Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #98!

Today we're going to be talking about some more cool new features coming in Update 8, some of which are a direct result of you sharing your thoughts on teamwork and team composition with us.

Lead Developer Max will be going into full detail below, and make sure to stick around until the around for some brand new Hurtgen Forest overhaul images and more...




Hi everyone,

We’re preparing for a series of weeks where we’ll be deep diving into some of the largest changes coming in Update 8. In the meantime, we wanted to touch on something rather small, but that will have a relatively significant impact on team coordination and communication.



We’ve received brilliant feedback from the community about the need to allow Officers to broadcast to the team what the function of their unit is. Currently in Hell Let Loose, the only information available is the unit name (which we keep consistent to allow for each inter-unit identification) and the type of unit it is (Infantry, Armoured or Recon).

The design of Hell Let Loose has always been a constant tension between keeping things functionally as simple as possible while allowing players to specialise into all manner of roles - both individually and as a unit. The community has often asked for specific unit types (artillery, logistics etc). While we totally agree with the principle of this, we’ve been very reticent to introduce more and more unit types, as the ruleset and architecture behind each is very specific and is delineated to make the code side of things as simple as possible.

That said, we’ve long recognised the need to allow Officers to let the rest of the team know that they’re focused on a particular task - especially so that the Commander is able to get a sense of the resources at their disposal.

Therefore, in Update 8 we’re implementing the ability to mark your unit in the deployment menu with several key designations to better quickly let your team know what your intended role on the battlefield is.

You can now select two different options:

1. You are a VOIP only unit. By toggling this, you will be indicating to the players who join the unit that they are expected to use a microphone.



2. Unit designation. This can be set at different points in the battle by your Officer. Clicking the little arrow will open up a choice of four different designations - Offensive, Defensive, Logistics and Artillery.



We feel that these additions to the UI will serve a key purpose in giving the team a much greater sense of coordination, as well as allowing mic-using players to specifically group together.

While we have designed much of Hell Let Loose to be playable without a mic, we strongly suggest that all players use one in order to have the best experience possible.



Update 8 is set to be another huge update. In the coming weeks we’ll be deep diving on some meaty changes to the game, including:

• Rework of resource nodes to play a specific function on the battlefield (not just something to hide!)
  explosion SFX and FX overhaul.
  
• Deep dive into adjusted bullet damage when it comes to being hit in the extremities and how we’re looking at weapon balance while preserving a fast TTK.
  
• New Engineer deployables, hammers and the ability to upgrade fortifications. We’ll also be addressing how these are destroyable.
  
• Transport truck and Supply truck functionality
  
• Hurtgen Forest overhaul (we’ve kept the topography of Hurtgen Forest, but introduced a lot more cover, but also more clear sight lines).
  
• Large scale optimisations
  
• New customisation options
  
• An expanded level cap and ways we’ll acknowledge your level in-game

Now an update on the Hurtgen Forest overhaul...

























That wraps up this week's Developer Briefing!

We hope you liked your first look at Unit Designations and how we're further empowering teamwork on the frontline. Finally Commanders, you'll know exactly who your Arty crew are and Arty crews, you can wear your unit badge with pride!

Those of you who paid close attention to the 'Coming Soon' bullet points will have noticed some more content reveals, we'll be talking about all of those in our upcoming Dev Briefs - so if you have a question you'd like answered on anything in that list let us know and it might well get answered when the time comes!

Have a great weekend everyone!

See you on the frontline.

Hi everyone!

This week we’re going to chat through the introduction of a public test environment, as well as the way we’re approaching the competitive side of Hell Let Loose.

What is a PTE?

A Public Test Environment is a version of the game available for download that lets you play unreleased, beta-phase content. It’s a way we can get your help in testing new content at a much larger scale than our internal QA. We’ll be testing new features, vehicles, maps, customisation, weapons and looking for bugs and server and client crashes. It’s also important to note that the content may have significant issues, bugs and incomplete features.

Why haven’t you done this earlier?

Until now we’ve held off on running a PTE as it has a significant effect on the impact of a release from a marketing perspective. The core playerbase - who follow the game closely - become hugely familiar with the content that is going to be released and this can then lead to lack of excitement around the release itself.w

Another issue is that an open PTE can cause large amounts of confusion as to what content is currently available in game, and tandem conversations begin to happen within the community - where some players may like or dislike the unreleased content, while some players may not have realised it was playable in the PTE. For example, releasing bullet penetration on the PTE will lead to conversations about that feature, but then cause players in the Release branch of the game to think that penetration is buggy or not working due to its absence from their game.

For both of these reasons, we’ve been keen to put the key gameplay pillars in place and finalise large systems overhauls before putting a PTE in place.

Why are you doing it now?

Whereas before our goals were to achieve quality systems that needed huge overhauls, we’re now changing pace slightly to focus on the finer tuning of the game, as well as catching large scale crashes and other endemic issues before public release.

Can I share content from it?

In order to create a focused feedback environment, we’ll be asking all those who join the PTE to submit their feedback in a designated channel so as not to mix feedback with the Release version of the game. We will also be placing the contents of the PTE under NDA, in order for us to keep some of the excitement around the coming content fresh. Please note that the features that you will be testing will also be incomplete, with ugly bugs occurring.

When will the PTE happen?

We’re keen to create focused testing at high capacity so that we can catch the worst high-population issues, as well as see how a particular feature is working when a server is at full capacity. We’ll be advertising specific test days in the near future.

How can I be part of it?

We’re currently setting the environment up and completing some testing to make sure it’s smooth to join. We’ll then release information shortly.

Competitive Hell Let Loose

We’ve been thrilled and surprised to watch the competitive scene in Hell Let Loose consistently establish itself over the course of our Early Access period. As developers of an unfinished game, we’ve always been very keen to support the competitive side, but we’ve also been aware of how many huge aspects of the game will shift as new planned features come online. Due to fundamental systems being absent our priority has very much been on filling out the game content as fast as possible while trying not to rock the boat too much (something that we hope to get better at as development continues).

A competitive scene is something that we hoped may emerge, but not something that we planned on this early in the life cycle of Hell Let Loose (especially while in Early Access). We consider our Early Access period a time in which we can flesh out the core Western Front content and the key systems and pillars that support the game.

That said, we want you as a community to know that we follow the competitive side and will be playing a much larger role in the discussion (and playing in matches) as time goes on and the meta starts to settle after the addition of some large features left to come in Early Access.

Asymmetrical Balance

In looking at the conversation around balance, we know that there are significant issues we can work on that will vastly improve the competitive experience while also having net positive effects on the public games. We’re aware of the advantages the US forces currently have - whether in terms of armor cost and balance, or overwhelming unit-level firepower. Over the course of our continued development, we’ll be making moves to adjust the potency of each faction in order to bring them into competitive balance. Our goal here is to reflect the historical asymmetry of the forces, but to achieve parity with regard to win/loss ratio. We’ll be working closely with the community in order to be very specific about our changes - as we don’t want to superficially nerf or buff something in a way that achieves balance by creating a worse experience for a particular player (especially something that contradicts the historical account).

Metagame

Separate from balance is the metagame. Our changes in U7 focused on creating a much more significant frontline experience. As a result, this has led to more static games that revolve around the center capture point. Fortunately, there are multiple tools in our toolbox to address these issues.

Dialling values (total number of Garrisons, distance of Garrisons and many more) is incredibly easy for us to do in seconds, and we’ll be working with the competitive community to achieve better results here. The second aspect is that we still have significant feature additions to come that will radically shift the metagame - especially around more ways to deploy friendly troops in enemy-owned sectors now that Garrisons can no longer be established in red zones. Halftracks, transport trucks, more Commander abilities and additions to role loadouts (gadgets and weapons) as well as many more features will give teams greater ability to orchestrate flanking attacks and other strategic maneuvers that were always carried out previously by dropping a Garrison.

Finally, we’re very aware of the issues around Offensive mode. The time it takes, the unsatisfying nature of it and the inherent issues within the gamemode. We’ll be addressing these issues as a focused effort during our Early Access period - with initial changes coming in Update 8.

Our Commitment Moving Forward

Lastly, we want to thank the community for playing such close attention to the game and the way it develops. We also want to assure you that we are hard at work finalising key aspects of the title and will be continually working on game balance and the satisfaction found in the metagame.

As we’ve stated, we have a very long plan for the development of Hell Let Loose and we look forward to continuing to work on it alongside the community in order to achieve the best gameplay outcome possible.

And that wraps it for this weeks DB, and again we really appreciate all the continual support & feedback.

We hear you!

See you on the frontline :D


New tanker customisation will be coming spoon...

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #96!

This week we give you a unredacted all access pass into the wonderful world of QA in Hell... Let Loose.

In the coming weeks we'll once again focus on upcoming content but we wanted to share one of the most critical aspects of the dev process that's also rarely spoken about.

Toss a bug to your QA.

Without further ado it's time to go behind the curtain, let's hand over to David from Team17 QA!


A typical day in QA starts out with smoking the new build. This is a relatively short test plan that has checks for the most basic functionality of the game. The aim is to quickly identify any issues that could affect testing on the new build or that are incredibly noticeable and weren’t occurring in the previous build, such as Smoke VFX looking a bit off.



There’s always a focus for the day, and once the smoke is completed, we’ll begin working on it. In the case of new content, we’ll usually have a test plan that has been prepared by the lead QA with checks that cover all the design specifications for the new feature. The checks are divided into various sections, for example, on Recon Vehicles we have a number of checks for the Controls and Movement, Animations, Audio, Resupply and Repair, damage taken to the different areas of the vehicle, and of course the unique Recon Ability functionality.

Once the test plan has been completed, we’ll focus more on destructive testing around the new feature. This involves being as creative as possible in trying to find ways to break this feature of the game. When an issue is discovered we then work towards systematically isolating variables to find out which action or series of actions lead to the issue occurring. After identifying a solid set of steps, QA enter a bug report into our database, which then gets sent to Black Matter. The aim is to always provide BM with steps that are able to reproduce the issue 100% of the time.

Issues that are fixed then require QA to go back and regress them. We attempt to reproduce the issue to ensure that it is no longer occurring and that the fix hasn’t caused any knock-on effects or created new bugs. The issue is then closed if it has been successfully fixed, or reopened with additional information to help Black Matter with resolving the issue. In the instance below, fixing a texture issue on the stone fence ended up also granting it levitation powers.



QA also help by providing feedback on the game, either as part of our testing or as part of playtest sessions we occasionally organise with team members working on other projects. There are times when a new feature may take a relatively short time to implement but take significantly longer to test and ensure it’s bug-free, so QA is constantly communicating with Black Matter developers and production to ensure we are all on the same page.

While there is always an overarching plan, QA is always ready to adapt to the needs of the project and shift focus at a moment’s notice. Just to give some perspective, QA submit an average of 200 issues per month, and we have closed just over 6600 issues since the project began. The bottom line is that there’s no shortage of things to test in a game like Hell Let Loose, and we’re here to do our best in ensuring our players have the best possible experience!


While QA requires a lot of patience, attention to detail, focus, and hard work, you can always count on events or issues that will make you laugh, chuckle, or at least bring a smile to your face. We wanted to share a few images that (fortunately) never made it to the live environment.

This came about when we were testing debug commands on the main menu and realized we could move the debug camera.



The upcoming Golden Gun DLC for Update 008*


*QA are legally required to clarify that there is in fact not going to be a Golden Gun DLC for Hell Let Loose

This one was fuel for nightmares. It came about when all head cosmetics were updated.


Yes it occurred in-game as well, and bandaging the “creature” made for an eerie scene.



QA wanted to thank you for your participation in reporting issues you encounter. This is far more useful than you can imagine. Whether it be in-game, on the Steam forums, Discord, Reddit, you name it, your reports are hugely appreciated and greatly aid our investigations. Keep ‘em coming!


And with that, we leave you with QA’s mascot, the undisputed fan favourite, long gone, but never forgotten:

Original Mendez




That wraps up todays Dev Brief!

We hope you enjoyed a dive into the life of QA on Hell Let Loose, and a window into their very own front lines!

As always, we really look forward to hearing what you think of today's dev brief so feel free to put your thoughts in the comments below or over on the Steam forum.

Have a great weekend everyone!

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #95!

This week Lead Developer Max is here with a new weapon reveal, new mechanic info and an update on how things are going on our path to Update 8!

Right then, over to Max!



Hi everyone!

We’re hard at work right now on Update 8 and we’re really excited to settle many undercooked aspects of the metagame. So much has changed in such a short time - with us moving so much of the nonsensical and blended functionality out to specific items within the inventory. This is done to enable us to properly build out supply and ammunition economies (no more redeploying!), as well as properly build out experience attribution and the general immersion of the game. As a result, we feel that most roles and loadouts will feel far more detailed and provide a much greater level of cooperation and teamwork.

This week, we’re showing off a highly requested iconic Allied weapon that’ll be added to loadouts in the game: the Grease Gun.



The M3 Submachine Gun - better known as the Grease Gun (or “the Greaser”) - is a 30 round submachine gun that was introduced to the Allied forces in 1942. It was designed as a cheaper and lighter replacement for the Thompson submachine gun. It’s worth noting that these perks came at a cost of accuracy when compared to its Thompson predecessor.

However, due to deployment delays due to production issues and further specification adjustments, this weapon did not see widespread use on the frontline during WW2.

In Hell Let Loose, the Grease Gun will function similar to an MP40 style weapon for the US forces - with a 450 rounds/min rate of fire, it’s almost half that of the Thompson. Fed by a 30-round detachable box magazine, we suspect the Grease Gun will be best deployed as a middle to short range CQB style weapon.





We’ll be providing them to a limited number of roles as a special loadout. We’re currently deciding the exact loadouts, but we feel armor crews and other supporting or close range roles will benefit most.





In regards to the German forces, watch this space…



You may wonder what the use is for a new weapon in a game like Hell Let Loose - where the TTK is so short that nearly every weapon in the game is similarly effective at dropping an enemy.

In Update 8, the introduction of bullet penetration AND a more complex hit box system (including limb detection and flinching when hit) will give specific weapons greater stopping power and effectiveness at certain ranges.

We always want to make sure our design maintains the lethality of weapons - we know that there’s nothing more frustrating than firing on a target and nothing registering - or them soaking up bullets like a sponge. At the same time, we’re going to be using these aspects as a way of increasing the effectiveness of slower bolt action weapons, while also increasing longer range survivability for high rate of fire weapons (ie. being hit in the foot by an MP40 at 300m) and prioritising aim.

We’ll talk more about this in a later dev briefing, but we feel that these additional aspects will give great tactical distinction to each weapon, naturally balance bolt action weapons against faster-firing weapons and will reduce the incidents of instant-death at long range - allowing for more useful medic gameplay.



That wraps up todays Dev Brief!

We hope you enjoyed your first official look at the Grease Gun, as well as further information on we're further involving infantry combat.

As always, we really look forward to hearing what you think of today's info drop so feel free to put your thoughts in the comments below or over on the Steam forum.

Have a great weekend everyone!

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #94!

This week we have an explosive preview of something new coming to the game!


For a long time we’ve known that the Engineer role (among others) was at a distinct disadvantage when it came to battlefield functionality. Whilst the Engineer will have access to a broader array of tools introduced over the coming Updates, we wanted to focus today on the Satchel Charges, as it will form the backbone of the Saboteur aspect of the Engineer role.




The Satchel Charge is a huge explosive - one of the most powerful currently in the game. To use it, simply equip the charge and then select from one of three pre-set fuse time lengths - 30 seconds, 60 seconds and 120 seconds. Once the fuse time is set, place the charge in the desired location and run for cover!




The best way to think of Satchel Charges is as an enormously powerful timed charge. It can be used to destroy vehicles - though the timed nature of the charge and relatively long placement time will make it a challenge to use in this way. It can also be used to clear buildings, strong points or fortified locations of infantry. The primary risk and reward is that only one can be carried by an Engineer at any time, as well as the longer placement time - balanced against a devastating explosion. Bear in mind that you’ll need to communicate the placement of the charge so that your team around you are aware of the imminent explosion.

In addition to it’s raw destructive power against foes on the battlefield, Engineers will be receiving an overhaul for all deployables. To this end, Satchel Charges will be a key way for Engineers to demolish enemy battlefield emplacements and defenses.

In the future, we’ll also be revising the way specific sectors are captured in Offensive mode. Part of this will be the introduction of objectives that need to be destroyed in order for the sector to be won. Satchel Charges are being introduced now to facilitate that in the future.

There are still several larger design aspects that we’re deciding on - as well as the full future functionality. We’re going to be refining the concept further up to release of Update 8.




That concludes this week's Dev Brief!

We hope this first look at some new explosive content coming to Hell Let Loose gets all of you engineers excited to you know... blow some stuff up!

Also, yes, it isn't Jonno this week. Please be gentle!

As always, have a great weekend everyone and we'll see you next week.

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #93!

This week Max has stopped by to reveal an updated mechanic coming to Hell Let Loose, including a first look at one of a set of new tools that armour and infantry units alike will be getting to grips with.

To turn up the heat on this Dev Brief, here's Max...



Hi everyone,

We’re thrilled to see that Patch 13 solved several endemic issues that were being experienced. We want to assure you that this is nowhere near the end - more that we wanted to attempt a final round of critical fixes before we move seriously towards working on Update 8.

We want to remind everyone that if you are using DX12, there are still some known issues that are likely to cause crashes such as alt-tabbing.

Update 8 may as well be called the “nuts and bolts” update, as so many seemingly peripheral areas of the game are being overhauled in a way that will allow us to lift the total quality, as well as expand functionality and the tactical thought needed to engage with each mechanic.

We’re going to start looking in depth soon at all the features, content, fixes and optimisation that we’ll be introducing in Update 8, but initially we thought we’d chat a bit about repairs!



The trusty wrench had been an ongoing mainstay in the way we communicate deploying anything into the game world within Hell Let Loose. While it’s quite a nice looking device, it doesn’t make much sense (building a supply box with a wrench anyone?).

Now that we’ve overhauled the animation system, we’re returning to some of the key utilities and refining them in ways we’d always wished to - giving each tool a specific purpose and widening and polishing each utility so it made as much sense as possible.

In Update 8, we’re decoupling the repair function from the wrench and have created a unique tool to fulfil this - the trusty field blow torches carried by the engineers of all forces. It will act much like the wrench, but allows us to be more specific in the function of the wrench (which will now act as a planning and placement tool), while also giving many more loadouts specific utility.

(Please note that these assets have been compressed to fit on Steam, so do not accurately portray the current or final visual quality of this tool)





For a long time we’ve felt that we need to give tank crews specifically the ability to repair their own vehicles. We felt eventually that it’d be interesting to enable tank crews to specify their loadout towards vehicle support, or perhaps re-arming. By creating this new tool, we can now easily assign it to specific tanker loadouts and other roles to create a wider range of utility - enabling players to also specifically tool logistics-focused smaller infantry units (perhaps to just run supplies and transport, as well as repair and re-arm frontline armor). We’re revisiting the way exp is assigned for this and are now able to make this mechanic far more robust and integrated.



As per usual, while this sounds like an easy task - we always want to make sure we make the most beautiful and authentic asset possible - including working on a nice little flame fx paired with a nice sound fx. Additionally, we also want to make sure you’re using the right blowtorch for the right force.

We especially love these assets as they catch the light beautifully and look and sound great in-game.



We also feel they may go well with a Mechanic uniform. Eventually you may even be able to use it to set the enemy on fire - but that’s for another time.

Coming soon we’ll be looking at the supplies rework, wrench functionality and hammer functionality. As always, the team is working on a whole suite of new things to polish and expand the game.



That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

We hope this first look at some new mechanics and tools coming to Hell Let Loose gets your tactical cogs turning.

Have a great weekend everyone and we'll see you next week.

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

Patch 13 is now live!

Thank you all so much for your patience and feedback whilst we worked on this, it's greatly appreciated.

Check out the patch notes below:

• PhysX Crash Fix
  
• Fix for DX12 crashes on Foy

For those that didn't know, the PhysX crash could occur when body parts from two different dismembered bodies collided. Not the easiest thing to spot, but thanks to feedback such as "It occurred during a bombing run." and "I threw a grenade then crashed." the team were able to narrow things down, identify the problem and fix it! Also yes, this meant we spent copious amounts of time blowing each other up with tanks, grenades and bombing runs!

We're confident that the above are fixed and shouldn't cause you any further issues, however we will be watching closely to ensure the patch is working as intended.



The response we have received for the Wilhelm submission has been astounding. The Team would like to issue a profound thank you to all those who took part. It can be a very daunting mission to record and put out your voice to be judged and we sincerely applaud everyone who has passed on their submissions regardless of the outcome.

This perfectly highlights the type of community we are grateful for, one that comes together to influence and shape the production of HLL.

The conclusion of this is still to be decided by the team as we further narrow down recent submissions from this past week. Not only have you provided us with a plethora of varied screams but you have also given us some ideas and direction to what we are really looking for in the future. Speaking of which, this may not be your last chance, despite the submission period coming to an end, based on the quality we have received so far we may run something like this again in the future.

Because of the nature of HLL with fairly long match times and the number of players in each game we will be using a fair few of your submissions to help keep the atmosphere varied. At present in game we only have a few death vocals that can become repetitive, these new additions will certainly spice things up. We will be reaching out within the next few weeks to notify everyone on the verdict of their submission, so make sure you keep those raw audio files handy.

The direction we wish to take dialogue in HLL is a more cinematic approach that fits with the gritty atmosphere. We will be looking for professional and talented voice actors in the future to voice the main bulk of the dialogue.

Once again we cannot thank you all enough for your enthusiasm over the last few weeks. We’ll wrap things up with another look at some courageous efforts submitted by members of the community.


PanZ7#5328


Brown Sugar#3058


RiftyTheSwifty#9071


TonyTwoTap7109


Stay tuned for the results,

We can’t wait to hear you on the Frontline.



That wraps up this week's patch notes! We'll see you tomorrow for Developer Briefing #93.

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #92!

This week we've got some good news on the infamous 'PHYSX' crash fix, a first look at some shiny new uniforms for the Tankers among us and an update on the 'Wilhelm Scream' competition!

Before I hand over to Max and Spono who'll go into all the cool details, I just want to take the opportunity to relay the team's thanks for your patience, bug reports and understanding whilst we worked away on the crash fix. Every report we received helped us track down the root cause and, fingers crossed, address it.

So, you're probably wondering what the cause was, well... It could occur when body-parts from two different dismembered bodies collided with each other in the air, normally following an explosion.

This revelation led to a humorous take on the situation from the incredibly talented Moscatnt, who is equally impressive on both the frontline and canvas!





Hi everyone,

We’re thrilled to announce that after an enormous amount of debugging, we’ve isolated the issue in the physx code that has been causing the most common crash experienced in the game. After nearly five weeks of QA, we are very confident that we have resolved this specific crash, and as a result we’ll be rolling out Patch 13 alongside a fix for DX12 crashes on the map Foy. To make sure we don’t cause any other disruptions to gameplay, we will be limiting the patch to these two crash fixes.

We are in the process of signing off this Patch, and we will update the community on the release date as soon as it’s ready. All going well, this will likely drop on Friday next week.

We want to also note that if you are using DX12, there are still some known issues that are likely to cause crashes such as alt-tabbing.

Meanwhile we’re hard at work on all aspects of the game - content, bug fixes and optimisation. To give you a small taste - we’re working through giving all tanker roles at least two additional uniforms to unlock for both forces. Over the coming weeks we’ll start to do deep-dives on the ways we’re overhauling some underdeveloped aspects of the game, optimising, and generating new content.

















Wow, what a response we have had so far to the Wilhelm submissions! So far what we have received from you has been wonderfully harrowing to say the least and we as a team thank you greatly for the “overWilhelming” response. We are well underway in narrowing down the clips that we feel are most suitable and that would complement the atmosphere in game.

If you are reading this and still don’t know what all this means, please check out this link from {LINK REMOVED}Dev Brief #90 it has all the submission details.

In response to some questions of what exactly it is that we are looking for, we wanted to keep the description in the Wilhelm Dev Brief minimal to let your creative freedom flourish. We’ve had many different variations of screams, grunts, gasps, gurgles and whelps that have all been exciting and inspirational to listen to. Some members of the community have asked if we are accommodating spoken dialogue within this submission, whilst we are specifically looking for non-spoken audio lines that isn’t to say that somehow and some way we can’t filter in spoken lines, however we are primarily looking for more deathly oral sounds.

As a result of the massive response we have had, we’ve decided to extend the close off time for the submission for at least another week. So if you didn’t get the time to submit, now’s your chance! Submissions will only be accepted as a YouTube link via this {LINK REMOVED}FORM*

Here are just a select few clips that contain great examples of what we look for and also the quality of recording we like. These are by far not the only ones we love but we would like to give you a sneak peak at what some members have been up to.


Technical#6400



ScreamingMinnie#2180



pancake_soup#7050



Su5hi#1170



Forrest McGilvray#2210



Thanks again to everyone who has made a submission so far, and we are super excited to listen to more.

*By submitting to this form you acknowledge and give Black Matter the permission to use your submission for purposes of in-game content, social media, marketing material and in any other manner, platform or format we may choose.



That wraps up this week's Dev Brief.

We hope you're as pleased with the crash fix news as we are and enjoyed your first look at some upcoming Tanker uniforms.

If you're on the fence about giving the 'Wilhelm Scream' competition a shout, go for it! Your dulcet tones may well become part of the frontline...

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #91!

This week we're pleased to be sharing with you the updated roadmap for Hell Let Loose!

For the grand reveal, as well as some extra details on what the team are working on thanks to your feedback I'll be handing over today's brief to Lead Developer Max.

Enjoy!



Hi everyone,

We’re very excited this week to share our new roadmap with you as we lead up to Update 8. We also feel like the next update will be smaller and less content-rich in size - that is until we write down all the content to come. We hope you’re as excited about what will be coming in Update 8 as we are.

Update 8 is a great opportunity for us to fix broken gameloops (the redeploy Support loop) and vastly improve existing ones - such as the way that Supplies, Ammo and Engineer abilities work. As you’ll see there are also large amounts of map overhauls as we seek to bring each map to a universally optimised standard, as well as take them to the same level of visual and gameplay quality.

As always, for each feature you see on the roadmap, we’ll be accompanying it with a developer briefing to better explain it.







Many of you will be aware that the occurrence of what we’re calling the “Physx Crash” (the key crash you’re experiencing within the game currently) has meant that we’ve delayed our roadmap release while we find a fix as soon as possible.

As a result, we’ve taken the last couple of weeks to dig deep into it (involving largely working through the physics code in a very granular way) before sitting down to discuss the contents of the next update.

The good news is that we’ve found a 100% reproduction method for the crash, and that it occurs when two limbs from separate bodies collide after being dismembered. As you can imagine, it was not a fun task to deduce this - given the very little information being output from the engine despite all our logging.

We’re now working on a fix for this crash, and will constantly communicate about an ETA on when we will deploy this.



While DX12 is not fully supported by Hell Let Loose yet, we’ve also got good news to share in that we’ve found a fix for Foy crashing for those with DX12 enabled. We’re aware of several other non-map related crashes for DX12 users, but we feel that fixing Foy will allow a much greater level of stability for the time being.



Although the roadmap serves as a public declaration of our intent around short term development goals, we’re also hard at work behind the scenes on some as-yet unannounced content - both small and large.

As a dev team, we’re really excited about the future of all the content coming to Hell Let Loose and look forward to revealing more in the near future!



That wraps up this week's Dev Brief and Max's update!

As you can see there's a lot of new content on the way with Update 8 and we're really looking forward to sharing more details with you in our upcoming Developer Briefings!

If there's anything you're really keen to know more about, or have any questions about the new roadmap then let us know in the comments and on the forums.

Have a great weekend everyone.

See you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #90!

Today's Brief comes to you from Black Matter Dev Spono who brings with him an exciting opportunity...



Hello everyone, Spono here.

Start LOOSENING up those vocal chords!

We are very excited to give our community an opportunity to become a larger part of Hell Let Loose.

We’re asking those of you with some talent (or without any talent whatsoever!), to submit one or more of the following sounds in a YouTube video. This will then be considered for implementation into HLL, as well as securing you a spot in the credits.

We’ve listened to much of the community feedback about adding greater ambience to the battlefield with the grunts, screams and voice lines of soldiers. While we’ve been planning to create these sounds ourselves, we felt it could be good fun to open this up to our beloved community first. You can be as creative as you wish - we’re excited to see what you come up with! But please bear in mind, to be considered for game implementation we want sounds that are in line with the vibe of HLL, and audio that would add to the atmosphere without it breaking immersion.



The Wilhelm scream is an iconic sound effect used in over 400 films and TV series since 1951. You have likely heard it many times before, perhaps not ever knowing exactly what it was.


Still not sure what the Wilhelm scream is, watch this video from WatchMojo



So yes that’s right, your Wilhelm scream, war cries, moments of anguish have an opportunity to become embedded into Hell Let Loose and history forever!



Submissions will only be accepted as a YouTube link via this {LINK REMOVED}FORM*

All submissions received via this form will then be considered for possible implementation into Hell Let Loose!

We ask that you title your video: Hell Let Loose Wilhelm Audio Submission. And include your Discord name, ID and clan tag if you wish.

Example here: Hell Let Loose Wilhelm Audio Submission - Spono#7368

You can find your ID at the bottom left of your Discord and copy it by simply clicking on it. If you are not a member of the official Hell Let Loose Discord yet, you can join by simply clicking on this DISCORD LINK and following the instructions. We also recommend installing the Discord App if you have not done so already.

We ask that you label your sound(s) and use the description area to timestamp them if you wish to do multiple sounds in one video. Please only one submission per person!


*By submitting to this {LINK REMOVED}FORM you give Black Matter the right to use your submission for purposes of game content and or marketing material.

If we do like your video submission we will reach out to you via email and or Discord and make sure you are added to the in game credits and receive the deserved acknowledgement!

We will also supply you with a couple of game keys, so you can show off to your mates. And maybe even a certificate that you can put on the fridge :D

Please note, It is very important that you use your own original voice! And we will verify this with you.



Your video excerpt should not last more than 60 seconds, and can be a series of sounds and footage strung together. It should contain footage of your own gameplay, with your sounds edited in.

It can be as amateur or professional as you like, but the focus is audio quality.

We are at this stage after both the United States, and or German variations of the following sounds.

You can get creative, but the sound must be original and what the player would emit orally.

You can choose one or more of the 10 sounds for your video up to 60 seconds.

Wilhelm Scream:
1 . Your best death scream/cry

Fatal Damage:
2. Bullet to the Head
3. Bullet to the Body
4. Ran over by vehicle
5. Dismembered
6. Drowning

None Fatal damage:
7. Bullet
8. Shrapnel/Explosion
9. Fall damage
10. Burning/On Fire


To be considered for including into HLL

• Must be a clean original recording.
  
• Not have added effects or reverberation

Please keep any audio files you use in your video SEPARATE from the in-game audio, such as WAV files. This is because we will likely request them from you.

Post editing in the form of file clean-up/de-noise is welcomed but by no means necessary.

Other accepted file formats if necessary but not preferred:
ACID, AIFF, AVI, BWF, CDDA, EDL, FLAC, KAR, MIDI, MOGG, MOV, MP3, MP4, MPEG, OGG VORBIS, OGG OPUS, QT, RADAR, REX2, SYX, W64, WAVPACK, WMV

Minimum Requirements
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
Bit Depth: 16 bit

Maximum Requirements
Sample Rate: 96 kHz
Bit Depth: 24bit



Last day for submissions will be on the 2nd of September, giving you almost 2 weeks. After that the form will be closed.



Again it is very important that you use your own original sounds. If it does not meet the audio specification we may not be able to use it, so please keep this in mind.

If we love your video submission we will reach out to you and make sure you are also added to the in game credits, and may request raw audio files so again please keep these saved. We will likely share some of these amazing videos with you all in Discord. And we are sure to see them on the Hell Let Loose subreddit too.

*By submitting to this form you acknowledge and give Black Matter the permission to use your submission for purposes of in-game content, social media, marketing material and in any other manner, platform or format we may choose.



We are currently working on our next roadmap, and will share this with you in next weeks Developer Briefing!

Good luck & Cheers,
Spono

Hear you on the frontline!?



That wraps up this week's Developer Briefing!

We're really excited to hear what you come up with over the next two weeks. Who knows, you may well be hearing yourself or a friend on the frontline in the not too distant future.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week as we detail what's next in our updated roadmap.

See you on the frontline!