Hi everyone!

We apologise for one of the longest turnaround times between patches that we’ve experienced so far. We had a ton to fix and tweak and wanted to make sure our brilliant QA team had the time to test everything we’re sending down the pipe. With Update 4 currently in full swing and Sainte-Mère-Église going through some final optimisation, we needed to make sure the Patch would be as bullet-proof as possible.

Patch 8 contains a lot of fixes to both the back-end - including server and client crashes - and to the front end - including the introduction of a new server queue and large-scale tweaks to the Offensive gamemode and fixes to the audio fall-off. There are a lot of notes, so be prepared to dig in.



Server Queuing

You can now queue for a server in Hell Let Loose. We’ve currently limited the total queue spots to 6, with Admins having the ability to adjust the number down. We’ve capped the server queue count to encourage server seeding and avoid situations where we may have 100 players queued across a similar region, instead of a new server up and populated.

Customisation

Added many new German helmets to the cosmetics array. The majority are unlocked by increasing your Career level. Several are unlocked by increasing the Sniper and Spotter Role level.

• Fixed: Players have reported their career level decreasing or exponentially increasing after several consecutive games.
  
• Fixed: The Allies Medic has graphical issues on all Heads when the Melton Winter Coat is selected.
  
• Fixed: Crashed airplanes have increased collision with tanks on the left wing.
  
• Fixed: Certain Steam users are not affected by the global banning system.
  
• Fixed: Graphical issues can occur when entering/exiting vehicles and changing seats if the player is changing weapons while entering.
  
• Fixed: Debug text is displayed when US Engineers attempt to place a resource node on columns I and J.
  
• Fixed: The post-match experience calculation may occasionally freeze for Career Lv100 Players.
  
• Fixed: The Objective distance indicator does not update accordingly when the player is over a kilometer away from said objective.
  
• Fixed: If both final sectors are being captured when a match ends, the following match will not load as the timer will loop indefinitely.
  
• Fixed: Two hour bans are not lifted automatically after the two hours have elapsed.
  
• Fixed: There is no value next to the 'Audio' sliders and is inconsistent with the sliders in the other settings menus.

• Implemented and expanded bullet fly-by ricochet and snap volume. You will now notice incoming nearby small arms fire.
  
• MG42 FPP sound improvement.
  
• M1919 FPP sound improvement.
  
• All weapons have been rebalanced, polished and had attenuation adjusted to keep them louder at range.
  
• Vehicle engine and fire sound mix changes.

• Added a new RCON command “Set High Ping Threshold” to change or disable kicking players with high ping.
  
• Added a new RCON command “Set Max Queued Players” to change the number of players that can be in the server queue at the same time.

• Tweaked TPP muzzle flashes to be 3D and now visible from front-on.

• Fixed: Players can clip through a bunker roof by performing a jump-prone action while standing on-top of an item.
  
• Fixed: Grass and terrain clipping inside one of the bunkers in sector I3.
  
• Fixed: A small tree has incorrect bullet collision.
  
• Fixed: Two bunkers in I4 have invisible collision blocking their entrances.
  
• Fixed: A bunker in I3 has invisible collision blocking its entrance.
  
• Fixed: A specific building's front wall has no player collision.
  
• Fixed: There are multiple cases of destroyed tanks with partially failed collision along the shoreline of Omaha Beach.
  
• Fixed: Partially failed collision with a destroyed armored vehicle in the H7 sector.
  
• Fixed: Window LOD issue in Omaha sector D5.
  
• Fixed: There is a layer of water present in the fountains and wells that does not react to bullet penetration.
  
• Fixed: Destroyed buildings between the cliff and the beach will change their geometry due to an LOD issue.
  
• Fixed: Extended collision is present of the grounded cliff faces placed behind the German artillery in sector A6 of the map.
  
• Fixed: The player can get stuck inside one of the stables present in a a specific barn in the B7 map sector.
  
• Fixed: There is a visible seam in the water when deploying on the US team.
  
• On Omaha, the player is able to see a small section of the edge of the map in sectors A7, A5 and A4.
  
• Fixed: Wave animation present on a net located inside a barn in the F6 map sector.
  
• Fixed: The brick walls near the beach on Omaha are observed to have visual issues.
  
• Fixed: An audio error is occurring in specific areas of the beach.

We’ve read a huge amount of feedback across all channels, as well as collated our own through playing the map with you. We’ve made some changes to the gamemode below and outlined our rationale for those changes. Please know that we’ll adjust any of these changes against your feedback and our play experience. We are keen to make sure the Offensive gamemode has the right level of intensity and asymmetrical balance as we can achieve.


Reduced number of first active sectors on the beach from two to one.

Currently the US forces are able to spread themselves easily into the inactive sector and push around the German defenders and take the beach faster than we’d intended. We’ve altered the first row of the Offensive mode to now only have one active sector that the Germans must defend and the US must attack.


Attackers now land only in the single active sector.

The largest change to the gamemode is that for the first sector only, we keep only one strongpoint in play. This means that the landing experience will be far more intense and fraught, with the US forces taking considerable fire as they come in. Instead of deciding to land all along the beach, US forces will now need to land in the active sector - consolidating both teams efforts around one location. Please note: once the first row (the beach) has been captured the available sectors will widen back out to two.


US tanks now only spawn in the active sector.

Due to the US forces being able to field three tanks immediately on the beach, the Germans were often more scared to peek at the beach than the attackers. We’ve limited the attackers tank spawn to the active sector, meaning that they’ll have one instead of three tanks to use. Once the first row is taken, all other sectors will spawn their tanks as normal.

Allow attackers to push beyond current attacking sector by 1.

We felt that this was overly restrictive and punished the success of the attacking force. This was designed to consolidate action around the front line. Instead, we now let the attackers push into the sector beyond the active one, but limit them from pushing deeper than that.

Increased the turn back timer to 30 seconds for vehicles out of bounds.

While Infantry could nimbly turn around, many vehicles were overshooting the boundary and being destroyed simply because they could not reverse or turn fast enough. We’ve increased the turn back timer for vehicles to 30 seconds in order to make it much easier to retreat without losing your vehicle. We recommend that you don’t leave your vehicle in this time.


Round start timer for staging.

We’ve implemented a two minute round timer for staging, so that players with slower HDDs are able to load and form up before all landing on the beach (or running to their MG nests).

• LOD issue occurring on one of the trees in the German spawn.
  
• The in game map does not correctly represent the actual position of the player by approximately 10m in specific locations.
  
• Stretched textures are present on non-ground floor levels of the Brecourt Manor.

• Fixed a potential server crash triggered by character customisation.
  
• Fixed a potential server crash in the replication graph code.
  
• Fixed a potential server crash triggered by an issue with the engine’s garbage collection.
  
• Fixed client crashes when changing map to Omaha from an active game.

• Sainte-Mère-Église German Offensive and Warfare Gamemodes.
  
• New unlockable role loadouts.
  
• In-game loadout and customisation selection.
  
• Server host reserved slots.
  
• Continued wide-spread optimisations.

• Continuing HUD and UI updates.
  
• Implementing mocap and making large changes to our TPP animation systems. These will result in a much more natural look and feel.
  
• Our FPP experience - with a focus on gunplay - is being overhauled in a separate branch.
• This is to both match our new TPP look, but also to greatly increase the fluidity of the FPP experience.
  
• Diving (performed by proning while sprinting). This is wrapped up with our FPP overhaul currently.
  
• Bullet penetration.
  
• Map balancing (addition of cover and other features in locations that are either boring or creating a tedious gameplay experience).
  
• Wheeled vehicles.
  
• Three new maps are currently at different stages of development.
  
• Updating all audio and SFX. We’ve been testing reflections and different reverb volumes alongside all new weapon fire and reload sounds.

We’ve read the subreddit, Discord and forum feedback and are making the Garand sight picture easier to use! You can expect to see this in U4.

Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts and feedback on all elements of Hell Let Loose with us, it does make a difference.



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 #46! This week we’re incredibly excited to share with you
a look at the next map to be added to Hell Let Loose - the French town of Sainte-Mère-Église.




The largest urban map to be added so far to Hell Let Loose, Sainte-Mère-Église is a faithful 1:1 recreation of the location made famous by the D-Day paradrop landings in and around the town.



The town - which stretches across the three middle sectors of the map - is dominated by the enormous church at its center and will force both teams to engage in tense street-to-street combat as they seek to push the enemy back out into the fields on either side.



Narrow lanes and alleyways create mazes between buildings before opening out onto the wider town streets and main church square. Armored units will need to take care as they enter the closer confines of the town - as mines and enemy anti-tank infantry will make short work of them if left alone.



Outside of the town, the countryside is made up of drainage ditches, small hamlets and farms. More dramatic height differences allow for armored units to command dominating positions and reign supreme.











Sainte-Mère-Église will be coming to Hell Let Loose this November!

Join us next week for another Developer briefing where we’ll have more to share!

See you on the front lines!

Good news! We’ve extended the Hell Let Loose sale to last over the weekend until 6PM BST on October 21st!

Board the landing craft now!

Hi everyone!

We want to thank you for an absolutely huge weekend. We had an enormous number of people both jump into the game, and then support the game further by buying a copy! To those new players, we want to say welcome, and to the veterans - we want to say thank you for taking to the front lines to give a guiding hand to newcomers.

Hell Let Loose is very much a work in progress. As a dev team, we love adding content, fixing bugs, overhauling systems and working to bring the game to the highest level of quality that we can. We hope that over the course of our Early Access you’ll see significant steps forward in each of these areas and we’re looking forward to having you join on the journey with us.



We’ve been reading a lot of feedback and feel that Offensive mode has brought a great new set of tactical and strategic challenges, but that it definitely needs to be polished. We collate large amounts of feedback and pair it with meta-data to give us a good picture of win rates and different aspects of how the mode is performing (we’re also playing in there with you!).

We want to share our reflections with you now:

• The initial beach experience needs to be much more fraught and dangerous for the US forces. Currently the first beach sectors are captured very quickly - due to an abundance of US armor and the sheer breadth of the beach itself. This is leading to it being easy to push the beach, as well as silent and generally lacking the iconic atmosphere you expect.
  
  
• It is very unsatisfying to push the enemy all the way back to the final sector row and then lose the game as the US forces.
  
  
• Driving a tank out of bounds in Offensive mode punishes you far too quickly - causing a loss of armor that could be avoided if the timers were more generous.
  
  
• It is frustrating as US forces to not be able to push more than one sector in - in order to take down crucial Garrisons and OPs behind the boundary.

We’ve already implemented tweaks that deal with many of these issues and they’ll be applied the next time we update. We’re using our time in Early Access to really hone in on the key desired experience for both Warfare and Offensive. Tied to these is the resource metagame, role of the Commander and then each role beneath the Commander. As the game develops, you’ll see each role evolve and be fleshed out in functionality and their place on the battlefield.

Later in Early Access we’ll be introducing the Campaign metagame, in which both Offensive mode and Warfare will sit. Before then, it’s crucial that we make sure both game-modes are performing as intended.

• A plethora of bugs, crashes and bad optimisation caused issues for players on lower end machines or specific graphics cards or CPUs. These are all aspects that we’re working hard to fix. Optimisation will be an ongoing thing. Many of our assets are now streamlined and becoming increasingly optimised - but we’ll be doing a large optimisation push for our release from EA.
  
  
• The experience/progression bug is incredibly frustrating for obvious reasons. Fortunately, our QA team were able to jump in over the weekend and play a large number of full population games back to back in order to reproduce it. This is near the top of our list for a fix.
  
  
• Sound attenuation distances were too low and too quiet. In the push to move to the upgraded audio engine, we’ve redesigned our assets and this was an unfortunate side effect. You’ll see a significant fix for this in the next time we update the game. We’ve also worked specifically on the assets for the M1919 and the MG42. We feel they need improvement and you’ll be able to hear the difference in the next time we update.

Our FPP and TPP animation is possibly our weakest area now - we animations feeling overly stiff and lacking fluidity. We are working extremely hard to bring you our Version 2 animation overhaul. This is made up of three parts:

1. New photoreal hands, including customisation appropriate hands/sleeves (ie. wearing the winter uniform will mean your FPP hands will be gloved and have the winter sleeves).



2. IK-enabled procedural animations. This covers a large number of nuances that go into the character of the gunplay. We now have procedural recoil per calibre, animated stance shifting, animated ADS, animated leaning, endless procedural sprints, the ability to blend multiple animations at once (crouch, reload and sprint) and much, much more. The experience now feels like it sits amongst the very best examples in the FPS market and we’re very excited to show you how that will perform closer to the release date. We feel it will be one of the most significant graphical and experience overhauls in the life of Hell Let Loose. Finally, the last major benefit of this system is that it will make our inclusion of new weapons much faster and of a much more consistent quality.



3. Motion-captured full body TPP animations. These bring a level of realism to the player movement that feels far more fluid than what is currently in the game. In addition to this, the system upgrade means that feet now adjust to the surface, the body bends to match the ground when prone and we’re able to blend many animations all concurrently. We feel that this will finalise the TPP experience. Like the FPP overhaul, this also means that adding new weapons is a very painless affair compared to our current system.




There are hundreds of these - from non-verbal comms, radial menus, better handling of solo-tanking, new weapons (flamers and trench guns anyone?), new maps, new weather conditions, new vehicles, new customisation options and all the rest. We’ve got a huge amount of content in the works that we’re very, very excited to show you.



Next week we’re proud to bring you a dev briefing on our next map: Sainte-Mère-Église.

Sainte-Mère-Église is the first large-scale urban map to be introduced to Hell Let Loose and features giant urban battles through backyards, town streets and the famous church and church square. Defenders and attackers in Warfare will begin in the countryside and push into the town in the middle of the map for intense street-to-street combat. Initially, we will be offering Offensive mode that position the Germans as the attackers - as they push in to reclaim the recently captured town.



Sainte-Mère-Église will be coming soon in Update 4 with Warfare and Offensive mode, along with a large number of bug fixes, sound fixes, sound upgrades, Offensive mode tweaks and all new features that we’ll unpack in a dev briefing closer to its launch.

See you on the front line!

Click here to check out what's on offer!

Included in this sale are the recently released Blasphemous and Overcooked! 2 'Carnival of Chaos' DLC, early access titles Hell Let Loose and Monster Sanctuary AND some of our older classic titles too!


Happy gaming!

There’s still time to jump in and storm Omaha Beach - one of our most recent additions to the game.

If you’re ready to deploy into Hell Let Loose after the free weekend ends, we’re offering 20% off the game for a limited time too!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/686810/Hell_Let_Loose/

Hey everyone,

Welcome to the first Hell Let Loose free weekend!

The team are incredibly excited to be celebrating the launch of Omaha Beach and Offensive Mode by opening our doors and welcoming you to the community.

You can get a glimpse of what awaits you before you arrive on the beaches here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUT5Bjycgio&feature=youtu.be



If you haven't already, you'll soon be engaging in tactical, intense 100-Player WW2 action as infantry, artillery and tanks clash on a shifting front line.

Too help prepare you for battle our community have created some fantastic video tutorials:

Hell Let Loose - The Basics - Hints & Tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcZIJqGsiGE

Hell Let Loose - Advanced Sector Tactics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYzBGYvxMxo



Teamwork plays a huge part in Hell Let Loose, with 14 different roles working alongside each other to secure victory for their team.

If you're looking to squad up before heading into battle, please feel free to visit our official Discord channel HERE.

Whether you just want to team up for the a few matches, or you're looking for a clan to join - you'll be more than welcome there, no matter your experience.



Hell Let Loose is an Early Access title. We've been working closely with our community throughout development, taking on-board feedback and crafting the experience alongside them to create the game you're playing today.

We're not done yet though, there's plenty more still to come and we're always wanting to hear what our players think, so please share your thoughts and feedback with us over on the forums - your comments matter here!

You can see what's coming in the near future in this post.



The Hell Let Loose free weekend runs until Monday 14th October at 6pm BST, we hope you have a fantastic time with it.

If you do want to stick around and join us on the front line in a more permanent fashion, you can currently pick up Hell Let Loose at a 20% discount:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/686810/Hell_Let_Loose/

See you on the beaches!

Hi everyone!

We’re excited to bring you Update 3! It’s been absolutely huge for us - especially the mixture of different major features (who knew landing boats could be so logistically complicated?) alongside a highly iconic map and a large number of bug fixes.

We see our time in Early Access as a key period in which we can iterate, expand, optimise and polish content. We’re working hard and fast to bring a balance of new content, while fixing any and all issues that you - the community - raise.


To celebrate the launch of Omaha Beach and the Offensive Gamemode we’ll be running our first ever free weekend!

We’re very thankful for a warm and receptive community. We ask that this weekend you help us to welcome brand new players to the battlefield and give them the best experience possible. As you can imagine, it’s going to get very, very crazy.



Omaha has been an immense undertaking. We’ve strived to create the most accurate representation of the Dog Green landing site ever seen in a video game. You can learn more about the process in our dev briefing here. Get ready to jump into a Higgins and cruise into shore for one of the most iconic landings in history.




You can learn in depth about the second gamemode to come to Hell Let Loose here. Currently this gamemode will be only available on Omaha Beach. We’ll be watching this closely over the weekend as well as playing alongside you in order to make sure we iron out any bugs and make sure the experience is working as intended in a live environment. We’ll then begin rolling out the Offensive gamemode to each current map (as well as applying Warfare to Omaha Beach) in coming patches and Updates. This will include attacker overlays for both teams, creating three significantly different ways to play a single map. We will be creating new weather conditions for each of these overlays, giving you a fresh experience on each map.


We’re gearing up to switch our sound engine over (this will most likely be happening for U5 due to the large level of testing that will be needed to ensure this happens smoothly) and part of that process is rebuilding our firearms sounds to be of much higher quality and much more flexible than our previous systems.

• Allow a player to remain zoomed in after firing a shot with the sniper rifle if they continue holding RMB.
  
• Greatly increase MG deployment flexibility and smoothness. This will continue to be improved as we bring in the new animation systems.
  
• Created a nice smooth camera dropping to the ground effect for when a player dies. This is to both boost immersion, but also to telegraph the way you died. We feel that the straight cut to the black screen or critical screen doesn’t help players understand the context of their own death. We’ll continue to make this more immersive and useful in understanding the way you died or were critically wounded.

• Created LODs for all vehicles.
  
• Use soft references for Scope / Seat Widgets to help with VRAM usage.
  
• Various VRAM optimisations across all assets.
  
• Various LOD additions across all character models.
  
• Various LOD additions across all weapon models.

• New weapon fire sound for Springfield rifle
  
• New weapon fire sound for M1 Garand
  
• New weapon fire sound for K98k
  
• New weapon fire sound for M1 Carbine
  
• New weapon fire sound for G43
  
• New weapon fire sound for STG44
  
• New weapon fire sound for BAR
  
• New weapon fire sound for Thompson
  
• New weapon fire sound for MP40
  
• New weapon fire sound for MG42
  
• New weapon fire sound for M1919 Browning
  
• New weapon fire sound for Colt 1911
  
• New weapon fire sound for Luger P08
  
• New weapon fire sound for Walther P38

• Added all AA settings to the Options menu to allow players to customise their AA without needing to adjust the ini file.
  
• Allow option to use stock FXAA and TAA in Options menu.
  
• Added the ability to turn motion blur on to create a better looking game experience.
  
• Tanks now dynamically rock backwards from the recoil of firing their main gun.
  
• Hull and infantry muzzle flashes are now visible when viewed front-on.
  
• Fixed: Foy loading screen is missing the map name
  
• Fixed: Building decals can be seen to pop in and out when observed on lower resolutions
  
• Fixed: There is a noticeable draw distance issue with a particular barbed wire barrier asset found on every map it's in
  
• Fixed: Incorrect anatomy of dismembered soldier
  
• Fixed: Multiple uniforms appear to display incorrectly when viewed from range
  
• Fixed: Multiple small assets have been observed to be missing reflective maps resulting in assets appearing white on the low and medium presets
  
  
• Fixed: Inconsistency in text format on the 'Redeploy', 'Leave Server' and 'Quit' confirmation messages
  
• Fixed: On the Scoreboard, the Mute Icon displays the same tooltip as the Kick Icon
  
• Fixed: Stuttered FPP sprint animations can be observed when the Player runs inside waist high water
  
• Fixed: On Utah, LMGs can be deployed in midair on a specific area of the Chapel and cause a graphical issue
  
• Fixed: Helmets do not change texture when the player dies to an explosive or is dismembered
  
• Fixed: Inconsistent naming convention is used for "Game Mode" on the Enlist screen
  
• Fixed: Inconsistency between the punish teammate notification window and the vote to change map/kick player windows
  
• Fixed: Adjusted gravestone texture set up to be more optimised and more attractive.

• Fixed: The Officer M1 Helmet is missing the white bar in the middle of the helmet.
  
• Fixed: Career Level is displayed as level 1 on the Scoreboard on following matches
  
• Fixed: Leaving early message will show if the player tries to leave after the match has concluded
  
• Fixed: Leaving early warning message does not show if the player tries to leave via the deployment screen
  
• Edited “leaving early” message to reflect the fact that your progression HAS saved, however you won’t earn any of the end of match bonus modifiers (NOTE: you progression has always saved as you play the match however the “leaving early” message made this sound like it wasn’t the case).
  
• Fixed: Rotation slider resets to the middle without rotating the player model
  
• Fixed: The US Medic has no armband if they are wearing the winter uniform.
  
• Fixed: In the Barracks, the M1938 Tanker Helmet's Tooltip has inconsistent capitalisation.
  
• Fixed: inconsistent capitalization of Allies uniform within the Barrack.

• Fixed: Players killed within the second seat of either an Artillery Cannon or an Anti-Tank Gun will experience an incorrect critical stance view
  
• Fixed: LMGs now deploy correctly on 6-pane windows
  
• Fixed: Leaving any server briefly displays the Axis Rifleman on the Front-End before the model changes to the Allies Rifleman
  
• Fixed: When Vsync is set to 'On', stuttered ADS animations are present when the player pans the view left to right and, or up or down with all weapons
  
• Fixed: The tool-tip box extends past the text inside for both the American and German Career Level unlock helmets
  
• Fixed: The American bombing run ability starts two seconds after confirming resulting in the plane teleporting and the audio for the plane flying being out of sync
  
• Fixed: The user cannot exit the 'Options' sub-menu using the [Esc] key
  
• Fixed: Markers placed by leadership roles can be seen on the map but not in-game
  
• Fixed: Deploying an LMG within 5 meters of an Outpost or Garrison causes a FPP animation issue
  
• Fixed: Inconsistent capitalization of unit names within the Create A New Unit screen
  
• Fixed: Players cannot scroll down on the scoreboard resulting in certain squads or players being cropped off
  
• Fixed: There is a low chance that an Outpost will be invisible to the player that placed it
  
• Fixed: On one occasion, the first garrison a user placed as a US Officer was invisible
  
• Fixed: There is a chance a player's resource node can be invisible in-game when constructed
  
• Fixed: Players inside the Tiger Tank have experienced losing connection to the host
  
• Fixed: Punish function does not work if no reason is given
  
• Fixed: Anti-Aliasing method does not change when the preset Master Quality is changed.
  
• Fixed: Switching from a grenade at the same time as initiating a throw while on a high ping server will cause the users equipment to stop functioning.
  
• Fixed: Adjusting the engine.ini file to have a value above 0 of TemporalAASamples causes a graphical issue where the craters flicker
  
• Fixed: The "kicked for team killing" chat notification message is sent by all team members
  
• Fixed: In FPP, the grenade cooking animation gets stuck when the player repeatedly presses "Shift" and LMB right before the grenade leaves the hand
  
• Fixed: When loading into a map the player will briefly see under the map in between the loading screen and team selection.

• Fixed: Users are unable to preform some in-game RCon functions to player's with spaces in their names
  
• Fixed: RCon Client and Console display 'Success' messages when a map that is already in the rotation list is added again
  
• Fixed: Banned or Punished players can not see the full reason given if it contains spaces

• Fixed LOD issue occurring some of the log pile assets

• Fixed: large puddles produce bullet hole decals when shot
  
• Fixed: a specific rock asset has incorrect collision

• Fixed: a certain type of grassy terrain on Utah produces stone bullet decals when shot
  
• Fixed: a specific curtain has incorrect bullet collision
  
• Fixed: there is a draw distance issue with an outhouse found in A5 of Utah
  
• Fixed: LOD issues observed with the low poly version of the Repair Station on Utah Beach
  
• Fixed: the player has no collision with a broken wall inside the church of sector F5
  
• Fixed: 2 instances of door frames being misaligned with a building wall in Utah
  
• Fixed: the player is able to get stuck between a stone fence and bushes in sector I6

• Fixed: a specific concrete fortification has incorrect bullet collision

[/list]

• Players can experience a crash when changing the game from a greater resolution monitor to a 1080p monitor
  
• Application can become unresponsive during the transition from the Enlist screen to a server while minimizing the window
  
• Occasional performance drop within Omaha (we’re currently aiming to patch this as soon as possible)

• Server queuing (capped to 6 slots).
  
• Fleshing out ping system and non-verbal communication - including map marking systems.
  
• Enabling ability to select customisations options in-game during role selection.
  
• Enabling ability to tailor loadout during role selection. This will allow us to offer slightly different loadouts per role without limiting content or creating non-historic weapon usage. We are looking at potentially tying this to role level progression (ie. an Officer will unlock the ability to take a G43 at Officer level 3). We want to reward experienced players with greater flexibility without sacrificing historicity.
  
• Stats system to tie into the Barracks.
  
• Implementing melee combat.
  
• Overhauling FPP systems to make them far more fluid and photoreal.
  
• Overhauling TPP systems to use recorded mocap animations.
  
• Replacing current fat FPP hands with photoreal hands and integrating new sleeves to reflect new uniforms.
  
• Working on Western Front urban/countryside map for U4.
  
• Working on Western Front map for U5 (this will have a focus on armor and bridge control).
  
• About to add 20 additional German helmet options to the career level progression.
  
• About to add new uniforms for all US roles in the role level progression.
  
• Currently working on new uniforms, helmets and heads (including more grizzled and appealing options for heads).
  
• Setting up new map to be paired with Hurtgen Forest.
  
• Currently working on the US answer to the Tiger tank.
  
• Currently working on Scout Cars.
  
• 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.
  
• Lining up new implementation of audio engine and continued audio overhaul.
  
• Flamethrower FPP setup.
  
• 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.

We’ll be updating our roadmap shortly to version 3. This will lay out what we have planned for U4 and U5, as well as patches between them.


Currently, our animation team are separated off from the main project in their own branch. We’ve been looking at FPP and TPP systems that we would consider to be AAA or world-class in their look and functionality and we’re continually jumping in and testing the system as it’s built. The new gunplay feels far more fluid, solid, responsive as well as visually appealing than what we currently have. The upgrade to new photoreal hands, as well as the ability to quickly match the FPP sleeves and hands to your customisation choices are going to take our FPP gunplay experience to where we as developers feel it needs to be. Matched with a ballistics system upgrade, we are keen to roll this out as soon as possible. We’re looking at U5 or U6 for this - subject to testing. A caveat on this, is that finalising these systems will allow us to add new weapons very quickly. This clears the path to add more US and German weapons, as well as begin on new faction weapons. It also enables us to add open vehicles with ease.

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We’re very excited to add a new map with a focus on urban warfare in U4. This map is currently in the final development stages and we’re beginning to QA with greater focus. In the background, we’re half way through a new map that’ll eventually be paired with Carentan during the Campaign. It has a distinct focus on armored combat and bridge control. Finally, we’re setting up a new map that will be paired with Hurtgen Forest. Like Hurtgen, this will be dense forest but with a greater emphasis on small villages and industrial sites. Our approach to mapping is to have three in progress at any one time, with no end in sight. In tandem to this, we’re thinking about overhauling both SMDM and Hurtgen to use more optimised solutions, greater asset variation and to create more interesting micro terrain. We’ve learned huge amounts about the type of gameplay our mapping creates and we’re keen to polish and improve on the maps currently in the game. We see Early Access as a great time to do this (before we move forward into new theatres).


Our amazing character artists are constantly working on new options to unlock in your progression. You’ll see the first 20 additional German helmets added in U4, shortly followed by more uniform and head variants. We really enjoy creating these, as well as seeing clans and groups roleplay with these on the battlefield.


When approaching the weapon sound design for Hell Let Loose, we wanted to deliver an experience that would balance realism with cinematics. Using a mix of real weapon recordings and combining them with other related sounds allowed us to create a satisfying and powerful soundscape across all of our weapons. We have taken onboard your feedback and have improved on the fidelity of the sounds as well as enhancing the low frequencies of all weapons to give you the punch you expect when firing.

Weapons contain multiple layers that attenuate and crossfade depending on the distance you are from the firing position, assisting in a more realistic way of judging the distance with the goal of promoting more accurate battle planning on the fly. In particular we had 4 main layers to each weapon: Initial punch, weapon shot, mechanics and environmental report. In addition to this, we have a new system in which we play weapon sounds allowing us to optimise audio much better, helping to reduce performance cost.

In the future you can expect more audio changes and additions for the weapons.

This will include:

• Realistic reflection of the environment you are firing in, whether that be in the forests of Hurtgen, or the fields of Sainte Marie du Mont to the bunkers of Utah beach.
  
• Ability to judge the direction of weapon fire.
  
• New weapon foley audio overhaul to match the new animations in the FPP overhaul.
  
• Audio delay for weapons firing at distance.
  
• Improvements on suppression audio and bullet flybys.

Thanks - we’ll see you on the beaches!

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

Offensive Mode, Omaha Beach.​
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Thursday 10th October​
11am BST / 12pm CEST / 6am EST



See you on the beaches...

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #43! This week we’re thrilled to share with you a first look at new gamemode coming to Hell Let Loose!


What is the 'Offensive' gamemode?
The Offensive gamemode is the second to be introduced to Hell Let Loose, and with Warfare will make up the two key game modes that will sit within the Campaign metagame (we’ll explain more about this in the months to come). While Warfare is about two teams attempting to push each other back, Offensive pits one team of attackers against one team of defenders.

We felt that the best way of introducing the Offensive gamemode was with one of the most iconic Offensive battles of World War Two - the US landing at Omaha Beach.

Key features:
Instead of defending a single sector against the enemy team, Defenders will now need to defend two strongpoints per sector line. Should both of the strongpoints in this line be captured, the defenders will need to fall back and defend the new frontline. If they are able to hold the line for 30 minutes, they will win the battle. Once they lose a strongpoint, they won’t be able to retake it. It is important to note that while a player can capture a sector from anywhere inside it in Warfare - in Offensive they must be within the strongpoint.


Win Condition:
Attackers:
Must capture all four sector rows before finally capturing one of the enemy’s two HQ strongpoints in the final fifth sector row in order to win the game.

Defenders:
The defending team must stop the attackers from gaining a sector row within the 30 minutes. If they hold the attacker at a row for more than 30 minutes they will be victorious.

Opening Stages
Attackers:
On beginning the game, Infantry and Recon units are able to decide their sector of attack. Once they’ve chosen it, they’ll spawn into one of several Higgins boats in that sector and begin the journey to shore. As they reach shore, the ramps will go down and they’ll need to clear them immediately and get straight to cover - be it a sunken obstacle or sandbar. From there, they’ll need to push up to take the first strongpoints in order to progress up to the bluffs.

Armored crews will be able to choose a sector to spawn in much like the Infantry, however the Armored crews won’t spawn on landing craft. Instead they’ll spawn beside their Armored landing craft and will need to scramble to quickly mount up in their tanks before the Germans get to their positions on the bluff. From there, the Armored crews will need to begin shelling the bluffs and suppressing the MG positions in order to protect the first landing wave. Note that the attackers begin the game with 1000 resources.







We’ve studied large numbers of Veterans accounts to recreate the specific mix of armor and infantry that landed on the beach that morning.

Defenders:
On beginning the game, the Defenders have two primary choices as to where they spawn - at front line Garrisons, or at the rear HQ.

Be aware that the Defenders start with 0 resources, and will therefore need to quickly construct resource nodes in order to begin using Commander abilities, artillery and to spawn in vehicles. The reason for this was to emulate both the surprise of being attacked, as well as to balance the ability for attackers to make headway in the first sector row.

We also felt that being shot by a Luchs while you’re in a Higgins boat on your way to shore would not be an enjoyable experience (and that historically the Germans were caught without their armor to assist them at the beaches).

Layout:
Two randomly chosen sectors per row are active. They can be separated by an inactive sector.

Tips:

• We recommend the US Commander begin calling in support on the bluffs in order to screen the initial landing.
  
• We also recommend the Officers to prepare smoke to mask the landing location prior to the ramp dropping.

Offensive and Warfare have been designed to be universal and will be available on all Hell Let Loose maps. Over the coming patches and updates, we’ll be introducing layers to existing maps and new maps. For example, Foy will receive both an Offensive German layer (in which the Germans attack and US defend), as well as an Offensive US layer (in which the US attack and the Germans defend). To differentiate these different layers, we’ll be setting them up with different weather and lighting conditions. For example, the Allies may attack at dusk, while the Germans may attack in dense fog. We feel this is a great way to create new experiences in maps that players are already familiar with.

Lastly, please know that we as a team are committed to creating the best experience possible. We’ll be watching for your feedback about the battle on Omaha Beach, as well as the Offensive mode more broadly.


Please note: Offensive Gamemode is the renamed Invasion Gamemode. We felt that “Offensive” was far more accurate in the context of World War Two and would apply to all maps - new and old.


That's it for this week! We'll see you back here next week for another Hell Let Loose developer briefing!