Hi everyone!

We’re excited to introduce our first ever Update! U1 contains the all-new Utah Beach map, light tanks, resource nodes and many more smaller changes and fixes. Each Update will mix totally new content and features with continued improvements and fixes to every aspect of the game.

We don’t consider the Hell Let Loose experience finished. Every day we look at Discord, Steam discussions, the official forums and the subreddit to see what you’re enjoying and to see where the community think the game could be improved. The challenge of developing an Early Access title is that it’s imperative that we balance the workload of the team so that we’re able to address existing issues without compromising our ability to introduce new features and content.

We’ve been very fortunate in the success of our launch as it’s enabled us to bring on new team members to both take existing content to a much higher quality level, as well as work on totally new content.

Finally, we wanted to thank you - the community - for such a great launch. It’s amazing to see the great way you’re introducing new players to the game and helping them get involved. We’re really excited to see players who’ve never considered this genre begin to dip their toes into the pool, as well as offer something a bit different to veterans of the genre.

Below you can find the list of changes contained in this update. We’re excited to get your feedback on them - good and bad - as we continue to develop and push the title forward.

Check out our new Utah Beach trailer:

https://youtu.be/QzLFuaW-ohM




This map has been hugely fun to develop. It mixes the Atlantic Wall defensive network with beach terrain, with sunken countryside, urban fights, and lots of new challenges - including navigating drainage ditches and bodies of water. We’re also excited to see how it plays out in the soon to be implemented second gamemode, Invasion.


This thing is an infantry death machine. The name of the game of the Luchs is hit and run. Firing an explosive auto-cannon - it’ll rip apart infantry and lighter armored vehicles with ease.


Similar to a more lightly armored Sherman, the Stuart relies on its speed to quickly flank and strike. Using speed to strike will be crucial to survivability.


Fuel, Munitions and Manpower Resource Nodes added to the Engineer role list of deployables. You’ll be able to see their modifier for resource generation on the HUD and on the map screen.

Starting resources for teams have been reduced to 500 from 1000 in order to better balance out resource quantity and encourage resource node placement.


Water now functions in game to slow players down as it gets deeper. Submerging yourself will also cause you to drown.

• Reworked tracers for better performance, visual quality, depth and light. They are now 3D.
  
• Fix for known config file exploits (fog removal etc.)
  
• Improved visibility of bullet hit effects at 50m, 75m, 100m, and 125m distances.

• Optimised Smoke Grenade FX
  
• Continued radical optimisations for both texture streaming and poly count across every map and prop.

• Added FOV slider (with first-person FOV compensation). Currently boosting the FOV to 120 offsets the muzzle flash FX in FPP. We’re going to introduce a fix for this.
  
• Server browser now displays better in lower resolutions.
  
• Fixed sector capture cool-down UI issue where map icon could appear in the wrong state.
  
• Changed nameplate settings options so that these should be clearer to users.
  
• Compass HUD element has been upgraded.
  
• Loadout HUD element has been upgraded.
  
• Scoreboard and end of round screens have been upgraded to better show all information.
  
• Made VoIP chat name colours better visible on deployment screen.
  
• Allowed players to disable all icons in HUD.
  
• All in-game URLs now launched through Steambrowser.
  
• Adjustment for Depth of Field when bandaging.
  
• If leaning when deploying a LMG the player no longer remains in a lean.
  
• Dismembering critically wounded friendlies no longer counts as a TK.
  
• Added option to allow you to hard toggle chat box visibility.
  
• Updated medic revive icon.
  
• Tank UIs have been updated and will continue updates.
  
• Tanks have a new reticle for the Hull MG.

• Artillery sounds re-worked in order to create a less muddy dynamic range with increased modular debris fall-off.
  
• Close bullet fly-by sounds have been reworked.
  
• Hearing an impact sound when giving up has been fixed.

• Overhaul of central SP’s to introduce stronger fortifications and more solid cover.
  
• Fixed small clipping issues.
  
• Fixed locations players could become stuck on level geometry.
  
• Added fog to better help with longer range depth perception.

• Altered layout of hedges to better allow tank access.
  
• Lowered total sun brightness to reduce clipping on highlights.
  
• Fixed locations players could become stuck on level geometry.

• Fixed tank collision issues on small props
  
• Added select cover and trenches in locations that caused meat-grinder pushes through open ground.
  
• Fixed locations players could become stuck on level geometry.

• Tweaked vehicle main cannon fire shake so that it doesn’t roll so excessively
  
• Added Depth of Field effects added to weapons for hipfire and ADS
  
• Post-processing effect has been added to all UI screens to give them added vibrancy and visual quality.
  
• Fix for explosion FX playing on the wrong axis - causing majority of the explosion to occur in the wrong direction.
  
• Starting to overhaul the main menu screen in preparation for cosmetic/progression systems.
  
• Artillery explosions have increased debris (now matching the audio).

• Fixed delay on BAR ADS animation if user had reloaded immediately before ADS
  
• Luger magazine now present in TPP for reload animations

• Improved network/server optimisation to help improve situations where users would see other players moving in a stuttering/’teleporting’ fashion depending on object relevancy and priority
  
• Fix issue where tank shells could delay 1-2 seconds after impact before detonating
  
• Fix for issue where tracers may not be correctly aligned with the direction of fire for LMGs and Tank MGs
  
• Increased character limit on scoreboard from 16 to 20
  
• Fixed issue where engineers could dismantle pre-placed tank resupply stations
  
• Fixed issue where hit indicator did not correctly work with sniper rounds
  
• Fixed issue where garrisons did not consume commander airdrop supplies
  
• Fixed issue where player could be listed as ‘no platoon’ on the scoreboard after team switch
  
• Fixed issue where users could see the other teams resource values on their map after team switch
  
• Fixed some instances of overly aggressive grass LODing
  
• Fixed issue where users could join an enemy unit based on timing specific actions
  
• ‘Change Map’ window can no longer be stuck on screen if active when a game ends by victory
  
• Fixed problem where users could hear smoke grenade audio from a previous life
  
• Fixed the issue with the player remaining in the idle animation if he sprints whilst crouched as seen from the FPP
  
• Fixed the issue with reviving a player who was crouched before he shot as he would appear to jitter in TPP after having been revived
  
• Fixed the issue with driving over the scorched craters causing the effect to appear in/on the driver's viewport
  
• Fixed the issue with scorched earth effect visible over wrecked tanks
  
• Fixed cases where it was difficult to determine speaking players in the UI.

• Sometimes (1/10 chance) when deploying a resource node, the node will be invisible and cannot be deconstructed although it still provides resources to the deploying team. This will be hotfixed.
  
• Firing into water produces a bullet hit from the surface beneath the water in addition to a water particle.

• Unit management features such as locking and kicking.
  
• Continued overhaul of stock UI and HUD features to make them better looking and better functioning - including pinging, marks, Commander screen, role selection screens, vehicle HUDs, artillery HUDs, heavy weapons HUDs.
  
• Continued digging of server browser display issue.
  
• Flamethrower FPP setup.
  
• Continued logging and bugging of VOIP channels
  
• Progression system.
  
• Stats system.
  
• Cosmetic system.
  
• Polishing FPP experience to make it more fluid
  
• Smoothing out mantling and vaulting from FPP perspective.
  
• Re-assessing MG deployment mechanic in order to increase functionality and fluidity.
  
• Replacing current fat FPP hands with photoreal hands and integrating new sleeves to reflect new uniforms.
  
• Currently beginning work on full mocap overhaul of all TPP animations.
  
• Working on Western Front backer map #1 (a very iconic map).
  
• Working on Western Front urban map (also an iconic location).
  
• Setting up a new tank.
  
• Doing testing on wheeled vehicles (this is complicated by the final polish/overhaul we’re doing to both FPP and TPP animations).
  
• Scoping out scope polish and visual enhancements.
  
• Addition of ambient audio to all maps in line with Utah Beach.
  
• Continued audio work in investigating new audio engine implementation.
  
• Continued overhaul of audio assets within the game.
  
• New US victory song coming.
  
• Re-assessing supply boxes and ammo boxes to remove ugly “redeploy” gameplay loop.
  
• Continued visual upgrades and optimisations on all maps and fx.
• Continued bug fixes across the entire spectrum.
  
• Various community reported bug fixes, including – Servers not appearing on browser and Proximity VoIP instability. If you believe servers are not appearing for you / the game looks empty when it shouldn’t be, please try the workaround listed here.
  
  
  
  Thanks - we’ll see you on the battlefield!
  
  P.S. We’ll be streaming live from the Hell Let Loose Steam Store page today at 2pm BST / 3pm CEST for a few hours. Stop by and see Update 1 in action, chat to us and join our unit on the frontline!
  

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing 33! This week we’re going to be sharing some of the new content that’s coming in tomorrow’s update.

This Developer Briefing isn’t fully comprehensive of what’s coming in Update 1, we’ll be revealing everything in our patch notes tomorrow.

Now onto the content!




As spotlighted in Developer Briefing 31, Utah Beach, our next map, is arriving in Update 1.



From the infamous beach itself to the waterlogged countryside, playing on Utah will be unlike anything you’ve experienced on our existing maps.

Be warned: Water now functions in-game to slow players down as it gets deeper. Fully submerging yourself will also cause you to drown.

From a design perspective, we’re keen that water in Hell Let Loose has a similar function that we’ve read in veteran accounts. Fundamentally, it should slow you down as a natural barrier - causing overladen soldiers to drown should they fall into deep water. Similarly, it’s makes significant noise to wade through - creating a new dynamic that makes it much easier to pinpoint enemy movement and location from audio alone.


From the shoreline...


To the dunes.

Utah Beach will be playable in our existing Warfare mode, as well as Invasion mode when it launches later this year.

Whilst the beach and the fortifications that surround it will be heavily utilised in Warfare mode gameplay, you can expect a dedicated beach assault style experience for the map in Invasion further on in Early Access.



Utah Beach also heralds the arrival of two new vehicles, the Luchs and Stuart Light Tanks!



Available on every map, these will supplement the existing tank offering on each side.

Whilst lacking the raw firepower and armour of their bigger brothers, Light Tanks excel at mobility and utility on the frontline. Infantry harassment, scouting and supporting their Medium Tank counterparts in armour battles is the mainstay of these tanks – they’re also much easier to hide!

The Luchs


Auto-cannon time!

The Stuart


Ready to punch above its weight!



As covered in our recent Developer Briefing 32, Resource Nodes are further building on the strategic layers of Hell Let Loose.



Players (Engineers) will now be in a position to dynamically create resource nodes - structures that generate a supply line of resources per minute in order to fuel frontline combat. In addition, these act as objectives and points of interest that you’ll either want to defend or attack, depending on who’s side the nodes are on. Bear in mind that the further towards the frontline you place your nodes, the more resources they generate per minute.



Not only does this give players more areas to potentially clash in a match, but successfully utilising nodes will pay dividends to both your Commander’s ability to call in their skills and ensuring your artillery can continue firing through the whole match.

This is the first iteration of Resource Nodes. We’ll be expanding their on-the-ground functionality so that they’ll be immediately useful to ground troops.

For a full breakdown on Resource Nodes, head over here.



Just because we’re bringing in a new map, it doesn’t mean we’re not going to keep giving our existing ones some love and attention!

Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont is getting some quality of life tweaks and hedge layout changes to give tank players a more fluid experience.

Foy is receiving tank collision fixes, as well as the addition of some select cover and trenches in areas that we feel needed some attention.

Then there’s Hurtgen Forest, which is getting a facelift for Update 1!


Perfect for MGs!

Hurtgen’s central Strongpoints are getting overhauled to introduced stronger fortifications and cover options for both attackers and defenders.


The Scar just got even more brutal!


Bunker anyone?



Tomorrow when Update 1 goes live we’ll be sharing our full Patch Notes which includes bug fixes, optimisation and SFX improvements, quality of life changes (FOV SLIDER!) and more.

We’re incredibly excited to welcome you to Utah Beach tomorrow. To celebrate we’ll be streaming Hell Let Loose live on our Steam Store page from 2pm BST / 3pm CEST for a couple of hours. Feel free to stop by and let us know what you think of the update, as well as dropping us any questions you may have in chat!

See you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Today we're excited to let you all know that Update 1 will be available to all players this coming Thursday, July 18th.

We'll be revealing what new content you'll be getting to grips with in tomorrow's Developer Briefing, which will be followed by Patch Notes when the update drops on Thursday.

In the meantime...



See you on the beaches!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing 32! This week we’re officially revealing ‘Resource Nodes’, the first stage of new features designed to add further RTS style tactical depth and player options to our existing Warfare game mode.

Resource Nodes will be arriving in Update 1 alongside other new content such as Utah Beach, but what are their purpose and how will they change the meta?

Let’s find out…



Resource Nodes are a new deployable for Engineers that generate resources per minute for your team.

These nodes come in three different varieties – Fuel, Munitions and Manpower.


German Resource Nodes

Successfully utilising these new tools will keep your Artillery firing and allow your Commander to utilise their abilities more often and for longer in a match.

To add to the importance of Resource Nodes we’re reducing the starting amount of all resources to 500. If you want those Arty guns to keep firing, you’d best build up and protect your infrastructure!

• Deployable by Engineers at a cost of 50 supply each
  
• Can only be built in controlled territory
  
• Each node generates 5 resource a minute at base level.
  
• Can be dismantled by any enemy players
  
• Can be dismantled by any friendly players
  
• Immune to weapon damage
  
• Only two resource nodes of each type can be constructed per team – A maximum of 6 per team.
  
• There is no spacing rule on how close Resource Nodes can be built next to each other
  
• Scaling resource generation based on location
  
• Cannot be built in HQ Sectors
  
• Losing the territory they’re in WILL NOT destroy them
  
• Captured territory will still generate passive resource income.

To add a further element of risk – reward to Resource Nodes, they will gain substantially more supplies the further they are away from your HQ Sectors. We’ll break it down below:

• First row after HQ = x1
  
• Second row after HQ = x2
  
• Third row after HQ = x3

And so on!

Players will need to decide whether they keep their Resource Nodes near strongpoints or build them in a location(s) away from the focus of combat to keep them safer.



If you do decide to build a Resource Node hub away from a strongpoint, keep in mind that you’ll still encounter enemy scouts, vehicles and flanking units – as well as a potential call for strongpoint backup from Command if the enemy make a push into your territory.


US Resource Nodes

You probably spotted the point we made earlier about losing the territory that a Resource Node is in will not destroy it, unlike Observation Posts and Garrisons.

This rewards tactical placement and can even lead to some soldiers staying deep behind enemy lines as they secure a vital resource feed for their team to fuel a counterattack. Oh and make use of mines, they can make defending your Resource Nodes a lot easier!

If your team has just taken an enemy territory, it might be worth sending a unit or two to sweep the area for any entrenched foes and their nodes…



That wraps up our introduction to Resource Nodes! With this addition we’re hoping to add a new layer of strategy to Warfare mode and give players more tactical decisions and combat options that take advantage of the whole map in every match they play.

Keep those supply lines open or feel the effects of attrition…

See you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing 31! This week we’re taking a first look at some of the new map features that players will be contesting with when Utah arrives later this month.

From the beach itself and the bunkers that litter the battlefield to the unique terrain that you’ll be contesting, this briefing will give you a first real glimpse at what’s coming in our next map.

We’re not revealing everything today though; we’ll leave a few surprises for you…



June 6th, 1944 signalled the start of the Allies liberation of German-occupied France as a land, sea and air invasion began across multiple fronts.

In that assault five beachfronts were chosen as landing locations for allied forces coming from Britain, with one beach on the Cotentin Peninsula being the target of the US 4th Infantry Division, 70th Tank Battalion as well as the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. That beach was Utah.


Draw your battle lines, the Utah tactical map is here!


Surprising absolutely nobody, one of Utah’s prominent features is the beach itself, which serves as the US Forces HQ in the existing ‘Warfare’ mode. When ‘Invasion’ mode launches further down the line, this initial location for the US forces will be far from safe at the start of a match…



Fighting in this area will be unlike anything seen in our existing maps, with bunkers and elevated terrain becoming key tactical locations for all forces engaged in that area.



Machine Gunners will be incredibly strong when utilising bunkers, giving them the ability to cover and suppress huge swathes of the map in relative safety. Knowing how to both support and counter them will reward tactically mindful units.




Whilst a significant landmark, the beach itself is just one part of the overall map. After progressing past the beach players will find themselves moving inland and into heavily fortified countryside…


From the sands of the coastline…


To the flooded fields

You’ll be fighting over trench systems and military checkpoints to secure a variety of different strongpoints to lock down suitable Garrison areas for your team.


Where are your papers?


A prime location for your team’s Commander?



Utah will be coming to Hell Let Loose, alongside other new content mid-July. We’re just in the process of adding some polish and locking in the final build before we give you all a fixed date, so watch this space!




Resource Nodes! We’ll be showcasing and explaining this upcoming content feature that will add further tactical depth and strategic options, both offensively and defensively for the existing ‘Warfare’ mode.

We’ll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

We've just deployed a small patch to address the following issues that have been reported to us:

• Changed default VoIP, microphone, and audio settings to better normalise VoIP volume levels for new users.
  
• VoIP icons now display for users when the map is open.
  
• Fixed an issue where sometimes users would not be properly connected to the leadership VoIP channel.
  
• Fixed an issue where warning or error dialogues would automatically dismiss rather than wait for user input.

The team are aware of other areas that need addressing thanks to your feedback and we're currently working on fixing those too, including but not limited to Proximity VoIP and missing servers on the server browser.

Thank you all for your patience and support whilst we address known bugs.

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!