where the match would start when not everyone opted to Ready Up
• Various backend fixes
• Level restrictions for playlists / matches should now be fixed
• Smoothed out ping
• The Easter baskets should now be visible
• Friend List sorting should now be fixed
• Various issues with Revival Spawns should now be fixed
• Fixed a bug where the player would have 8 taunt slots is now fixed
• No spectating when in Training Mode
• Invisibility bug is now fixed, if you can see it :P
• Bug with the Pink Bunny Ears trophy is now fixed
• The correct message should now appear to Onslaught players if they aren't in first place
• Spectating abuse should be fixed now
• Player selection context menu should now be fixed
• Level restrictions on PC is now fixed

Starting on March 22nd and lasting until April 5th, we will have a Spring Event.

Be sure to play it while it lasts!



The Spring Event has an ultimate mission. If you collect all 10 Bunny Ear Trophies before April 5th, 2016, you will get a special Helmet reward. THIS WILL BE AWARDED ON THE 6th of APRIL.The Helm of Caerbannog (pictured in the above ad). There are four missions below that will grant you the first four ears. The rest of the Bunny Ears you will have to find out how to earn!

This mission will be achievable in the Egg Hunt Playlist for the Spring event. Similar to the St. Patrick's Day Playlist, you'll be collecting eggs in egg baskets. The eggs dropped in each basket will be randomly generated.



In this mission you will need 1500 kills with the Shortgun AR-k before the spring event is over! 

For this mission, you will need to sprint for 4,000,000 steps in Last Team Standing before the Spring Event comes to a close.

Play 100 matches in Domination before the Spring event is over!

• Helm of Caerbannog Helmet
• Bunny Ears Red Trophy
• Bunny Ears Green Trophy
• Bunny Ears Pink Trophy
• Bunny Ears Magenta Trophy
• Bunny Ears Blue Trophy
• Bunny Ears Cyan Trophy
• Bunny Ears Orange Trophy
• Bunny Ears Purple Trophy
• Bunny Ears Yellow Trophy
• Bunny Ears White Trophy
• Dyed Hard Blue Body Camo
• Dyed Hard Green Body Camo
• Dyed Hard Pink Body Camo
• Dyed Hard Purple Body Camo
• Dyed Hard Yellow Body Camo
• Dyed Hard Blue Weapon Camo
• Dyed Hard Green Weapon Camo
• Dyed Hard Pink Weapon Camo
• Dyed Hard Purple Weapon Camo
• Dyed Hard Yellow Weapon Camo

We hope you enjoy this update and new content, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. As always, if you find any new bugs or glitches please report them via the Blacklight Service Desk HERE.

Starting on March 8th and lasting until March 22nd, we will have a St. Patrick's Day Event.

Be sure to play it while it lasts! More information located here:
http://www.hardsuitlabs.com/2016/03/st-patricks-day-event/


For St. Patrick's Day we have created a special playlist: Four Leaf Clobber. In this playlist, players will be able to collect gold coins in pots of gold to get a mission reward. Each Gold Pot that drops will give a random amount of coins that will add up to the mission goal of 10,000 pieces of gold.

• Bell Kick Taunt
• Irish Jig Taunt
• Clover Weapon Skins
• 1R-3 Clogad Helmet
• Good Luck Trophy

We hope you enjoy this update and new content, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. As always, if you find any new bugs or glitches please report them via the Blacklight Service Desk HERE.

As always we continue to work to get all bugs that we can fixed that are reported through BSD. Thanks for helping us out there and we will address as many issues as possible.

We are planning to release the next update on 8-Mar-2016 at 5:00 PST.

First up, let's get the top three issues submitted that we knocked out for the community.

• Fixed the Heal Injector.... finally... for real... seriously
• Fixed friends being able to join your private matches if they aren't in a party with you
• Fixed Convoy on KOTH causing crashes

These three issues were the most reported by the community and fixed in this update. You can find the complete patch notes HERE.


Customization now sorts objects into categories such as Owned, Featured, Purchaseable and Locked so you can find things more easily. Locked items are items that are not available for purchase used for either seasonal or promotional events.

We have implemented a new death animation system that will scale with how much damage you do to a player. So if you do a lot of damage, you will see the effects on your opponent as he goes flying.

We have new event playlist for all upcoming holiday and fun events! Stay tuned for future events. These playlists will appear at the very top of the playlist section. See below for the Playlist missions.


 
Starting on March 8th and lasting until March 22nd, we will have a St. Patrick's Day Event. Click http://www.hardsuitlabs.com/?p=567&preview=true for more information.

Starting on March 22nd and lasting until April 5th, we will have a Spring Event. Click http://www.hardsuitlabs.com/?p=561&preview=true for more information.

 
Weapon Skin:

• Tiger Stripe Blue
• Tiger Stripe Orange

We hope you enjoy this update and new content, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. As always, if you find any new bugs or glitches please report them via the Blacklight Service Desk HERE.

We have been working hard to knock out bugs and glitches that you have been finding and submitting via the Blacklight Service Desk; thank you very much for your help and support with those. We have also enhanced areas of the game and created some new content for the community, all of which we hope you enjoy.

We are planning to release the next update on 2-Feb-2016 at 5:00 PST.
First up, let's get the top three issues submitted that we knocked out for the community.

• - Tweaked the SMG
  - Mega glitch fixes on Rig
  - Missions not awarding GP

These three issues were the most reported by the community and fixed in this update. You can find the complete patch notes HERE.
We have updated and brought the training level back. The training level is a work in progress for us; the intent of the level is to explain the core mechanics of Blacklight Retribution to players new and old. Check it out and see what you might learn as a strategic advantage against others.
Brand new with this update is an improved leveling model for Blacklight. We have increased the level cap to 100 instead of 69 [[u]Ed. "Giggity"[/u]] and introduced a cyclical prestige system. Once you hit level 100 you will have the option of receiving 1 rank of prestige, which will then start you at level 1 of your next rank of prestige. For every 100 levels you earn, you can exchange them for 1 level of prestige.

We have also reduced the time it takes to reach maximum level. Over the long term the progression scale is much longer than it used to be. The amount of XP to reach our new max level of 100 is much shorter than the amount of XP required to hit the previous cap of 69. At this time we have not implemented any cap on the prestige levels.



In the image above, the large 15 is the level and the smaller number in the black box is the prestige. In that example SpragUI has leveled prestige 23 times (working on his 24th); so that's effectively level 100 done 23 times.  Additionally, as you prestige more, the background to your levels will update.

Why do this?

We want those who have been playing and grinding for a long time to be able to show off the amount of XP they've earned and be proud of the amount of time they have spent playing Blacklight. At the same time, the future will bring more rewards to players based on their level and prestige progression.  Implementing this system meets the needs for this and builds the foundation from which to do more!

Be sure to visit the Prestige Tab in the Social menu to find your Prestige.


Also new in this update is a redesigned AAR. The UI team greatly improved the previous AAR screen, making XP and GP earnings a lot clearer and more stylish.


Hey, look at this! Blacklight is going to have Lotto and Chance Boxes again. Starting in February we will be releasing monthly Lotto Boxes. The contents of the box will be carefully curated and will change monthly.



We are also introducing Holiday Lotto Boxes! Holiday items are typically only for sale during the limited holiday period of that specific year. Once the holiday item goes on sale it will most likely never be on sale again with the exception being through these Holiday Lotto Boxes! Not limited to just Holidays, we plan on having Event driven Lotto Boxes too.



 

 

 
Starting February 2nd and lasting through February 29th, Blacklight will have a few Valentine's Day events and items for the community to have fun with. Included in that are two awesome missions that will liven up your Valentine's Day.
All you have to do is die in this one. Seems pretty easy except for the fact that your opponent has to kill you with the viral Cupid's Arrow, which is a special ammo type for the Compound Bow. The reward for this is the Cupid's Arrow, which will allow you to complete the "Spread the Love" mission.


If you kill 30 enemies with Cupid's Arrow before the event is over, then you will receive the LOVE KILLS title proving once and for all that love is a dangerous game. For every person you kill, you will also be assisting someone else with the Cupid's Kiss mission above. It's a share-share mission of love.

• Weapon and Body Camo - Love Fool
• Weapon Tag - My Bleeding Heart
• Weapon Tag - War of the Roses
• Compound Bow Skin - Cupid's QT Pi
• Grenade - I Heart U

[gallery link="file" masterslider="true" autoplay="true" loop="true" skin="ms-skin-black-1" thumbs="false" ids="389,390,388,386,387,409"]

http://www.hardsuitlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/RoseTag_04.gif
Last up, the BLR Editor. This is still a work in progress for us. Focus is still on stability and improvements to Blacklight, along with introducing new content.
We hope you enjoy this update and new content, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. As always, if you find any new bugs or glitches please report them via the Blacklight Service Desk HERE.

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New Features
- Added Gun sway in first person when rotating
- Added a new Training Level
- Added a presige system once you hit max level
- Added some lovely new items
- Added a new and improved AAR

Game Changes
- Vortex color grading has been improved
- BLP and SMG balance has been adjusted
- CTF spawns have been adjusted in all maps
- SND bomb placements have been adjusted in several maps
- The Compound Bow now supports weapon tags
- Ammo counter scopes now show ammo remaining properly for single-shot weapons
- Level curve has been adjusted significantly
- Rain in Evac has lessened
- Rejoining a server should preserve your stats

Bug Fixes
- Fixed many sight alignment issues
- Fixed an issue with KOTH beacon movement
- Fixed headshot mutator conflict for private matches
- Fixed bot and turret names in non-english languages
- Fixed gear not showing camo colors in the armory
- Fixed several scoreboard bugs
- Fixed several elevator exploits
- Fixed issues with floating mines
- Fixed Spoon texture offset
- Fixed Spoon skin tiling on variant spork
- Fixed private matches sometimes host migrating
- Fixed effects not showing in taunt menu
- Fixed purchase dialog for weapon skins
- Fixed weapon tags not swapping when picking up weapons
- Fixed incorrect max ammo on picked up weapons
- Fixed sensitivity sliders not saving correctly
- Fixed collision issues in several levels
- Fixed a rare crash at the end of the round
- Fixed issues with expired trial items
- Fixed a few issues with parties
- Fixed lighting on a few minor items
- Fixed ZCoin buttons in the Marketplace
- Fixed invalid map/mode combinations in playlists
- Fixed some issues with matchmaking