To get things started we've got a message for you all from Lead Developer Max:
We’re Now in Early Access!
We began Hell Let Loose as a tiny hobby project on the Unreal Engine forums back in late 2014, when World War Two games were very much in drought. We wanted to create a game that mixed the intensity of frontline combat with the depth and strategy of more realistic team-oriented shooters. From there, Hell Let Loose has gone on to become the sole focus and passion for our team of 10.
We’re so thankful for the patience you have shown us - both before our Kickstarter (if you want a laugh, watch the gameplay in our original Kickstarter trailer!), helping us raise funding, and then supporting us through the testing waves. You’ve been battling bugs with us on the frontline for more than a year now. Whether you’re a newcomer or one of the grizzled veterans who discovered us in June 2017, we’re really excited to continue this journey with you. World War Two was an enormous conflict and we’ve only just scratched the surface. Below I’m going to talk through some of the key aspects of where we are heading from here.
Why Early Access?
Ultimately Hell Let Loose was born from a desire to create an enormous World War Two game that we’d never experienced before - where teamwork and communication met aspects of realism, brutality and an intensity of combat without losing an inherent meta strategy or smaller unit tactics. We’ve read so much World War Two history and wanted to experience something close to what the soldiers experienced. We want players to be able to use a tank as cover on an approach towards a hamlet. We want to be able to create deadly minefields in a forest, or creep artillery onto a target. We want the exhilaration of being able to break through the enemy line, or the panic knowing that the enemy had done the same to us.
There are many, many more features that we’ve committed to in our Kickstarter, as well as features that we would love to include in addition to those. We want to widen and polish the core experience.
We plan to use our Early Access period as a balance of working with you - the community - while also introducing and polishing new features and content. Working with Team17, we’ve structured and scheduled lots of exciting updates - but we’re going to be working hard to integrate everything we learn from you - the players. We have exciting things coming that you can see in our roadmap below. We’ll be updating this image as we progress and will release one similar to it after we leave Early Access - the content won’t end there.
A Call to Arms
As we launch our Early Access, we’d like to call on you - the community - to assist us in making Hell Let Loose an inviting atmosphere to new players. Every Beta, we’ve seen new players come to the game and begin to get accustomed to the strategy and tactics unique to Hell Let Loose. Things that are obvious to us (how wounding works, how respawning works, how role selection works, how to stay together, how to use VOIP etc.) are often totally new concepts that need to be introduced to a player who may have come from a different genre. We know that Hell Let Loose is best played when everyone is communicating, kind and happy to help, and we ask that you assist us in modeling this to everyone you meet in-game.
Inevitably, the first week of any major release means that the majority of soldiers on the front line may be not only totally new to Hell Let Loose, but new to the teamwork and hardcore genre. We’re seeing players from large high-budget shooters keen to jump in and try something new and we’d much prefer to help them get up and running as a great contributing member of a unit and team than criticise them for their gaming pedigree. We ask that if you’re an experienced veteran in the genre - you’ll keep the new players in mind and create a welcoming atmosphere. Many won’t yet have mics - or be confident to use them - but we’re keen to make sure we foster an atmosphere in which people can learn. Nearly all players will remember that first game they played in the hardcore genre. It was terrifying, difficult and brutal - but also an experience that stuck with you and made it hard to go back. We all know that awesome feeling of a veteran taking you under their wing and showing you the ropes. We ask that you keep that in mind when confronted by totally green players.
While we can encourage you the community to take new players under your wing, we also want to assure you that during Early Access we’ll be working hard to overhaul and add to our tooltips, wiki and gameflow - in order to better help new players understand how to play.
Throughout the last couple of months we’ve created numerous role guides and other information to help you get started.
Future Plans
If you’ve played the game recently, or spoken to any of us about features, bugs or changes you’ll know that we’re highly passionate and motivated to improve and widen the Hell Let Loose experience. We watch the community discuss new vehicles, features, maps and polish and can only agree on how they’d add more variety and interest to the game. Everything from barbed wire functioning as barbed wire should - to new and improved Commander Orders - to new vehicles, maps, uniforms and weapons - we’re as excited as you are to implement it all.
We hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the frequency of hotfixes, patches and updates to come.
Types of Updates
First Patch
Our first patch will be applied in the first week after release. It will fix critical issues that arise, as well as tweak or change gameplay in response to community feedback. Obviously, we won’t be able to tackle every single bug we’d like, so we’ll attempt to prioritise this according to need. Please do not be discouraged if a particular bug you’ve experienced isn’t fixed in the first patch - there's a high likelihood that it will be addressed down the line.
First Update
While we’ve been preparing for EA, we’ve also been thinking about the content for our first update: On the Beaches (U1). It’ll introduce an all new map - Utah Beach - as well as a large bunch of goodies that we’ll reveal closer to the date. We can say that the environment and level design team really feel that Utah presents many new challenges to the roles and vehicles you’re already familiar with.
Hotfixes
In addition to regular patches, we will also be hotfixing the game if any show-stopping bugs rear their ugly heads.
Credits
We haven’t forgotten the Kickstarter rewards for our backers and want to assure you that the credits will be patched into the game during Early Access. We want to follow up with each tier to make sure your name is present in the format you desire.
EA Release Changelog
Weapon Changes
Lowered MP40 horizontal recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Lowered Thompson horizontal and vertical recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Lowered STG 44 horizontal and vertical recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Lowered BAR horizontal and vertical recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Tweaked scope time on Springfield in order to smooth out the transition to the optic
MG bipods now have a more generous vertical arc to allow people to better aim up while deployed on the ground
New Cosmetics
Those who pre-ordered the game will now be able to enable their helmet to display once they’ve entered a server by turning it on in the Options menu. We will be distributing codes to all Backer tiers eligible for a helmet via email in the coming weeks. Both will then be worked in to the full cosmetic system that will be implemented during the Early Access period.
Movement
Being able to jump and then vault has been removed, and instead we have increased the vault height from 120cm to 160cm, allowing you to climb out of most trenches and over all fences without allowing you to scale high walls. We are keen to make sure high walls remain a way to funnel infantry and vehicles in the battlespace.
General Bug Fixes
Fixed attempting to deploy as the map is changing with less than 4 seconds left on the deploy counter will cause the player to get stuck on the 'Failed to deploy' message, forcing a shutdown via either Task Manager or Alt F4.
There could be pending deployment requests scheduled with timers when a map was changed or a round ended. Deployment timers are now tracked and invalidated when a round ends or a map is changed.
RCon Client displays an untitled map name when changing maps
Commanders can now dismantle their Garrisons
The hint reminding users to place down Garrisons and Outposts will still occur even if the user has already built one) - now the player will only need to place either a Garrison or an Outpost to the hint not to appear
Fixed inverse angle calculation for ricochets
Fixed rocket launches so that they apply surface specific decal
Fixed the possibility to get the same map twice in a row (disabled shuffling the map sequence and additional logging for MapRotation)
Changed physics correction to run every frame instead of only when it receives information (to make physics more responsive and smoother)
Players are no longer able to fire certain weapons while vaulting/climbing
Button prompts on the "Map Vote" & "Vote to kick" windows do not update after changing keybindings
Animation
Fixed pistol to rifle equip causing character to slide in TPP
Add animation notify to hide TPP Kar98 WPN clip when firing
VOIP
The player can sometimes hear voice chat audio after leaving a heavily populated server - disconnect all voice channels upon returning to the main menu
Fixed multiple instances of voice channel connection loss issues
Added defensive code
Optimization
Decimated the poly counts on over 50 commonly used props in each map which should increase player FPS (still more to do).
Did a texture sweep and managed to save on video memory in all three maps.
Visual Improvements
Improved LODs on Barberry Bushes
Updated tank driver and commander positions to have less bloom (players were suffering from a blown out viewport in Foy)
Fixed blood textures not always appearing accurately when player's model is shot in certain locations
UI/HUD
Begun work on overhaul of new deployment menu
Begun work on overhaul of team selection screen
Begun work on new HUD
Begun work on new server browser menu
Begun work on new death screen
Expanded scoreboard menu name field to display longer names
Made legalese on main menu smaller and less distracting
Fixed - markers cannot be placed on hedgerows and instead travel through
Fixed - the 'Deploy' prompt overlaps its text box on the Deployment screen"
Fixed - the United States team name goes off screen within the deployment screen
Added “Leave Server” button to the after action scoreboard and screen
Added unit prefix to VOIP notifies so you can see which unit leader is talking (eg. Easy company has the prefix “E”)
Fixed a terrible bug where the sector capture progress was often inverted - leading to horrible situations in which you’d think you were about to capture when in actual fact it was the enemy who’d capture.
SFX
US Commander is missing construction SFX for building Garrisons
MG42 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
MG34 (coaxial and hull on German tanks) has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1919 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1903 Springfield has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
BAR has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
STG 44 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1 Garand has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Kar 98k has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
G43 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1 Carbine has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
MP40 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Thompson has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Bazooka has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Panzerschreck has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Colt 1911 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Luger P08 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Walther P38 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Temporarily removed Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy as US victory theme and replaced it with the Victory March. Don’t worry - Erika is still there.
Foy
In-game map is not consistent with environment shown in sector E10.
Known Issues
Incorrect colour icon in HUD when German player enters a strongpoint
Tank HUD indicator does not behave correctly (should behave the same as infantry)
Some instances of ‘snaking’ still present
Changing helmets in the redeployment screen does not change the helmet
Users occasionally will travel great distances when vaulting (however they will recover and be returned to their correct spot)
No ADS as separate sensitivity (will be coming in Patch 1)
Some Foxholes difficult to exit (needs geometry adjustment)
Tank camera judder sometimes experienced when driving over very uneven ground at top speeds
Supply drop can appear out of sync with plane animation
Custom helmets do not have blood or charring decals applied when damaged
Max player count on deploy screen incorrect for 82 and 64 player servers
Very long custom server names are badly scaled on enlist screen
Shadows incorrect in SMDM
Localisation incomplete
Some placeholder images in ‘How to Play’
Support score currently unfinished
Possible compatibility issues with some hardware on Windows 10 1903 (causes game to boot to black screen)
Crash when plugging in or unplugging some headsets when the title is running
Crash if map changes when user is in keybindings menu
Possible compatibility issues with some versions of Windows if users disable all audio output devices
Game can crash if user unplugs primary display monitor during bootflow
Users joining a server during a map change via RCon may become stuck on deployment screen
Various other minor issues
R&D (not currently in game - this list is non-exhaustive)
Optimisation pass for Utah Beach
Updated flamethrower look and function
Work on a material vertex shader which does custom FOV projection for first-person meshes
Currently testing Steam Sound Engine in build
Currently implementing water systems
Currently updating Foy with additional cover in areas that are totally flat (we will release a map that indicates the locations of new cover)
Hurtgen is in the process of a makeover to make many SPs more unique and interesting (including the introduction of concrete defensive emplacements).
Barbed wire systems currently in progress
Work on resource nodes
Work on refining TPP animation systems
Currently assessing all remaining FPP weapon bugs and animation needs
Scoping audio engine change
Continued work on animation bugs and refinement
Continued creation of all US and German Winter uniform variants
Continued work on all 2D elements in the game
Scoping improvements to bipods
Scoping improvements to sniper rifle scopes and sniping experience
Special Launch Livestream!
To celebrate the launch of Hell Let Loose into Early Access, we're hosting a 24 hour livestream today on our Steam Store page!
If you’d like to see the game in action, ask us questions or chat – then stop by!
During the stream there will be various hosts from Team17 and Black Matter, as well as special guests Karmakut and Bluedrake42!
The stream goes live at 12pm BST / 1pm CEST and will run for 24 hours straight from that time.
See you on the frontline!
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This week’s a special one as tomorrow Hell Let Loose enters Steam Early Access!
We’re incredibly excited to be at this point and wouldn’t be here without the fantastic support of our backers and pre-release community – THANK YOU!
Tomorrow, Lead Developer Max will be making a post to mark launch day, so watch this space…
Before then though, we’ve got quite the briefing for you, so get ready for:
Server Live Times
The Early Access Roadmap
Launch Changelog
Let’s do this!
Server Live Times
We are pleased to announce that on June 6th, Hell Let Loose servers will be going live at:
11am BST / 12pm CEST / 6am ET / 3am PT
This also means that Hell Let Loose will be able to be purchased directly through Steam from that time and the game will be live and ready to play!
The Early Access Roadmap
Tomorrow marks the start of our journey through Early Access here on Steam.
Below you will see our Early Access Roadmap! Please note that this isn’t exhaustive and there will be more to come…
Rest assured we’ll be continuing our weekly Developer Briefings. Going forward they will - when applicable - contain updates on upcoming features, bug fixes and content to keep our community in the loop throughout Early Access!
What are you most excited for in our roadmap? Let us know in the comments!
Early Access Launch Changelog
Following our May closed beta we’ve been working on some tweaks and bug fixes that will be applied in tomorrow’s launch patch! We’ve listed them below for your reading pleasure:
Weapon Changes
Lowered MP40 horizontal recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Lowered Thompson horizontal and vertical recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Lowered STG 44 horizontal and vertical recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Lowered BAR horizontal and vertical recoil to allow for better control up to 75m
Tweaked scope time on Springfield in order to smooth out the transition to the optic
MG bipods now have a more generous vertical arc to allow people to better aim up while deployed on the ground
New Cosmetics
Those who pre-ordered the game will now be able to enable their helmet to display once they’ve entered a server by turning it on in the Options menu. We will be distributing codes to all Backer tiers eligible for a helmet via email in the coming weeks. Both will then be worked in to the full cosmetic system that will be implemented during the Early Access period.
Movement
Being able to jump and then vault has been removed, and instead we have increased the vault height from 120cm to 160cm, allowing you to climb out of most trenches and over all fences without allowing you to scale high walls. We are keen to make sure high walls remain a way to funnel infantry and vehicles in the battlespace.
General Bug Fixes
Fixed attempting to deploy as the map is changing with less than 4 seconds left on the deploy counter will cause the player to get stuck on the 'Failed to deploy' message, forcing a shutdown via either Task Manager or Alt F4.
There could be pending deployment requests scheduled with timers when a map was changed or a round ended. Deployment timers are now tracked and invalidated when a round ends or a map is changed.
RCon Client displays an untitled map name when changing maps
Commanders can now dismantle their Garrisons
The hint reminding users to place down Garrisons and Outposts will still occur even if the user has already built one) - now the player will only need to place either a Garrison or an Outpost to the hint not to appear
Fixed inverse angle calculation for ricochets
Fixed rocket launches so that they apply surface specific decal
Fixed the possibility to get the same map twice in a row (disabled shuffling the map sequence and additional logging for MapRotation)
Changed physics correction to run every frame instead of only when it receives information (to make physics more responsive and smoother)
Players are no longer able to fire certain weapons while vaulting/climbing
Button prompts on the "Map Vote" & "Vote to kick" windows do not update after changing keybindings
Animation
Fixed pistol to rifle equip causing character to slide in TPP
Add animation notify to hide TPP Kar98 WPN clip when firing
VOIP
The player can sometimes hear voice chat audio after leaving a heavily populated server - disconnect all voice channels upon returning to the main menu
Fixed multiple instances of voice channel connection loss issues
Added defensive code
Optimization
Decimated the poly counts on over 50 commonly used props in each map which should increase player FPS (still more to do).
Did a texture sweep and managed to save on video memory in all three maps.
Visual Improvements
Improved LODs on Barberry Bushes
Updated tank driver and commander positions to have less bloom (players were suffering from a blown out viewport in Foy)
Fixed blood textures not always appearing accurately when player's model is shot in certain locations
UI/HUD
Begun work on overhaul of new deployment menu
Begun work on overhaul of team selection screen
Begun work on new HUD
Begun work on new server browser menu
Begun work on new death screen
Expanded scoreboard menu name field to display longer names
Made legalese on main menu smaller and less distracting
Fixed - markers cannot be placed on hedgerows and instead travel through
Fixed - the 'Deploy' prompt overlaps its text box on the Deployment screen"
Fixed - the United States team name goes off screen within the deployment screen
Added “Leave Server” button to the after action scoreboard and screen
Added unit prefix to VOIP notifies so you can see which unit leader is talking (eg. Easy company has the prefix “E”)
Fixed a terrible bug where the sector capture progress was often inverted - leading to horrible situations in which you’d think you were about to capture when in actual fact it was the enemy who’d capture.
SFX
US Commander is missing construction SFX for building Garrisons
MG42 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
MG34 (coaxial and hull on German tanks) has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1919 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1903 Springfield has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
BAR has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
STG 44 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1 Garand has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Kar 98k has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
G43 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
M1 Carbine has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
MP40 has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Thompson has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Bazooka has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Panzerschreck has restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Colt 1911 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Luger P08 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Walther P38 new FPP fire sound and restructured, mixed and updated TPP sound treatment
Temporarily removed Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy as US victory theme and replaced it with the Victory March. Don’t worry - Erika is still there.
Foy
In-game map is not consistent with environment shown in sector E10.
Known Issues
Incorrect colour icon in HUD when German player enters a strongpoint
Tank HUD indicator does not behave correctly (should behave the same as infantry)
Some instances of ‘snaking’ still present
Changing helmets in the redeployment screen does not change the helmet
Users occasionally will travel great distances when vaulting (however they will recover and be returned to their correct spot)
No ADS as separate sensitivity (will be coming in Patch 1)
Some Foxholes difficult to exit (needs geometry adjustment)
Tank camera judder sometimes experienced when driving over very uneven ground at top speeds
Supply drop can appear out of sync with plane animation
Custom helmets do not have blood or charring decals applied when damaged
Max player count on deploy screen incorrect for 82 and 64 player servers
Very long custom server names are badly scaled on enlist screen
Shadows incorrect in SMDM
Localisation incomplete
Some placeholder images in ‘How to Play’
Support score currently unfinished
Possible compatibility issues with some hardware on Windows 10 1903 (causes game to boot to black screen)
Crash when plugging in or unplugging some headsets when the title is running
Crash if map changes when user is in keybindings menu
Possible compatibility issues with some versions of Windows if users disable all audio output devices
Game can crash if user unplugs primary display monitor during bootflow
Users joining a server during a map change via RCon may become stuck on deployment screen
Various other minor issues
R&D (not currently in game - this list is non-exhaustive)
Optimisation pass for Utah Beach
Updated flamethrower look and function
Work on a material vertex shader which does custom FOV projection for first-person meshes
Currently testing Steam Sound Engine in build
Currently implementing water systems
Currently updating Foy with additional cover in areas that are totally flat (we will release a map that indicates the locations of new cover)
Hurtgen is in the process of a makeover to make many SPs more unique and interesting (including the introduction of concrete defensive emplacements).
Barbed wire systems currently in progress
Work on resource nodes
Work on refining TPP animation systems
Currently assessing all remaining FPP weapon bugs and animation needs
Scoping audio engine change
Continued work on animation bugs and refinement
Continued creation of all US and German Winter uniform variants
Continued work on all 2D elements in the game
Scoping improvements to bipods
Scoping improvements to sniper rifle scopes and sniping experience
Special Launch Livestream!
To celebrate the launch of Hell Let Loose into Early Access, we’ll be hosting a 24 hour livestream on our Steam Store page!
If you’d like to see the game in action, ask us questions or chat – then stop by!
During the stream there will be various hosts from Team17 and Black Matter, as well as special guests Karmakut and Bluedrake42!
The stream goes live at 12pm BST / 1pm CEST and will run for 24 hours straight from that time.
We’ll be posting our stream schedule soon so you know who’s live when!
This week we're excited to share the details around server hosting for Hell Let Loose. Let's get stuck in shall we...
Community Servers in Hell Let Loose
When do community servers go live for Hell Let Loose?
The community servers will go live on Early Access launch June 6th.
How do I rent a community server for Hell Let Loose?
We’ve partnered with G-Portal and Nitrado to offer official Community Servers during the initial Early Access launch. We do not take community engagement for granted and want to make sure that there are as few barriers as possible.
You can pre-order a server from your preferred provider using the hyperlinks below!
Nitrado users can rename their server name through the Nitrado web interface.
Can I use my own server?
Our plan is to introduce persistent profile and progression elements in Hell Let Loose during the Early Access period. This means that we need to be able to maintain a level of integrity over player stats and tracking. We also want to ensure this persistence endures for players on Official and Community servers. In order to do so, we will currently offer servers via trusted partners only.
We understand that there is a demand for communities to host their own dedicated server, so we are investigating different ways that we can achieve this technically, with the above mentioned systems. This is something that we will look at developing through the Early Access period, and will keep you updated.
Can we host servers that are less than 100 players?
While Hell Let Loose is designed for an optimal experience at 100 players, we know that some communities may not have the financial backing or resources to host such a large server.
We felt that it was important to make hosting a server as accessible as possible and so we are working with server partners in offering 100, 82 and 64 slot configurations.
In testing, we’ve found that 64 players can offer concerted and strategic gameplay without sacrificing the epic feel of Hell Let Loose.
Can we password our server?
UPDATE
Your feedback matters. Following community feedback on the news that passwords on servers would come a month after Early Access launch, we've decided to prioritise it with the aim of having it implemented roughly one week after Early Access launch instead. We're keeping the original messaging below as a reference.
For the first month of Hell Let Loose we felt that it was important to encourage new players to the genre to join community hosted servers. While we as developers hoped to build in as many fail-safes as possible into the game design, we know that the best experience players will have will be on a community hosted server - with a friendly and inviting culture and administered in a way that focuses on teamwork.
We hope you will assist us in both building your communities with new players - as well as assisting in easing in new players to the genre. Our own analytics show a significant number of players keen to try out the more hardcore teamwork oriented style of gameplay that Hell Let Loose offers.
That said, we are aiming to expand the suite of server hosting tools - including passwords - in our first update and beyond. We know that queuing, reserved slots, ability to arrange set teams and units are of high priority. We thank you for your patience as we build these tools!
What tools do we currently have?
Kick player
Give 2 hour Ban
Remove 2 hour Ban
Perma Ban
Remove Perma Ban
Server Message
Change Map
Restart server
Update server
What tools are we looking at?
We know that queuing, reserved slots, ability to arrange set teams and units are of high priority.
Identify team killers
Warn player
Message Player
Add admin
Remove admin
Admin permissions for in game groups i.e - Just Admin but no spectate,
Spectator but no admin
Different levels of admin permissions (Head, Senior, Junior etc.)
Spectate Camera / Fly around (limited ability so nobody can abuse)
Set next map
Chat log
Punish player
Wanted Spectator/Streamer abilities (Admin defined only)
Spectate Camera / Fly around
Increase camera movement speed
Decrease camera movement speed
Zoom in and out
Clear Hud
Ability to listen to comms
Show enemy toggle
Show friendly toggle
Show player names friendly and enemy toggle
Snap to player
Follow player, Event log chat
Serving our players!
Thank you all for your patience as we prepared the community servers for Hell Let Loose. Pre-orders for both G-Portal and Nitrado servers are live now and can be accessed via the hyperlinks on the server location listings!
As always, your feedback is important to us, so let us know what you think! June 6th approaches, we’ll see you on the frontline soon...
If you’re a clan/community leader and would like to be added to the Hell Let Loose Community Divisions Bunker, please head over to the official Hell Let Loose Discord and DM Spono#7368.
With E3 approaching and Hell Let Loose releasing on the 6th of June, it’s fair to say that Team17 has a very busy week ahead! In fact, next week we’ll be unveiling not just one but TWO BRAND NEW GAME ANNOUNCEMENTS!
You’re not going to want to miss these announcements, and we really can’t wait to share the trailers with you. To ensure that you’re the first to hear about these new games right here on Steam, make sure to follow the Team17 Publisher Page.
In the meantime, you can find a couple of cryptic clues in the image above, and if you hop over to the Team17 Twitter account, make your predictions, follow and re-tweet then you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win a copy of these two games, and Hell Let Loose, upon release!
Stop by to see Hell Let Loose in action, ask us questions and watch our teamwork in battle. These will be lengthy streams, so if you can't make the start of the stream, don't worry, there'll still be time for you to jump in.
Running from now until Tuesday May 28th 11am BST / 6am ET / 3am PT, Backer and Pre-order players can get stuck into our new map Foy for the first time as well as trying out our latest updates to the game.
If you'd like to stream or upload videos of Hell Let Loose, go for it! There is no embargo!
Not seen Foy yet? Check out our map spotlight trailer here:
Tank scale adjustment – Increased scale to mimic their real-life counterparts.
Supply drop model changes
Initial UI and HUD Changes in some areas
‘Ping’ system for Officers
Shot from indicator
Misc bug fixes
Garrison and OP placement changes
To encourage and support the placing of spawn points we’ve made some quality of life adjustments to give Officers and Commanders more flexibility on the frontline.
Officers can now place OPs without a unit member being near them.
Commanders can now build Garrisons, assuming they have the required supplies available to them.
Ping system for Officers
Officers can now press the middle mouse button to make a temporary marker that lasts a few seconds. This is to help Officers lead their unit in hectic and close combat encounters, or for instructing their unit on placing deployables in the desired location.
Known Issues
A chance for performance issues under heavy server load – We are aiming to push out a hotfix this afternoon to remedy this issue.
If a server rotates map whilst no users are on the server, the map in the server browser screen will display inaccurately until a user joins the server
Server Browser will only display the 25 servers closest geographically or with the lowest ping to the user
Some users may experience some audio distortion on VoIP after extended playtime
Some instances where users may become stuck in level geometry in Foy and will need to redeploy
Other minor issues
Your feedback is important to us so let us know your thoughts and experiences on the beta here.
For bug reports please use our ‘Report a Problem’ sub-forum.
The final closed beta for Hell Let Loose has begun, we’ll see you on the frontline!
Welcome to Developer Briefing #25! This week we’re heading to the frosty battlefield of Foy – the first snow map in Hell Let Loose!
Winter is here
December 16th 1944, taking advantage of inclement weather, German forces launched a surprise attack on Allied forces stationed in the Ardennes Forest region.
Devoid of air support due to severely overcast weather conditions, the Allies faced a brutal German combined assault of infantry, armour, artillery and air support.
The Allied forces weathered the assault and after over a month of fighting, as the weather turned in their favour, forced the German forces into a retreat to the Siegfried Line with heavy casualties.
The price for victory was paid in blood, with American forces suffering the bloodiest battle they’d fought in World War 2.
Foy is unlike our other maps. Covered in a thick layer of snow and enveloped in a heavy, cold fog that impacts your sight range, players will face a whole new tactical layer to play with, both in attacking and defending. Hold your ground or advance accordingly.
Oh, and listen carefully, you could be much closer to the enemy than you think. If you’re in a tank, take advantage of this by turning off your engine when stationary!
Soldiers in this battle currently wear their standard uniforms. But fear not, we are working on uniforms that will better reflect the environment they’re fighting in, we’ll share more news on when you can expect to see those in the near future.
Foy’s Tactical Map
Foy combines a mixture of forest, field and urban environments to create a frontline that requires different tactical approaches.
Infantry and armour units will also need to take into consideration the terrain they’re fighting in. Infantry will find an edge in urban and forested areas, whereas armoured units can assert their dominance in the fields and roads of Foy.
Foy has two key roads that run vertically through the map. Taking control of these will allow armour and infantry reinforcements to quickly move through the map, rather than risking ambush in the woodland and fields.
Fighting for control of these will be a boon to your team, but you can expect these areas to be hard fought for.
The small pockets of buildings make strong, naturally defensible staging posts for garrisons and deployable fortifications, make use of these to create multiple ‘safer’ spawn points for your team.
The Last Closed Beta!
This weekend brings with it the final closed beta before Early Access launch on June 6th!
The closed beta servers go live:
Friday May 24th 11am BST / 6am ET / 3am PT
The closed beta ends:
Tuesday May 28th 11am BST / 6am ET / 3am PT (Bonus extra day!)
We’re livestreaming throughout the weekend here on Steam, so feel free to stop by, ask us your questions and see the game in action.
You’ll be able to watch us on the Hell Let Loose Steam Store page here.
Welcome to Developer Briefing #24! This week we’re delving into how we’ve designed maps and match mechanics that give players different combat and strategic experiences each time they play them.
How do we achieve this? By having the game change which sectors are active for contention each time a new round starts. More on that below…
One map, multiple experiences
To help explain how one level gives our players multiple battlefield experiences we’ve created a gif of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont’s map that highlights various combinations that you might encounter.
As you can see the map is split into 15 sectors, or three lanes of five.
Depending on which sectors are set active by the server you might have the majority of both teams fighting over one/two lanes or find them being spread across the map if the sectors are in a zig-zag formation.
Each different sector scenario requires different approaches and tactics when it comes to troop deployment, armour usage and unit strategy. Do you focus on a blitzkrieg of the enemy from the front? Envelop the enemy with a wide flank? Send units to ambush the enemy and counter any wide pushes? The choice is yours.
Not just a capture point
The nature of our sector mechanic also lends itself to creating entirely different combat experiences for our players each time they play the same map.
Using Sainte-Marie-du-Mont as the example once again, you could end up fighting through open fields, hedgerows and farm buildings one match...
Then the next time round you could be fighting in a more rural urban setting as you fight to capture the imposing Brecourt Manor compound...
Or even get into the middle of brutal building to building fighting in the town of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont itself!
This means that when you replay a map, you get an entirely different experience to the last few times you battled over it, after all, each map has 99 possible variants!
This sector variety is applied to all current Hell Let Loose maps and will be included in all future ones too, giving our maps a fresh and exciting feel each time your boots hit the ground.
Talking of maps…
The last closed beta before Hell Let Loose’s Early Access launch on June 6th is taking place between May 24th and May 27th.
This will be the first time our snow covered Foy map will be playable and it’s unlike anything you’ve played so far!
Whatever sectors you end up fighting over, you’d better hope that when you charge through the mist you don’t run into one of these…