Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #123!

This week we are showing off one of the two new Eastern Front maps added with Update 10, Kursk!



The Battle of Kursk was one of the largest battles of World War 2. Some of the most intense armoured combat occurred at Kursk, with Germany fielding its newly introduced Panther tanks in an attempt to encircle and destroy the Soviet salient. Fighting was fierce, with heavy casualties on both sides.
Fighting on the Steppe





The terrain encountered by the advancing German forces were the familiar rolling hills and grasslands of the East European steppe. They were resisted by layers of soviet defences heavily fortified with all types of anti-tank emplacements and manned by prepared and well-equipped Soviet units. The relatively flat terrain aided in the fielding of armour and air power, and both played a major role in the engagement.



The Battle of Kursk saw the first combat action for the new German Panther tanks, and in fact the offensive itself was delayed to ensure that the Panther would be available for the battle. Nevertheless, the rushed implementation resulted in a worrying number of mechanical breakdowns. Discounting reliability issues, the type performed well in its intended role against enemy armour.

Soviet forces would primarily field sizable numbers of T-34 medium tanks, an effective and well-rounded design which was capable of engaging all but the heaviest of German armour at its introduction. The gun would show its age in the intense combat, however, having difficulties defeating many of the up-armoured German tanks at the longer engagement distances seen at Kursk. The T-34 would eventually be upgraded with a larger 85mm gun in subsequent variants, though the initial 76 millimetre version would serve through to the end of the war.

A summer offensive intended to retake the initiative for the Germans on the Eastern Front, stiff resistance and a rapid Soviet counterattack slowed German momentum to a halt. Ultimately, developments elsewhere would force the withdrawal of German units from the area. After Kursk, the Soviets would dictate the pace of the fighting.



In Hell Let Loose, Kursk is an open map of dominating ridge lines and trench networks that house the “defence in depth” positions that the Soviet forces made famous in their attempts to halt the German armoured advance. You’ll fight from the concealment of the forest out into the small Russian hamlets that scatter the treeline before pushing into the majority of the map - the famous yellow fields of the steppe.













While the open map places heavy emphasis on armoured tactics and success, infantry will be able to manoeuvre via the trench networks that link ridges, hamlets and old windmills that dominate the centre of the map.



We have a pending U9 patch, and will likely be having a play test tomorrow. This will essentially be a smoke test for fixes we have implemented. We will be grateful for those who have the playtest downloaded if they can jump in and help us test for a couple of hours to check the stability of the patch. If you wish to join in and have not downloaded the PTE, search and install the Hell Let Loose (public testing) app in your steam library. We will let you know when the PTE servers are live via Discord.

We will follow up with the patch notes, which include a bunch of bug and crash fixes.


That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

We'll see you on the front line!

Hey everyone,

Just a quick post today to let you know that we're hosting an AMA especially for you, the community, with Lead Developer Max this Thursday on the HLL Subreddit!

We know many of you have important questions around different areas of the game, from the meta to how tanks will change with the armour overhaul and much more!

As such we're keen to use this opportunity to answer those questions for you AND have an active discussion on multiple community hot topics with you - door's open, come in style.

If you can't make it yourself please feel free to give your question to someone else to field.

Please note: we will try to answer as many questions as possible from as many of you as possible, as such we will likely begin by answering only one question per person.

Time & Date

Starts 2pm BST / 3pm CET / 9am ET on Thursday 15th April and will run for 12 consecutive hours.

You'll be able to join in the Developer AMA HERE.

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #122!

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 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.



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!

We'll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #121!

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!



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 9 Changelog

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.

Hotfix 1

Hotfix 2

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

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.

Roadmap

That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

We'll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

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...



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!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Hell Let Loose!

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!



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.


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.



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!



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.



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]

Be sure to check out our Reddit and Discord where you can find like-minded players eager to team up and conquer the battle!

Hell Let Loose Discord
Hell Let Loose Community Reddit

You can also chat to us here on Steam, or over on our Twitter!



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.

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

We'll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

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.

That wraps the details on Hotfix 2!

We'll see you on the frontline.

Hey everyone,

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!



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.

HLL Reddit - LFG, Memes, Gameplay and More!
HLL Discord - LFG, Clan Recruitment, General Chatter!

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.

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

We'll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,


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.

• 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.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/686810/view/3046095459641969948

As with everything in the game, your feedback is welcome.

Lastly, we wanted to add that we’ve added Japanese localisation to the game. ようこそ、日本人の友達

We'll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

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...



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

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'll see you on the frontline.