This week we're going to preview the PPSh-41 and show off some of the faces that will represent the Soviet Union in-game!
The PPSh-41
The PPSh-41 was one of the Soviet Union's primary submachine guns of the Second World War. A simplified design made to be built rapidly with limited machining operations, the PPSh-41 used a heavy gauge steel stamping for most of its construction. It was originally issued with 71 round drum magazines copied from a Finnish design, but these were phased out in favor of more traditional stick type magazines.
Reliability was generally high even with the drum magazines, though these were complex and difficult to load. In addition, issues with manufacturing tolerances meant drum magazines were not readily interchangeable between guns. Drums needed to be properly "fitted" to their assigned submachine guns to feed reliably, though this was resolved somewhat by the introduction of the smaller 35 round stick types.
In combat, the PPSh-41 performed admirably. Soldiers appreciated the high fire rate and reliability in close-quarters combat, though the Soviet Union would eventually supplement the PPSh-41 in production with the even simpler PPS-43. The submachine gun as a class would form a major component of Soviet unit composition. Entire platoons would be equipped with PPSh-41s to spearhead an offensive action.
In Hell Let Loose, the PPSh-41 comes in two variants - one with a 35 round stick magazine and the other with the iconic 71 round drum magazine. While the stick magazine benefits from a faster reload and faster transition to ADS, it suffers from slightly increased recoil over time due to its lighter stick magazine. The drum magazine variant benefits from the increased magazine size and slightly lower sustained recoil due to its weight, but has a slower ADS transition and reload time.
Soldiers of the Soviet Union
In designing the faces of our Soviet faction, we endeavoured to take into account the historically broad array of different people groups that were brought together to fight a common enemy. Because of the need to muster every able man for the war effort, soldiers were conscripted from all over the USSR, from the Baltic sea to the Baikal.
Regardless of their origins, each and every Soviet soldier was equal in the face of combat.
That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!
What other weapons would you like to see in-game? Who's your favourite Soviet soldier so far? Let us know in the comments!
This one is for real and not an April Fools joke, so stand easy!
This week we're looking back at out most recent free weekend and looking forward to U10 with some initial information on our plans for the 'Armour Overhaul'.
To take you through this I'll be handing over to Lead Developer Max!
A Message From Max - Free Weekend & Armor Overhaul
Before we begin we'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who tried Hell Let Loose over the weekend. Thanks to you, we've managed to set our new record, hitting a peak player-count of over 13,000! Seeing so many of you trying out our game for the first time was very gratifying for us as a team.
Of course, we also have to thank our veteran officers, commanders, and grunts for showing the new recruits the ropes. Hell Let Loose wouldn't be what it is without you, and we appreciate your ongoing support.
Last week we saw the release of Update 9, which focused on delivering a number of long-requested features, adding new options for players and additional functionality for admins.
Update rollouts are not always as smooth as we'd like them to be, but with your feedback and input we were able to identify a number of issues and push out two hotfixes to deal with the most pressing concerns.
As we continue into the weeks following U9, we’re closely monitoring your responses as we work towards a patch later this month that will look to address any outstanding nuisances. Below is a brief preview on some of the things we plan to include to give you an idea of what to expect. As usual, this isn't an exhaustive list of what we are currently working on and will look to provide a full changelog on the day of release.
Removing Outposts not belonging to your Unit from the Spawn List
Restoring the green icon for Outposts that belong to your unit on the deploy screen and tactical map
Bullet penetration pass on various assets across maps
Performance optimizations
Fixing a Client and Server crash
Duplicate servers showing on the Enlist screen
Many more various bug fixes
Moving Forward, U10 Armor Overhaul
As we look towards our next major update, we'd like to take the time to outline some of what we're working on in regards to armor. We acknowledge that Armor gameplay has been an unsatisfactory position, and we'd like to dedicate a significant portion of U10 to taking the Armor experience to the next level.
Here are just a few of the improvements and fixes we have planned:
Fixing point of impact shifts depending on tank angle
Vehicle and environment collision improvements
Vehicle Physx improvements
Hitbox adjustments
Adjusting Anti-tank effectiveness
Vehicle availability adjustments
FX - including muzzle and hit
This isn't to say that tanks are the only thing we're working on! Take a look at the roadmap for what else is on the docket for 2021.
We thought we'd take the opportunity today to share with you a new feature coming to Hell Let Loose that aims to further deepen the meta and highlight the importance of leadership on the frontline...
An Introduction to Heroes
Heroes will be coming to the frontline in Hell Let Loose!
We’ve often thought about how we can deepen the meta around the leadership roles in the game. We know that many are keen for a push for authenticity, and to not dilute the core premise of the experience. As a result of this, we felt that Heroes would be a perfect fit - enabling you to take to the field as one of the iconic and powerful leaders who shaped the course of the war.
Obviously, we feel that it’s a very careful balance to make sure we respect the historical authenticity of the battles themselves, but also integrate this powerful new feature. We’ll talk through their functionality below.
How do they work?
At the 45 minute mark, the Commander is given the choice of a selection of powerful heroes who they can deploy to the battlefield - effectively taking control of them. While many of these leaders never actually deployed to the front line, we felt that dropping them into the action would provide an immersive experience. A humble GI taking up arms beside Tommy-wielding Winston Churchill, or an Engineer laying mines with Friedrich Paulus. Hell Let Loose has always been about mixing different leadership styles and tiers in the chaos of frontline combat.
Heroes perform much like Commanders - each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Will your tank column be led into Foy by Teddy Roosevelt and his iconic dual-wielded Colts, or will Stalin use his “Iron Will” to remove suppression from the Soviet Forces for the next 30 minutes?
We’re looking forward to showing off the unique skill set and weaponry for each hero, and the way in which you’ll be able to use them to shape the battlefield and the course of World War Two itself!
We've put this together this quick guide to give you an intro into the roles, mechanics and teamwork involved in Hell Let Loose so that when the landing craft doors open you can hit the beach running!
Some of the Black Matter team have also shared their top tips to succeeding in battle, so keep an eye out for those a bit further down!
Thank you so much for coming and checking us out during our free weekend, welcome to the community!
Joining a Server
Before joining a server we recommend checking over your game settings. Visit the options tab located at the top of the menu where you can edit graphics and change keybinds. Once you feel comfortable with your settings it’s time to join a server. Oh and don’t worry, you can change your settings anytime in-game using [ESC].
How to join a server
The server list can be accessed from the "Enlist" button on the main menu. Players can apply filters and sort the list by selecting the filters or columns at the top. To join a server in the list, simply select a server you like and click “Join Server”. If the server is already full, you may be placed in a queue or you need to find a server with available slots.
Finding the right server for you
As servers are located all around the world, try to pick a populated server within your region. A ping under 150 is ideal for Hell Let Loose's fast paced gameplay. To quickly find all servers in your region, try sorting the list by ping to show the closest servers to you first.
Official vs Community servers
Servers fall into one of two categories, Official or Community. Official servers are run by the developers and have no fancy rules to worry about.
Community servers on the other hand are run by our amazing members of the Community. These servers are governed by their Admins and their rules. You’ll often find more cohesion and teamwork in Community servers due to the welcoming hearts of the Community backing the server.
Getting Started
Before you can get your boots wet, you’ll first need to select a team, a unit, a role and finally a spawn location. Upon joining a server you’ll be greeted with the Team Select screen, pick the side you wish to play as! Germany or the US?
Once you have picked a team, it’s time to join a unit.
Unit types
In Hell Let Loose there are three types of Units: Infantry, Armor, and Recon. Infantry Units are primarily responsible for attacking enemy Units and capturing territory. Armor Units command tanks and recon vehicles to support infantry and destroy enemy armor. Recon units are responsible for scouting out enemy movement and garrison placement, as well as covertly dismantling enemy nodes.
To join an existing unit, click the icon on an existing unit that has available slots. We recommend starting off in an Infantry unit to learn the basics.
Now it’s time to pick a role!
Roles - Infantry
- Commander
Far from a frontline role, the Commander communicates with officers to control the flow of the battle. To assist with this, he can utilize the team's resources to call in special abilities like a recon pass or a bombing run. He also decides when to spawn tanks for the Armor Units. Due to the immense responsibility the Commander has, he can only be selected by players of level 10 and above.
- Officer
One of the most important roles in the Infantry Unit, the Officer is responsible for leading his comrades on the battlefield. He can use his watch to place down OPs for his Unit and, when supplies are close by, Garrisons for his team as well. His binoculars allow him to mark the location of enemy Units and structures for the other Officers to see.
- Rifleman
The Rifleman, as his name suggests, is equipped with a powerful rifle for engaging enemy Infantry at all ranges. A good all-rounder, he is also equipped with an ammunition box for resupplying trigger-happy teammates.
- Assault
A dedicated attack role, the Assault has access to a myriad of high fire-rate weapons for closing in with the enemy, and a good supply of smoke and fragmentation grenades to help him on approach.
- Automatic Rifleman
The Automatic Rifleman is heavily armed and capable of suppressing enemies on the move with his fully-automatic weapon.
- Medic
Limited in firepower, the Medic is a dedicated support role capable of reviving and bandaging teammates. He is equipped with smoke grenades to help cover his revive attempts.
- Support A good addition to any Unit, the Support brings with him a crate of supplies. The supplies can be used by the Officer to build a Garrison, or by the Engineer or Anti-tank to create defensive emplacements.
- Machine Gunner
A menace on the defensive, the Machine Gunner uses his mounted up belt-fed machine gun to tear through enemy infantry. He can also brace his weapon to control the recoil of his weapon when firing on the move.
- Anti-tank
The Anti-tank is responsible for protecting his Unit from enemy armor. Equipped with a rocket launcher for point defense, he can also use a Support's supplies to set up an AT gun for engaging tanks at range. Be sure to aim for the side or rear of the tank to guarantee a penetrating hit.
- Engineer
With a myriad of tools to support his teammates, the Engineer is a dedicated rear-line role. His wrench can be used in conjunction with supplies to construct barricades, bunkers, and more. His blowtorch can repair friendly armor, and his mines can be put down to keep the enemy from getting close.
Roles - Armor
- Tank Commander
Responsible for leading an Armor Unit, the Tank Commander can communicate with the Commander and other Officers to report on enemy movement and coordinate manoeuvres. Depending on the size of the Unit, he may have to operate the gun or drive the tank as well.
- Crewman
Lightly armed and somewhat defenceless, the Crewman's responsibilities lie with operating vehicles. Coordinating with the Tank Commander, the Crewman must move his selected vehicle into a defensible position and engage the enemy.
Roles - Recon
- Spotter
The leader of the Recon Unit, the Spotter is responsible for communicating with the Commander and other Officers and reporting on enemy positions from behind enemy lines. He can place OP's for himself and his Sniper, and can sabotage and destroy enemy Nodes and Garrisons when the opportunity presents itself.
- Sniper
Armed with a scoped rifle, the Sniper can engage enemy Infantry from significantly longer range than any other role. As such, he is responsible for moving in conjunction with his Spotter and eliminating high value targets - Officers, Commanders, and other Recon Units.
Deploying
Now that you’ve joined a unit and selected your role, it's finally time to join the soldiers on the frontline. You’ll need to begin by selecting a spawn point from the map, but where should you spawn?
Read the types of spawn points below to understand their differences. We recommend spawning on an Outpost or Garrison to begin with if they’re available. They’re usually placed by other players closer to the action.
Once you have selected a spawn point, click deploy on the lower right of the screen.
- Headquarters(HQ)
Headquarters are your team's base location, where your team's vehicles respawn and artillery guns are located.
These spawns are commonly used during the beginning of the match when no other spawns exist yet. If you join a match in progress, it is recommended to spawn on an Outpost or Garrison instead which will likely be closer to the action.
- Outposts (OP)
Outposts are placed by Officers and are only available to their unit. You’ll need to look for an Outpost placed by your unit’s Officer as you’ll be unable to spawn on any Outpost belonging to a different unit.
If you can’t find any Outposts placed by your Officer, simply ask for one or pick a different spawn location.
- Garrisons
Garrisons are also deployed by Officers but can be spawned on by the entire team. They’re often set up in defensive locations and can be a reliable way to spawn close to the action.
If your team’s Garrisons ever come under attack, be sure to defend them, losing a garrison can have a large impact on the outcome of a match due to the effort required to place one.
- Airheads
An airhead is a team-wide spawn point that can be air-dropped into any active sector by the commander. Because they can be placed in any active sector, airheads can be extremely effective at launching attacks on sectors by deploying in enemy territory.
If you see an airhead on the deploy screen, give it a go!
Communicating
Hell let loose is all about team tactics and coordination. While getting kills can aid in a victory, a team that is communicating well and organizing their frontline will always come out on top.
Talk to your unit using [C] or to players in your proximity using [V]. If you are unable to use a microphone to communicate, text chat is also available using [K] for Team chat and [L] for Unit chat. Be sure to ask if others can hear you, and your mic volume is not too quiet or loud.
Leading a Unit
Once you feel like you’ve got a good understanding of how the game works and feel confident in leading a unit into battle, give the Officer role a try. To play as an Officer, create a unit by selecting the + icon next to a unit type in the list. When playing as an Officer, be sure to place Outposts and Garrisons for your team as well as communicating with other Officers using [X] to talk over the Leadership voice channel.
Developer Tips & Tricks
Spawning do’s and don'ts
Take a look at the Garrison and OP icons before you select them to deploy. If they are marked with red, enemies are close to the spawn point. If you decide to spawn when enemies are nearby, try to secure the area before moving forward to the objective.
Unit Composition
As an Officer of an Infantry Unit, try to have the Support and Engineer role filled at the beginning of the round. Nodes and Garrisons are always in short supply, and having these set up will assist greatly in the upcoming battles.
Key Deployables
Nodes (Engineer)
Nodes are crucial to keeping your team well-supplied! They generate resources once deployed, which can be used by your commander to spawn tanks and call in powerful support abilities. Ask your Officer for supplies, and he can either send a Support your way or get the Commander to call in a supply drop to get the Nodes built.
Repair Station (Engineer)
Repair Stations can be placed in the front line to rapidly repair multiple vehicles at once. This can save on Armor Units from needing to drive back to HQ to repair, and can save your expensive tanks from being destroyed in a pinch.
Belgian Gate/Hedgehog (Engineer)
These deployables allow a well-supplied engineer to quickly block off a road to enemy armor. Be careful of placement, as they can block friendly vehicles as well.
Combat tips
Bullets don’t just kill, they suppress also! Rain lead down on enemy positions to pin them down and provide suppressing fire for your team to advance.
You can steady the aim of many weapons by holding down the [Shift] key while aiming down the sights. You can only hold your breath for a short period of time so be swift with your shots!
Medics can revive downed players. If you’re downed and see a medic nearby, call out for help, it could save you a lot of time redeploying.
Players can bandage each other. If you run out of bandages, find a friendly and ask them to patch you up. Be quick though, if you don’t bandage in time you’ll bleed out.
A good defence is just as important as a good offense. If you see one of your team’s sectors under attack, fall back and defend the point.
You can ping a location for the rest of your unit by pressing [Middle Mouse Button]
Team up and dominate the battle
Be sure to check out our Reddit and Discord where you can find like-minded players eager to team up and conquer the battle!
You can also chat to us here on Steam, or over on our Twitter!
Onwards to the Frontline!
That wraps up our Free Weekender's Guide to Hell Let Loose!
We hope you found this helpful and have a fantastic time on the frontline. We've got a very exciting year ahead of us as we head towards our launch out of Early Access and the arrival of the Eastern Front!
If you enjoy your time with Hell Let Loose this weekend you'll be able to pick it up at a 25% discount until the close of the free weekend on Monday 29th at 5pm GMT.
We've just released our second hotfix following Update 9's deployment, check out the full patch notes below -
Hotfix 2 Patch Notes
Fixed a bug that prevented Japanese language from being accessible in-game.
Fixed a bug that blocked players from deploying after clicking on another unit’s outpost.
Fixed a crash that occurred for all players on a server when an AT gun placed by a player that had died, left the server, or moved 500m away from the AT gun was dismantled by another player.
As always we really appreciate your feedback and bug reports, they make it possible for us to deploy hotfixes so thank you.
We're pleased to announce that the latest Hell Let Loose free weekend is live now!
Running from today until 5pm GMT on Monday March 29th, the free weekend is an excellent time to join us on the frontline, hot on the heels of Update 9: Blood and Steel's arrival.
Whether you're a new player looking to try Hell Let Loose for the first time, or an existing community member wanting to get more friends into your unit we want to make sure you hit the battlefields of World War II running!
Welcome to Hell Let Loose!
As you likely already know, Hell Let Loose is a 50 vs 50 WWII tactical FPS where strategy, teamwork, co-ordination and a sturdy trigger are the keys to victory.
To assist those of you new to the game and give you a quick crash course on the different roles, vehicles and game mechanics we'll be posting a 'Free Weekender's Guide to Hell Let Loose' tomorrow. This will provide a swift, new player friendly overview so that as soon as you jump into your first server you're ready for action!
The Hell Let Loose Community
We as Developers are incredibly lucky and humbled to have such a friendly and welcoming community with a deep and valuable knowledge of the game.
When joining a match and jumping into a unit for the first time, don't be afraid to say hi! The chances are a friendly voice for two will welcome you! If you're not sure on something, like which role to pick or how something works, feel free to ask in unit chat too and you'll likely be brought up to speed in a friendly manner.
When joining a community ran / private server, please take a quick second to read through any rules they have. Many players highly rate these admin run servers, whom normally only ask that you make an effort to communicate with your team via voice or text chat / ping in return for a fantastic team orientated experience.
If you want to find some likeminded or more experienced players to squad up with and jump into a game as a pre-made unit definitely come and say hi over on our official Reddit and Discord pages.
Keep an eye out on the Steam Store Page over the weekend too for some awesome high energy livestreams from members of the [NPA] clan!
If you want to see Hell Let Loose in action and get some top tips, they'll fill your boots!
Free Weekend 25% Discount
To celebrate the free weekend Hell Let Loose will be available to purchase at 25% off throughout the entire event, giving you access to the full game as we head towards launch and the arrival of the Eastern Front later this year.
Thanks for jumping in to Update 9! It’s been exciting to see footage from the admin camera and melee, as well as read through the feedback - both positive and negative. As a result, the team has been hard at work since the release pinpointing feedback, aggregating it by severity and risk-of-fix and have worked with the team in QA to release a hotfix for the following issues.
Update 9 - Hotfix 1 Patch Notes
Fixed an issue that allowed the player to deselect their spawn point but still attempt to deploy, leaving them in the 'Deploying' state with no deploy timer.
Fixed an issue that caused MGs to fire offset from where the player was aiming when braced or deployed on a surface. As a temporary solution we needed to revert the change that allowed bullets to travel where the barrel was pointing when exiting the sprint animation. We will look to reimplement this feature once we are sure it won’t cause issues again.
Disabled the vault mechanic on barbed wire placed by the Engineer and prevented players from climbing on the wooden ends.
Fixed the "VCRUNTIME140_1.dll" launch error. Now if the user is missing the required VCRUNTIME it will be installed when the game is launched.
Reimplemented the server welcome message displayed on the deploy screen. The map key and welcome message are now displayed in separate tabs that can be switched between. By default, the welcome tab will always be displayed unless switched by the player.
Fixed the aggressive LoD and billboard issues present on SMDM and Utah that caused trees and buildings to appear low quality at close distances.
Fixed certain bushes having bullet collision on PHL, SME, SMDM and Omaha preventing players from shooting through the foliage.
Fixed the collision on Carentan’s church preventing players shooting through the hole in the roof and a window on SME.
Fixed a material issue that caused weapons and certain character assets to render completely dark when in a shadow on SME.
Applied the correct LoD and materials to the Support’s US & GER Summer uniforms.
Removed a non-existent map from the map rotation.
Fixed the server list not correctly updating when using the sorting options.
Fixed rare server crash caused by client connection.
We want to assure you that we’re taking into account all feedback around the following topics:
Node meta and effect on both Engineer and metagame. We’re especially looking at the way resource gain occurs - both affected by ambient sector resource gain as well as distance-from-HQ modifiers. This has different effects for both Warfare and Offensive modes and separate between attackers and defenders.
Grass and tree LODs.
Please note, we’re also examining all other aspects of the game - both changed and unchanged.
Finally, it appears that there is a single client crash (players will see “ACCESS VIOLATION” when it occurs). We’re fortunate in that this is the only client crash in the game currently, and are currently looking to expedite a fix.
In case you missed it, please see yesterday’s post about the addition of partial controller support.
As part of Update 9 we have added our initial implementation of controller / gamepad support for Hell Let Loose.
This is the first phase of the feature's implementation and as such it's very much a work in progress. Because of this we wanted to give you a quick low-down on how it works, known issues and workarounds.
For the controller players out there we'd love your feedback too, so let us know any potential improvements that'd benefit you as well as any bugs you encounter - Thanks!
Please Note: Using a controller does not add any sort of auto aim feature or targeting support when compared to using a mouse and keyboard. This is intentional.
Right, lets get into the details shall we...
In-game Controls
Movement
Left-analog stick to move player
L3/LS and forward/forward-diagonal to sprint
Right-analog stick to control player camera/direction
Y/Triangle to cycle through equipment
A/X to jump/climb/vault
Hold LB/L1 and RB/R1 to lean
R3/RS to melee
View/Touchpad button (Tap) to open/close scoreboard
View/Touchpad button (Hold) to toggle HUD
B (Tap) to crouch/stand up
B (Hold) to prone/stand up
Left D-Pad to open/close map - Right-analog stick to control cursor displayed (commander only currently) - LB/L1 and RB/R1 to zoom out/in respectively based on cursor location - RT/R2 to select where current cursor is (currently used for commander abilities, liable to change) - R3 to expand the key - LT/L2 to place marker
Hold X to swap to bandage when injured
Hold LT/L2, followed by holding R3/RS to bring up marker radial menu (ADS must be used to do this)
Left-analog stick to select marker
Let go of R3 to place highlighted marker
LB/L1 (tap) swap to 2nd piece of equipment in list
RB/R1 (tap) swap to 3rd piece of equipment in list
Weapons
RT/R2 to shoot
LT/L2 to ADS
X/Square to reload
Grenades
RT/R2 to throw grenade (hold for cook)
LT/L2 to underarm throw grenade (hold for cook)
Melee weapon
RT/R2 or R3/RS to melee
Bandage
X/Square (hold) to heal self
RT/R2 (hold) to heal friendly player
Single Purpose equipment (morphine, hammer, torch etc), variable
X/Square hold
RT/R2 Hold
Building equipment (watch/wrench)
LT/L2 to view list of items that can be built
D-pad (up and down) to navigate list
RT/R2 to build selected item
Vehicles (applies to artillery and AT gun)
X/Square hold to enter/exit vehicle
A/X hold to start/stop engine
Left-analog stick (up and down) to accelerate and reverse (automatic vehicles only)
Right-analog stick (left and right) to turn vehicle
Left-analog stick (left and right) to free look/adjust aim
Right-analog stick (up and down) to free look/adjust aim
LB/L1 and RB/R1 (hold) to move down/up respectively in available seating
D-Pad (up and down) to change gears (driver seat) or to adjust turret zoom (other seats)
RT/R2 to fire secondary weapon (normally machine gun, supplies for truck)
LT/L2 to fire Primary weapon (cannon)
Y/Triangle to swap ammo type (if available)
X/Square to reload
L3/LS to beep horn (Trucks)
VOIP
D-Pad right (tap) to toggle on/off currently selected channel
D-Pad right (hold) to bring up VOIP radial menu
Right-analog stick to select VOIP channel from radial
Possible Issues and Fixes
Steam controller configurations
There has not yet been a developer-approved configuration for gamepad controls on Steam for HeLL, however the version that will work best at this time is the default “Gamepad” template that Steam provides. In order to do this, the player will need to ensure a few things are done in Steam settings.
General Steam Controller settings: To ensure the controller you’re using will work, access Steam>Settings>Controller>General Controller Settings. From here ensure the controller type (PlayStation, Xbox, generic gamepad etc.) is ticked based on what you’re using.
Game-specific Steam controller configuration: What actions are mapped to the gamepad buttons will be determined by which Steam controller configuration is set for the game. There is currently no default config by developers, and the community created configs (for previous updates) will not be compatible with the layout now.
The best recommendation is to set the controller config for HeLL to the generic “Gamepad” template as provided by Steam. To do this the player will need to: Launch game>Open Steam Overlay>Select “Controller Configuration” in the top right>Navigate to list of controller configs>Select “Templates”>Select “Gamepad”.
HeLL config files
The player may find after ensuring the above is sorted that the controls are present but not quite fully functional. This can be identified if holding the VOIP button does not bring up the radial menu to select which channel to use, or if the scoreboard is mapped to the left d-pad button, instead of the View/Touchpad button. This would indicate an issue with config files for the game, and can be fixed by deleting the current one after ensuring the game is closed, and launching again so it generates a new one which should then provide the correct controls bound to the gamepad. The HeLL config file can be found in this location:-
C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\HLL\Saved
Please be aware however, that doing this will reset all Options (gameplay, audio, keybindings, controls) back to their default values, and any adjustments made prior to this will have to be applied again.
Commander Controls
Commander controls on gamepad have not yet been finalised. They are usable, but if you are having problems, you may need to switch back to keyboard and mouse controls when using commander abilities.
Controlling the frontline!
That wraps up the quick 'how to' for our partial controller support introduction! We'll continue working on this feature so it becomes fully functional and fleshed out for those who choose to game with a controller.
We look forward to your feedback, thanks everyone!
We're excited to announce that Update 9: Blood and Steel is live now!
To give you an update on what the team are working on, as well as go through the full Changelog I'll be handing you over to Lead Developer Max!
Update 9 Changelog
Hi everyone,
This year is a very busy one for the whole team and we’re very excited to release Update 9 - which brings with it a ton of long-requested features that we’ve been keen to bring into the game - melee, the MG34, Utah Offensive modes, the admin camera and much more.
We try to list every single significant change, and never mean to omit anything. When this happens, it’s usually a result of human-error in reconciling our in-game bug tracking with the compilation of the notes. We’re striving to provide as much context and information as possible about every line in the changelog.
Like always, we’ll be monitoring all feedback from the Update and integrating it into our development plans. We’re particularly interested to see how the changes to Garrison behaviour affect the metagame and feel that the Admin camera will be a great way for us to better observe in-game behaviour.
Thanks so much for your support and patience over the course of our development. We’re very excited to show you what we’ve got cooking up in the future as we move towards leaving Early Access and fighting on the Eastern Front!
Find out more about some of Update 9's new additions below:
We’ve done a deep-dive back into our armour code around both the weapon systems and physics systems, and felt that this required a more concerted effort to rewrite and polish both sets of code. As a result of this, we’re separating out balance with deeper system rewrites. In addition to this, we’re currently working to fill out the proper medium armour slots for all forces, as we know that the heavy armour skew in game has been causing issues for an unacceptably long period of time.
Due to the time needed to fix many of these deeper issues, we’re releasing as many beneficial changes as we can, as fast as we can.
Reduced AT-Mine damage to Tanks. Mines no longer instantly destroy the following tanks: Tiger, Panther, Sherman 76mm, Sherman 75mm
Tank MG belt has been increased from 100 to 200 rounds (this is coupled with the fixed zeroing of the MGs)
Improved non-penetrating shell FX on Tanks
Bombing runs and Artillery no longer deals proximity damage to Tanks (only direct hits)
Adjusted the Luchs & Stuart gear speed ratio to be more linear and smooth
Improvements made to damage occlusion (Added multi-point damage occlusion). This affects all heavy weapons (rockets, grenades, mines, tank rounds etc.)
Improved Tanks MG hit detection. Please note, we’re aware of a persisting key issue with regard to the hit detection resulting in specific angles of both the target and the MG resulting in the target taking no damage from what appear to be obvious hits. We have a fix coming for this.
Meta Changes
Disabled building Garrisons in neutral sectors
Capturing a Strong Point on Offensive maps now takes 60 seconds (Was 120 seconds)
Attacker Garrisons placed in enemy Active sectors on Offensive now takes 5 seconds to dismantle for the Defending forces (Was 30 seconds)
Disabled the HQ spawn if enemy is capturing that HQ sector on Offensive
Garrisons can now be placed in the first row/column of enemy sectors for 100 supplies (Unless locked). These are called Forward Garrisons.
Forward Garrisons are disabled if enemy are within 100m (But not dismantled)
Garrisons placed in friendly sectors still cost 50 supplies and an enemy needs to be within 15m of the garrison to disable it.
Removed the 20 second cooldown for disabling Garrisons and Airheads (How long it takes to change from disabled > enemy near)
Airheads now remain for 3 minutes allowing for 6 spawn waves (Was 2 minutes).
If a sector is lost, friendly nodes in the lost sector are destroyed
The engineer can build max 12 nodes per team (4 of each node per team)
Engineers can no longer build the same nodes within 50 meters of another node
We've decided to remove the in-game bug reporting menu in an effort to consolidate the bug reports we’re receiving. Players should instead report any bugs they experience in the game’s Support page on Steam or via the Team17 support page below.
Handheld weapons and tank MGs are now zeroed correctly by default
Added a 2 minute staging period to the start of Warfare matches.
Added an Admin/Spectate camera for server admins
Increased max player level to 500
Add new rank icons to scoreboard for levels 200-500
Bullets no longer fire with perfect accuracy when leaving the sprint animation. Instead bullets will travel in the direction that your gun is facing
Reduced the AT-gun cost from 100 to 50 supplies
Made barbed wire functional. Due to the implementation, we are aware of specific locations in the game and per gamemode where this is not the case and will be fixing it.
Added a VOIP reconnect option to Audio settings. We’ve worked a lot directly with Vivox around the implementation of the voip systems and it should be far more stable now, but we felt this would be a good thing to have just in case.
Added a new anti-aliasing option called ‘Community TAA’ based on community feedback. We’ve added the most popular mixture of settings to the AA as we can no longer allow manual tweaks via .ini - which was used to remove grass and other objects from the game.
Changing foliage settings no longer causes bushes to disappear
Locked the ability to edit the engine.ini to prevent users disabling Grass/Foliage/Landscape
Blueprints will be despawned after 3 minutes if they are not built
Reduced dismantle timer for friendly blueprints to 2 seconds
Medics now bandage twice as fast as regular infantry
Shortened the Germans OP antenna to be more on par with the size of the US OP. We will be most likely remaking the models for both these and the Garrisons to be more optimised, higher quality and similar in size across all forces for balancing sake.
Increased pistol damage at range (to be a 2 shot kill at extended range)
Bombing runs and Artillery can now do radial damage to enemy trucks
Tracers on weapons are now a fixed 1-in-4 ratio, instead of the "25% chance to spawn" system as before
Vehicle wrecks now despawn when damaged by an explosion or after 5 minutes
Vehicle wrecks will not despawn after 5 minutes if a player is within 100m or is within 250m and is looking in the direction of the wreck
Vote-kicks now ban the player for 1 hour instead of 2 hours
Improved performance on the Enlist screen (Server browser)
Improvements made to damage occlusion (Added multi-point damage occlusion). This affects all heavy weapons (rockets, grenades, mines, tank rounds etc.)
Tanks and all explosives can now destroy both enemy and friendly mines
We’ve implemented a customised threshold on each reload animation, so that if it’s interrupted beyond a certain point the weapon will still be reloaded.
Extended the HLOD Transition Distance to a more acceptable distance. This is a bit of a balance between performance and “melted ice cream houses”.
Updated BAR, Garand, K98k, MG42, Browning M1919, G43, Colt 1911, Luger, P38, STG44 Thompson, Springfield to use the new smart material system. We also cleaned up a lot of the geometry and sights (removed jagged geometry or poorly scaled front sight posts)
Added particle effect for de-spawning vehicle wrecks
Added particle effect for dismantling an Airhead, Repair station and Supply crate
Bandaging wounds now adds blood to players hands
Increased the cull distance for AT-Guns. They should now be visible at longer distances such as Omaha cliffs
[Fixed] Scope becomes fuzzy when using sniper rifles
[Fixed] Changing foliage settings causes grass/shrubs to disappear.
[Fixed] Trees outlines visible on a fire/smoke VFX when having Low/Medium/High video preset selected
[Fixed] Inconsistent VFX when shooting AP or AT mines
[Fixed] The Torch flame will pulse when the game is on a lower FX quality
[Fixed] The smoke resulting from firing shells from the tank appears distorted on Low, Medium or High FX Quality
[Fixed] Players deploying the LMG do not update for other players that are further than 500m away and become invincible
[Fixed] The Engineer role's Barbed Wire blocks bazooka/panzerschreck shots, anti-tank/tank shells, grenades and explosions
[Fixed] The airhead can be dropped in areas that will display the "Turn Back" message on player spawn
[Fixed] Inconsistencies between certain tanks applying suppression to nearby friendly Players
[Fixed] The Support and AT's wrench construction animation stops after about 2 seconds
[Fixed] Offensive maps let defender vehicles pass the HQ of attackers
[Fixed] Player may be invulnerable to ballistic damage during vaulting and/or climbing
[Fixed] Starting to capture a sector instantly after the previous one has been caught results in the new sector not becoming enlarged on the player's HUD
[Fixed] Text for Truck seat key bindings can overlap key bind graphic
[Fixed] Satchel charge and impact marks appear to rotate on German Medium tank after undergoing collision
[Fixed] Player will receive 65535 smoke grenades under unstable network conditions
[Fixed] Opening the map while reloading a bolt action weapon will cancel the reload
[Fixed] Multiple collision issues with the AT Gun ghost
[Fixed] Missing progress bar for the 'You Shall Not Pass' and 'Labor of Love' achievements
[Fixed] Map markers do not fade in when the player toggles the HUD on
[Fixed] Selected customisations on Character model may appear incorrect on the front-end menu after exiting a server
[Fixed] Several of the sliders within the game settings produce SFX when being dragged beyond their limit
[Fixed] The "Dead Bodies Despawn Delay" setting does not change as intended, and is always 1 change behind
[Fixed] The "Where's an Engineer?!" achievement is tracking the wrong number of repair stations
[Fixed] The 'Strong Point' hint appears when the player enters an inactive Strong Point
[Fixed] The achievements that involve the destruction of vehicles give more points of progress than intended
[Fixed] The compass sometimes remains pointing towards the neutral sector even after that sector had been captured
[Fixed] The format of the match timer is inconsistent between the HUD and scoreboard
[Fixed] The health of a truck doesn't match up when compared between its HUD and Torch values
[Fixed] The Map Marker List is cutoff on multiple resolutions
[Fixed] The player is unable to dismantle the Barbed Wire constructible
[Fixed] The player will receive the 'Capturing Sector' hint when they spawn as an attacker on an Offensive map
[Fixed] The player will receive the 'You killed a friendly!' warning if they down an enemy and deploy on the enemy's team before the downed enemy has 'Let go'
[Fixed] The reload of a deployed Machine Gun can be interrupted when it appears to be completed
[Fixed] The user does not receive a warning if they opt to reset their settings or hints
[Fixed] The ‘Enemy Near’ tooltip does not correctly update while it is visible to the Player
[Fixed] User is unable to change appearance if the DLC is disabled via Steam whilst it is equipped to the character
[Fixed] Visible issues when leaving a Unit.
[Fixed] Watch build animation will partially loop if an enemy Player enters the build radius
[Fixed] When in proximity of the enemy ghost nodes, the player will see the nodes' HUD icons
[Fixed] The Commander's 'Reinforce' ability can be placed within locked sectors
[Fixed] Captured sectors will go into 'Sector Cooldown' on the in-game map while playing the Offensive game mode
[Fixed] On the Deployment Screen, the selected Spawn Point becomes visually deselected after redeploying
[Fixed] The building animation will continue to play if the player goes into prone while constructing the supplies
[Fixed] With pistol equipped, TPP Character ADS animation reverts to Hip when stop animation is played
[Fixed] [TPP] The Ammo boxes, Ordnance boxes, Medical supplies boxes and Satchel charges are misaligned from the player's hand
[Fixed] [TPP] The off-hand remains the same orientation when leaning with a one-handed piece of equipment
[Fixed] Incorrect role equipment for the US ‘Support’ role when wearing the ‘Airborne M1942’ uniform
[Fixed] Noticeable LOD issue on the Backpack as an US Anti-tank role
[Fixed] The back of the neck of dead players may sometimes clip through Airborne M1942 Uniform
[Fixed] [FPP] Player's hand is clipping with the Marsh Fallschirmjager Smock uniform when holding the Karabiner 98K rifle
[Fixed] Accepting a Steam invite to a server with password will display the Wrong Password prompt
[Fixed] Changing resolution while in 'Fullscreen' can briefly show the confirmation message before reverting back to its initial configuration
[Fixed] Climbing on certain bushes can cause the player to levitate
[Fixed] Disable the engine's shortcut that makes F11 toggle fullscreen
[Fixed] The Vehicle engine start/stop sequence is cancelled if the Player attempts to open the map at the same time
[Fixed] Players are able to immediately fire and with perfect accuracy by pressing the aim and fire buttons simultaneously while running
[Fixed] Players kicked from squad sometimes remain in squad VOIP
[Fixed] Server queue notifications are displayed to non-VIP members when all server slots are set for VIPs only
[Fixed] Servers VIP slots only update after a user joins/leaves the server or the map changes
[Fixed] The player is observed to crash while being "ALT+Tabbed" out of the game.
[Fixed] Player crashed after leaving server and returning to enlist screen
[Fixed] The cursor will be temporarily removed if the player is about to be deployed while navigating a game menu
[Fixed] The Enlist Screen's server queue only updates after a map change or when a user joins/leaves the server
[Fixed] The game will show as "Unreal Test!" on the Steam server list
[Fixed] The player can become a rifleman when joining a locked recon unit.
[Fixed] The player may experience a brief FPS drop upon first selecting a deploy location
[Fixed] The player receives the "Already a member" message when trying to rejoin the same unit he got kicked out of
[Fixed] Turret cannon HUD not updating whilst driving Recon Vehicles
[Fixed] VIP Players are able to join a server during the post-match screen instead of being placed in the server queue
[Fixed] [TPP] Player can perform certain animations with incorrect equipment.
[Fixed] "THAT DEPLOY LOCATION HAS BEEN OVERRUN" shown, but the player is deployed anyway.
[Fixed] Bullets do not penetrate window frames
[Fixed] The Mausbach Approach capture point name is overlapped by the capture point icon from the HUD
[Fixed] [TPP] The watch is misaligned in the player's hand
[Fixed] Multiple issues observed with German revive animation
[Fixed] If an action is performed while the player simultaneously opens up the scoreboard, the action will continue to completion
[Fixed] Garrison icons will stay enlarged after being selected using the ‘Dismantle Garrison’ Commander ability
[Fixed] Certain structures are counted twice in the "View Personal Stats" menu when placed
[Fixed] Artillery Gun Icons on the HUD turn blue when a Unit member is in them
[Fixed] Bullet Casing Ejects FX play at world origin when player hasn't moved for a while
[Fixed] Key-bindings on the In-game map and Hints do not update if the key-bindings are changed via the in-game options menu
[Fixed] All weapons can penetrate the "WaterDeep" material and the damage is not reduced after penetrating
[Fixed] After a map transition, the background and player model of the customisation menu can disappear if the player quickly clicks 'Change Role'
[Fixed] A defunct Unit may be created if another Player swaps team and creates a Unit while the Player is in the ‘Change Role’ menu.
[Fixed] "Supplies Here!" achievement is not tracking the progress made when using Supply Drop as Commander.
[Fixed] "Take Cover" achievement is not tracking the progress made
[Fixed] Backface culling visible on drainpipe.
[Fixed] Inconsistency with support score awarded when placing level 0 constructible ghosts
[Fixed] US Trucks get stuck often under Supply Stations.
[Fixed] A LoD transition issue with the German Munitions node at a short distance
[Fixed] Collision issues with Barns
[Fixed] Invisible collision present on factory asset across multiple maps
[Fixed] Noticeable LOD issue observed on the ‘German Light Tank’