Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #30! In this weeks briefing we’re taking a deeper look at armour in Hell Let Loose and how it behaves under heavy weapon fire.

How does armour work in Hell Let Loose? Do angles matter? Are there ricochets? Are the Bazooka and Panzerschreck in the same weapon class?

All this and a little bit more will be explained below…



Initially we set out to design a system that would be as close to real life as we could manage within a game. We looked at calibers, velocities, thickness, type of metal and many other aspects. We built a system that at best could be described as “complicated” and at worst could be described as “insane”. We would set up each component and ultimately due to the number of factors present the outcome for each armoured engagement started to feel more and more random the more testing we did. Often in developing the game, we start at something as close to reality as possible, and then quickly find that the actual player experience actually feels far more random than designed.

With this in mind, we stepped back and asked ourselves what the most important factors for gameplay would be. Fundamentally, we felt that we needed the following:

• Predictable: when you fired a particular type of weapon at a particular angle at a particular vehicle we wanted the outcome to be the same. We felt that by making sure this action always had the same outcome then it would create a base from which players could learn various weapon strengths, armor strengths and the resulting weaknesses and strengths of a vehicle. If the outcome always felt random, players wouldn’t be able to successfully decide where to aim as the strategy would always just be “keep firing!”.
  
  
• Binary: by this we mean that the veterans accounts of armoured warfare that we’d read would make note of the fact that a single penetrating hit would make the tank inoperable (due to internal damage and crew fatalities). A round wouldn’t penetrate and take off health - it would penetrate and blow up the tank or kill all crew. We felt that we needed to model this experience in the game - making sure that as a tanker you are focused on swiftly destroying your enemy instead of chipping away at a health pool.
  
  
• Layer of complexity: it was a very hard task to balance the binary nature of armoured combat with a system that encouraged field repairs and component damage. We didn’t want to absolutely overwhelm players with a seemingly endless array of outcomes whenever they took damage - we wanted to focus them on immediate issues that affected the current performance of the vehicle. In veteran accounts these broke down very easily into weapon damage and movement damage (whether engine but - more commonly - tracks).
  
  
• What just happened?: a common question we asked in other games was “what just happened?” We’d shoot an enemy vehicle and an explosion and sound would play, but we’d not know what the outcome of that was. As a result, we spent a lot of time trying to design visual outcomes (fx, sfx, decals) that would communicate the result of your shot on an enemy vehicle.
  
  
• Flexible: we needed to design a system that would account for all weapons and all vehicle types. We feel that we’ve got pretty close to creating a system that lets us carve out the functionality of each vehicle and help us place it in the “animal kingdom” of the vehicle hierarchy in-game.

With those points in mind, we’ll break down some of our thinking below:

In Hell Let Loose vehicles don’t have ‘traditional HP’. We don’t want our Anti-Tank players and vehicles to engage in a hitpoint based slugging match – we want something more tactical and rewarding for all involved.

That brings us to the armour system we use in-game, penetration. To successful destroy a vehicle you need to penetrate through its armour and land killing hit. In order to achieve this the following factors are all taken into account:

• The shape and angle of the armour you hit
  
• The type of weapon you fire at armour
  
• The type and location of the armour hit
  
• Area specific/component damage status

The inherent shape of our historic vehicles isn’t just for show! Through clever use of angling your vehicles armour, or your shot, tactical players can capitalise on this mechanic and either maximise their survivability or increase their lethality… Depending on which side of the engagement they’re on!

One example of this is the front of a Panther. It’s incredibly well angled so that striking it with a Sherman or a Bazooka will lead to the round either deflecting or not penetrating and detonating on the armour plate – causing no damage.


*Laughs in front armour*

Hitting a tank perpendicular (flat-on) will lead to the best results for damage! Tankers, keep this in mind to avoid damage by angling your vehicle toward fire, and by using a hull-down position to present the smallest target possible.


That'll leave a mark!


In order to accurately represent the real-life relationship between World War 2 weapons, armour and their capabilities we’ve implemented a range of different weapon and armour classed in game that reflect this.

One example of this is the Panzerschreck. With a heavier warhead than the Bazooka we class it as a heavier weapon class than its American counterpart.

This means that whilst the Panzerschreck has an easier time penetrating most vehicles when compared to the Bazooka, it carries only two rockets whilst the Bazooka has four.

This train of thought carries over to tank and anti-tank guns too, so keep those calibres in mind!



When an armoured vehicle is hit, the game immediately checks the calibre of the weapon that hit it as well as the angle that it was struck at.

If a weapon’s calibre heavily outclasses the armour of the vehicle, then the weapon will immediately penetrate - cutting through like a hot knife through butter. On the flipside, if a weapon is similar or less powerful than the armour it’s attempting to penetrate then something called a ‘bounce check’ will occur.

This is calculated according to the angle of the attack compared to the angle of the armour. For example if a shot around a 45-degree angle his a tank it’ll bounce, but it doesn’t stop there…


A deflected round stays active until it hits something – including trees, the ground, soldiers or… You!

Top tip: Tanks are most vulnerable on their rear and in their tracks. Striking them in these locations can damage that locale and lead to a successful ‘kill shot’.


Step 1 - Make your mark!


Step 2 - Finish the job!


Alternative step - Be a tank!


The last part of armour in Hell Let Loose we’re going to talk about today is the ability to damage specific vehicle components. We’re looking into the potential of expanding upon this in the future, but currently tanks can have areas including their turret and tracks damaged to create negative effects.

For example a damaged turret loses the ability to use its coaxial machine gun, whilst a tank with damaged tracks is stuck in first gear.

Keep in mind that once a certain component is damaged to the point of being destroyed, a follow-up shot to that component/location that penetrates will lead to the destruction of the tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp0mpxsadsw&feature=youtu.be


Ultimately, we want our vehicles in Hell Let Loose to reflect on the veteran accounts that the team have read and studied. Armoured units working closely with infantry and vice versa. Tank duels should favour surprise attacks, patience and realistic tactics that favour the specific vehicles facing off on the frontline.

As we continue to build upon the range and variety of vehicles and armour in Hell Let Loose we’re going to be adjusting and tweaking both the armour systems and weapon classes to carve out a unique identity for each vehicle and anti-vehicle weapon to highlight their role in a given battle.

The first example of this in action will be when Light Tanks roll onto the frontline as our next armoured vehicles. More news on that in the future though…

We’ll see you on the frontline!



Join us this Friday (June 27th) for a publisher livestream!

Community Manager Jonno will be taking to the frontline for three hours from 13:30 BST / 14:30 CEST / 08:30 ET live from the Hell Let Loose Steam Store page!

If you'd like to see Hell Let Loose in-action live, ask us your questions or fight in alongside us be sure to stop by.

Hey everyone,

Patch #2 is now live!

The most significant addition in this patch is the leaning mechanic! Players will now be able to lean around cover to observe or engage in combat whilst leaving less of them on show.



We just want to say thank you for sharing your thoughts with us on leaning, on this occasion it allowed us to bring the mechanic’s implementation forward and get it live!

Full patch notes that include weapon tweaks, quality of live improvements and more can be found below:

• Leaning implemented (using Q and E). We will look at continued polish to this pending community feedback.
  
• Maximum round length decreased from 120 minutes to 90 minutes. We are testing this as we currently find the final 30 minutes on an attrition battle highly fatiguing.
  
• Aim can be steadied for all guns using left shift to better reward patience.
  
• Projectile spread pattern changed for sniper rifles when un-scoped.
  
• Tank coaxial and hull MGs have been limited to lower belt sizes (1000 to 250) in order to cut down on endless barrel-melting fire and to incentivise discretionary fire.
  
• Assault class has additional grenades to make them more suited to a breaching/CQB role.
  
• Suppression camera shake has increased violence to better match release-style.
  
• Kar 98k bolt speed adjusted to remove frustrating delay.
  
• Springfield bolt speed adjusted to remove frustrating delay.
  
• LMG (M1919/MG42) one hit kill range increased and damage fall-off reduced.
  
• Medic loadout updated to mirror layout across both teams.
  
• Commander loadout updated to include smoke grenades.
  
• Bleeding icon for players within 100m added for medic.
  
• Profanity filter added to text chat (English only at present).

• Additional optimisations to save on VRAM usage on some graphical settings.
  
• Particle FX Optimisation in Foy.

• Map retains zoom level from when last closed.
  
• Toggle sprint option added.

• Ambient cornering and momentum lean on player movement (this makes all sprinting look far more natural when a player is changing direction at range).
  
• New STG44 animations to make firing less “floppy” and more satisfying when firing while ADS.
  
• Changed crouch sprint speed for M1 Carbine to stop the “super fast running” in TPP.
  
• Fixed an instance of ‘snaking’ (where a player appears to be prone and moving at run speed).

• Fixed issue where artillery sometimes could not be rotated.
  
• Fixed issue where supply drop was sometimes out of sync with plane.
  
• Bloom change for tank crew so the viewports don’t become super bright in Foy.
  
• Fixed issue where artillery could be invisible for some players.

• Weapon hip DoF implemented to soften shapes near camera and to better blend lean (where geometry is very close to camera).

• Map rotation added to RCon tool.

• Audio changes to tank coaxial machine-gun.

• Changes to collision for tanks in Foy to help alleviate snagging on fences and small props.

• There may be some remaining snaking that we will pinpoint and isolate.
  
• Some props and fences in Hurtgen and Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont are still impassable to tanks. We will be addressing this in Update 1.

Currently working on (non-exhaustive list, we just want to give you some idea)

• Making vaulting more responsive, fluid and polished.
  
• Making MG deployment more responsive, fluid and polished.
  
• Additional RCON commands.
  
• Unit management functions (kick/invite and lock).
  
• Optimisations.
  
• Diving (performed by proning while sprinting).
  
• Bullet penetration.
  
• Map balancing (addition of cover and other features in locations that are either boring or creating a tedious gameplay experience).
  
• Vehicles.
  
• Flamethrowers.
  
• More maps.
  
• Continuing HUD and UI updates.
  
• Broader animation systems.
  
• Tweaking gunplay.
  
• Updating all audio and SFX.

Following today's patch the team are now preparing for 'Update 1' coming in mid-July! Over the coming weeks we'll be starting to reveal more about the new content you'll be getting to grips with, so watch this space...

If you’re keen to follow along, you can see our roadmap below:



If you’re enjoying Hell Let Loose, you can help us by leaving us a review on Steam.

See you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #29! This week we’re giving you the first look at leaning in Hell Let Loose ahead of its addition to the game in Patch #2 later this week!

We’d always planned to bring leaning to Hell Let Loose once we’d finished implementing vaulting, but after seeing your requests to get the mechanic in the game sooner the team have brought this forward to bring leaning to the frontline.

Please be aware that this is the first iteration of leaning. We will continue to add polish to the mechanic in the future.





Once Patch #2 goes live later this week all players will have the ability to lean when either standing up or crouched.





To lean left you just need to press Q and to lean right E. This is a useful ability when scouting, fighting in urban environments or behind cover to reduce your risk of being shot, whilst still enabling you to look around your choice of cover and engage hostile forces.



Top Tip: Whilst less of you is on show when leaning, there’s still enough of you showing to get shot so don’t push your luck!




That wraps up our introduction to leaning in Hell Let Loose!

Once again we’d like to say thank you to everyone who shared their feedback with us, as well as the requests for leaning. By letting us know that you wanted this we’ve been able to bring it forward on this occasion.

Patch #2 will be deploying later this week with further tweaks and fixes alongside leaning. We’ll be sharing the patch notes with you all on the day!

We’ll see you on the frontline.

Hi everyone!

We’re excited to bring you on the patch and update journey with us. We’re aiming to patch as frequently as possible to make sure your experience keeps improving. We know there are so many things people are looking forward to and we’re excited to get them in. While we’ve got some exciting large features coming in our first Update (due mid July), we are keen to continue optimising and improving the game across the board. You can find the changelog for our first patch below:

• Lowered total recoil for MP40, STG, BAR and Thompson.
  
• Reduced time it takes for suppression to subside (we will be revisiting this as per community and dev feedback - including changing the nature of the “flinch”).
  
• All bullet headshots now kill (previously there were instances where a player could survive a headshot).
  
• The Kar98k now kills at a longer range with less damage fall-off beyond that.
  
• The M1 Garand has less severe damage fall-off.
  
• Shortened the delay between the M1 Garand reload and returning to fire (we will still work on this).
  
• Shortened the delay between firing the Kar98k and bolting (we will still work on this).
  
• Lifted the vault and mantle height to 160cm to allow players to climb out of trenches much easier, but to maintain the blocking factor of high walls (which cannot be climbed).
  
• Reduced bloom on tank viewports so the sunlight isn’t blinding in Foy.
  
• Commander periscope now uses mouse instead of WASD in order to buff its usefulness. We want to reward the commander slot with the ability to quickly be the eyes and ears for the crew.

• Added a slider that allows players to change the time body-parts take to despawn. If you are running on a minimum spec machine we recommend lowering this. This won’t let you despawn them instantly, but it will let you lower it from the 5 minute standard which we suspect is putting enormous drain on lower end machines and contributing to spiked FPS issues (an artillery strike or bombing run can cause upwards of 70-100 individual body-parts that need to be tracked in every direction).
  
• Large vram texture memory optimisations across all character models. This should take some burden away from graphics cards.

• Added the ability to change ADS sensitivity as a separate option in the options menu.
  
• Added a number for mouse sensitivity (instead of only a slider).
  
• Added a HELP button for when players receive a “no compatible servers found” message in the server browser.
  
• Double clicking a server in the server browser now joins you to the server.
  
• Players are no longer kicked for being idle if using a mouse in the deployment menu.
  
• Tank HUD indicators have been updated to behave the same as infantry ones, and only show occupied positions.
  
• We’ve implemented a scroll bar on the server browser so it’s more obvious that you can scroll down to see more servers.

• Improved TPP animation when rotating with the M1 Carbine and the Springfield.

• Fixed a bug where players could not launch the title with all audio devices disabled.
  
• Made it easier for players to walk out of foxholes (no more need for awkward jump/vaulting).
  
• Fixed a bug where players appeared to perform the climb or vault animation when viewed by another player as they deployed.
  
• Fixed a bug where players could see through blood spatters on objects.
  
• Fixed a bug where players appeared to teleport to another part of the map while vaulting.
  
• Fixed a bug where players were able to equip or un-equip helmets while on the deployment and ‘You Have Died’ screens.
  
• Corrected the arrow colour for German teams when entering a strong point.

• Added RCon feature to set an idle kick time.
  
• Added password option to community servers.

• Updated bullet fly-by sounds to make them more prominent.

• Locked down several aspects of the title on both server and client side.

• Distance teleporting (we’re aware of what is causing this and we’re dialling in on a fix for patch 2).
  
• Server browser issues (this is a variety of different issues relating to UE4 games and Steam’s server listing. We’re dialling in on a fix for patch 2).
  
• Memory leaks (we’re currently dialling in the cause of this).
  
• New sector markers on HUD are too large and obstructive. These will be altered in Patch #2.

(non-exhaustive list, we just want to give you some idea):

• Leaning using Q and E (we are aiming for implementing this in patch 2)
  
• Making vaulting more responsive, fluid and polished.
  
• Making MG deployment more responsive, fluid and polished.
  
• Ambient cornering and momentum lean on player movement (this makes all sprinting look far more natural when a player is changing direction at range).
  
• Additional RCON commands.
  
• Unit management functions (kick/invite and lock).
  
• Optimisations.
  
• Diving (performed by proning while sprinting).
  
• Bullet penetration.
  
• Map balancing (addition of cover and other features in locations that are either boring or creating a tedious gameplay experience).
  
• Vehicles.
  
• Flamethrowers.
  
• More maps.
  
• Continuing HUD and UI updates.
  
• Broader animation systems.
  
• Tweaking gunplay.
  
• Updating all audio and SFX.

If you’re keen to follow along, you can see our roadmap below:


If you’re enjoying Hell Let Loose, you can help us by leaving us a review on Steam.

See you on the frontline!

Hi everyone. We wanted to give you an update as soon as possible on our anti-cheating measures:

Some of you may have noticed that a number of players have circumvented our anti-cheating measures within the last 24 hours - ruining the gameplay experience for everyone else. Please know that we are actively banning these players as quickly as we can.

In an effort to eliminate cheating, we’ll be rolling out an update to our servers that should remove players’ ability to engage with the various cheats currently being exploited. We’re expecting this update to go live as soon as possible tomorrow (most likely AM BST).

The server update will be rolling out on a server by server basis, after which we’ll be closely monitoring the game to ensure that everything is up and running – and of course that cheaters are nowhere to be found. Should you encounter any server issues or cheaters of any kind after this update, please let us know as soon as possible, so we can investigate the issue.

As an additional step to help combat potential cheating, we have decided to disable Family Sharing for Hell Let Loose. We apologize to any players that may be affected by this change; your experience with Hell Let Loose is of key importance to us, and we want to ensure that we’ve taken every possible step to prevent cheaters from ruining your experience.

See you on the front line!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #28 and our first since Early Access launch!

For those of you that have joined since Early Access, welcome! Developer Briefings are a weekly behind the scenes looks at Hell Let Loose from the team.

From upcoming content, to feature previews and events, this is our weekly update to the community!

This week's Developer Briefing is written by Lead Developer Max as he shares his thoughts on Early Access launch and discusses what's on the horizon:



Thank you for such a fantastic launch! It’s been an amazing couple of days (although each day feels like a week in itself) and we’ve been riding the wave - collecting bug reports, looking at feedback, responding on Reddit, Discord, the forums and the Steam discussion groups.

We’re so excited to see the community get a sense of the game - and be excited about all the bugs to be fixed or the features to come. What we’re doing now is QA testing our first patch. Within this patch we’ll start to roll out fixes and continued polish. Our approach to developing Hell Let Loose is one in which we work with you - the community - to fix the things that you care about - all the while working on new content.

This is in no way exhaustive, we will be releasing another patch next week that will continue the work we’re doing here and we’re scoping out the contents for patches up to our first content update (scheduled for mid July).

Once we’re confident with the contents of patch 1 we’ll be releasing the changelog so you can see exactly what has been changed or improved.

We have been recording all feedback from across all our channels - forums, Discord, Reddit and the Steam Discussion boards and adding them to our bug and feature tracker.

Please be aware that just because you don’t see a bug fixed in this patch that we’ve forgotten it. We are working as hard as possible to balance stability with a rapid bug-fix rate, as well as polish systems currently in the game.



We want to thank you all for the generosity you’ve shown to both us as the devs, and to players who are brand new to the genre. We know that the first weeks of launch are always chaotic to some degree - as players get used to mechanics, metagame and all the nuances of it. At the same time we’re always playing and making notes - whether certain things work or don’t, and how we’d improve them.



While we’re excited to have launched Hell Let Loose, we don’t consider it a time to sit back and relax. The whole dev team is busy pushing forwards to improve the experience you’re having.

Before we go into any specifics, we want to clarify our thoughts on leaning. We are confirming that we will be seeking to expedite leaning (using Q and E) and bring it in as soon as possible - schedule permitting. We will seek to include it either in Update 1 or earlier.

While the programming team and mappers are working hard on bugs, content and new maps, the animation guys are working their way through feedback.

We’re in the process of expanding the functionality and fluidity of the vaulting and mantling system, smoothing out and speeding up some key reload and bolting animations and doing a pass on the third person animations. We’re also looking at expanding and adding to the functionality of the MG deployment system.

Our HUD/UX artist is continuing their pass on all things 2D in Hell Let Loose. We’ve read all the feedback regarding marking the map, the spotting system and legibility on the map itself. We’re also currently balancing the continued overhaul of the current screens in the game, with the scoreboard getting the next beauty treatment to increase its legibility and functionality.



In other news, we’re doing an audit on all sounds in the project and are beginning to work through the feedback. We’re aware of the places we’re failing in this and we’re excited to lift the quality to the level that you expect.

Our amazing character artist is hard at work creating all new uniforms that will feed in to our introduction of the cosmetic and progression system. We’re nailing down the exact specific of hour our progression system will work, but we’re keen to demonstrate your veteran status with any role via a new uniform that players will see on the battlefield.





Lastly, when we create a new map, our number one priority is giving you an experience in Hell Let Loose that you’ve never had before. We want you to encounter a totally different environment with its own new challenges and benefits. Much of Utah consists of the Atlantic Wall - the giant network of built defenses that wrapped along the coast of Western Europe to stave off an invasion attempt from Great Britain. We’re working hard to create interesting new interiors, like the underground barracks you can see below:


Attack or defend the entrance to the barracks!


Put your CQC skills to the ultimate test underground!

If you’re keen to follow along, you can see our roadmap below:



If you’re enjoying Hell Let Loose, you can help us by leaving us a review on Steam.

See you on the frontline!