Hey everyone,

We’ve, unfortunately, been experiencing some issues with getting PC player servers back online after releasing Patch 14.4, and have been working with our partners to investigate why some servers are working, and others aren’t.

We believe the best thing to do here is rollback the patch, so you are able to get back into Hell Let Loose while we continue to investigate this.

Rolling back a patch has its risks, and this does, however, mean that anyone who has bought the new Luftwaffe DLC on PC will no longer be able to access it until we have completed our investigations and a new patch can be released.

This change will not affect Console players. We’re deeply sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, and will endeavour to keep you as updated as possible while we continue to look into this.

Hey everyone,

Patch 14.4 will be going live today, and will begin rolling out across console and PC from 2pm BST!

Please read on to find the changelog for today’s patch.



We’ll be over at TwitchCon Vegas this weekend, where you’ll be able to head on over and play Hell Let Loose as part of a 100-player LAN, plus, we’ll be on the front page of Twitch from 5pm PDT - we hope to see you on the frontlines!


We want to continue to make sure that it is your feedback that helps to guide development, and in order for that to remain the case, we’re going to be looking at re-evaluating when we hold PTE sessions so that we can better populate games for you to fully try out the latest fixes and new content.

This means that future public testing sessions will no longer be held on the weekend, and instead be condensed into a shorter time frame to encourage more 100-player lobbies.

Thank you to everyone who did join the PTE and provided feedback - we’ve taken a look at your responses, and have been able to make some adjustments prior to release. However, in order to get this patch out to you this month, we haven’t been able to address all feedback from the session at this stage - but it has prompted a much larger conversation around accessibility in Hell Let Loose.



We mentioned in our last developer briefing that dive to prone had been reworked, and as part of that, had worked on camera improvements to prevent camera limitations as the dive ended - which were present with the initial dive to prone implementation.

As part of that work, the system that controls head-bobbing was also rewritten to be more versatile and allow for smoother transitions between profiles, while increasing visual quality.

By reworking this code, it has also made head-bobbing more noticeable to those who are sensitive to motion. Thanks to feedback from the PTE session, we have now made tweaks to this system to reduce the level of motion. While some players will be pleased to see head-bobbing working, we also want to make sure we’re supporting as many players as possible - and so will begin scoping what is possible in terms of improving accessibility settings.


Now that this functionality has tuneable parameters, we have been able to tweak these to address your previous feedback. Your responses from the PTE showed that over half of those who submitted feedback agreed that dive to prone now feels more realistic, that players were no longer able to dolphin dive, and the slide distance now feels ‘just right.’


As many of you have pointed out, some players will use Nvidia filters to avoid being at a disadvantage on the purposefully-designed night modes. While these filters can be customised to provide more of a competitive edge, it can also deter players who do want to experience the maps as intended.

We’ve heard your feedback around this, and will begin the process of reaching out to Nvidia to understand how these filters can be disabled while playing Hell Let Loose - evening the playing field and allowing new strategies and ways of playing to form.


While Hell Let Loose now officially supports ultrawide monitors, we understand that some players with particularly large monitors are now experiencing discomfort while playing due to the change in FOV - including for those who are visually impaired.

We will be looking to extend the FOV slider in video settings so that players are able to adjust the settings for improved accessibility, after Patch 14.4.


Locomotion changes continue to equally divide opinion! From the feedback provided during the public testing session earlier this month, some players were pleased to see improvements to the responsiveness of vaulting and mantling, however, some felt the slightly more automated movement to feel restrictive.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

For this initial improvement, we wanted to focus on consistency: making sure vaulting and mantling work consistently, work in a way that’s consistent across different obstacles, and work in a way that’s consistent with our tuning values so that we’re able to reliably control and tune these mechanics and know that the values we’re setting will correctly correspond to what we see in-game. - James, Gameplay Programmer

As part of that work, and to maintain that consistency so you’re not getting stuck unable to complete an action, players will no longer be able to vault up onto an obstacle.

The short hop players see in-game actually had no specific animation, instead playing the regular vault animation while teleporting a player’s character to where it needed to be.

In Patch 14.4, vaulting will now consistently mean vaulting over something, and mantling will consistently mean climbing up onto something - values that are determined by a few factors, including:

The player will vault an obstacle if -

• The obstacle ‘thickness’ (i.e., the distance from its near edge to its far edge in the direction of the vault) is less than 50cm
  
• There is a suitable landing position for the vault (i.e., a player-sized space to land on the other side of the obstacle that’s at the same height the vault started from or lower.

If these values aren’t met, the player’s character will otherwise climb the obstacle.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

You’ll consistently vault over anything you can vault over and climb anything you can’t - and it’s now much more obvious which will happen before you actually do it. This should all improve consistency, reliability, and quality of the actions. - James, Gameplay Programmer

[Added] Carentan Night Map
[Added] Sainte-Mère-Église Night Map


[Added] Dive to prone feature improved and re-implemented
[Improved] Vaulting
[Improved] Mantling


[Fix Submitted] Player deploys with incorrect loadout and cannot switch

Lovingly known by all as the ‘loadout bug’, we believe our fix to be holding strong, and may finally have eradicated this particular bug. Like many fixes, we won’t know whether it has successfully prevented all instances of the loadout bug until it hits the live game - so we’ll be keeping a close eye on your feedback as you get hands on with Patch 14.4, so make sure to use the support link to report any issues.

[Fixed] Throwing last grenade will replay 'Equip grenade' animation after throwing

A last remanent of the grenade bug - animation support has been carried out to resolve an issue whereby the animation of equipping a grenade would briefly play while throwing the last grenade in your loadout, this has now been fixed.

[Fixed] Texture binding present on vehicle explosion VFX

[Fixed] When all gamemodes matches comes to an end the game will hang for an additional 9 seconds before showing results screen

[Fixed] Kar98 reload is partly missing on PS5 pad speaker

[Fixed] Weapons can be fired without any input after quick switching to a grenade.

[Fixed] [Additional Content Hub] The user cannot rotate the character using a controller on either PC or console

[Fixed] Player model has metal decals when shot

[Fixed] Voice communications don't work as VOIP is unable to reconnect.

[Fixed] Flamethrower emits excessive lens flares when firing on night maps



[Added] [Xbox] [PC] Luftwaffe Eagles

This DLC is on it’s way to PlayStation 5 players, however, it will unfortunately not be available with the initial release of Patch 14.4. PlayStation players may notice a space for this DLC in the Additional Content hub, however, will not be able to purchase it just yet. We’ll let you know as soon as it becomes available!

Luftwaffe Eagles

As part of the German Luftwaffe forces, the Fallschirmjäger were the first paratroopers to feature in large-scale airborne based operations. The Fallschirmjäger were also known as the ‘Green Devils’ thanks to their forceful fighting spirit and tactical superiority. However, following the causalities in the Battle of Crete, they were mainly used as ground-based troops.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2623000/Hell_Let_Loose__Luftwaffe_Eagles/

This downloadable content contains:

Fallschirmjäger Uniform (Available to the German Assault, Anti-Tank, Medic, Machine Gunner, Officer, Rifleman, Automatic Rifleman, Engineer and Support roles).



With each patch, we’re striving to continue improving your experience with the existing maps, including by increasing stability through various map optimisations, such as LOD fixes and collision issues.

Some assets can be too dense in triangle complexity, meaning that the LODs set up for them are not switching effectively enough to keep the triangle complexity compared to the screen size optimal.

Mesh LOD optimisation involves ensuring that assets not only LOD in a manner that is not noticeable by the player, but are also crucial to ensuring that we minimise overdraw on complex meshes. Any amount of overdraw from complex meshes contributes to a strain on the GPU, which can affect performance and stability.

While these optimisations require time and manual attention, we are also working on capturing some of your reported issues - including LOD changes and invisible collision. You will hopefully see some improvements with each and every patch.


[Fixed] Wooden gate asset has no bullet penetration
[Fixed] [D1] A specific fence post is missing bullet and player collision
[Fixed] [D5] The player is unable to shoot through the wooden plank gaps with the tank


[Fixed] [G7] A bush at sector G7 exhibits a visible LOD change when viewed from a short distance


[Fixed] The wooden stairs and floor of a specific building do not have bullet penetration
[Fixed] [F4] Small gap in rock cliff


[Fixed] [B4] Misaligned wheat crops that float sideways


[Fixed] Flames PFX are missing on some charred tree stumps



[Fixed] Assets inside a barn have stone PFX and SFX
[Fixed] [D6] A fence presents draw distance issues from ~53m
[Fixed] [F2] A stone wall is misaligned with the ground
[Fixed] [H8] The player can get permanently stuck in a tree in the top left quadrant of H8 sector in SMDM village


[Fixed] Two of the forward Garrisons are incorrectly placed and will be destroyed after the Attackers capture the 1st sector
[Fixed] Performance drops while looking at a heavy smoke through the binoculars

Hey everyone,

Thank you for bearing with us while we take in the news shared earlier this week.

We wanted to confirm that the planned PTE session for Hell Let Loose will still be going ahead today at 3pm BST, and will end on Monday the 9th, so you’ll have the weekend to provide feedback on some of the new night maps before they arrive in future patches, starting with Carentan and Sainte-Mère-Église, which will arrive in Patch 14.4, as well as vaulting and mantling improvements, the addition of an improved dive to prone, as well as help us identify any potential broader impact from the loadout bug fix.

However, we will now be moving back the planned release of Patch 14.4 to the 19th of October, a week later than originally planned.

This should not affect the planned release of part one of the British forces, which will arrive in Patch 14.5 in November.

• [Added] Night map variant added to the following existing Warfare maps:

• Carentan
  
• Sainte-Mère-Église
  
• Utah Beach
  
• Hill 400
  
• Driel
  
• Kharkov
  
• Stalingrad
  
• Omaha Beach (Dusk Map)
  
• El Alamein (Dusk Map)

• [Added] Dive to prone feature improved and re-implemented
  
• [Improved] Vaulting
  
• [Improved] Mantling

• [Fix Submitted] Player deploys with incorrect loadout and cannot switch

There have been some issues with this build which is unfortunately why it was delayed, and the below bugs have already been identified, including:

• Steam icons present on scoreboard
  
• Map icons in server browser are displaying as white placeholder image
  
• Map names in server browser are displaying placeholder names

This PTE session aims to test the impact of some fixes, as well as get your feedback on the new night maps planned for future patches, including:

1). Any inadvertent impact from the loadout bug fix

2). Your experience with the improved dive to prone functionality

3). Your experience with the improved vaulting and mantling

4). Your thoughts on the visibility of the night maps


Check your Steam Library for the Hell Let Loose (Public Testing) application, or re-download it from the Steam store, you’ll want to boot this version up to take part in the PTE!

Once you’re in and have selected a server, you’ll be able to test out the items in the above changelog and share your feedback using the below forms:

Submit Feedback: https://forms.office.com/e/Zn7yLrX7u6

Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/e/TJ7Mh0ihYS

Please note:

Because PTEs are run on development servers that have logging activated, you will experience a slight decrease in performance. You will also not earn any exp and your progress will not be carried over to the live game.

We look forward to seeing you in this session!

Hey everyone,

We were hoping to get you all up on the PTE today testing the new night maps, as well as the vaulting and mantling improvements, plus the addition of the improved dive to prone, however, we’ve experienced an issue when going through some final checks.

A new bug has occurred on the Public Testing branch that now means a player’s level is being registered as Level 1. Because of the way the PTE branch is set up, we believe this issue is now occurring as a result of the code required to fix the loadout bug.

We know many of you are eager to jump on and be the first to play the new night maps, as well as the Dusk variants for El Alamein and Omaha, however, if we were to open the PTE with this bug, players would not be able to test out:

Commander Role

• As this requires players to be Level 30
  
• Without a Commander, this would affect Armour as additional vehicles wouldn’t be able to be spawned

All Loadouts

• You would be defaulted to the Level 1 loadout

Flare Guns

• Useful on night maps, players would not have access to these as they require Spotter Level 3

We still want to get your feedback, so while we work on fixing this bug, we’ll be moving this weekend’s planned testing session to next weekend, instead. This shouldn’t affect the release of Patch 14.4, however, we will keep you updated on our progress.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Loadout Bug: 1
Devs: 0 (for now)

In the meantime, here are some of the other night maps that you can look forward to testing next week:


Omaha at Dusk


Hill 400 at Night


Utah at Night

Hey everyone,

With Patch 14.3 now behind us, we know you’ll be keen to learn more about what will be coming to Hell Let Loose as we head into October!

Your feedback has been invaluable to us over these last few months, and we’ve been able to focus our efforts into tackling some of the game’s most prevalent issues.

As of today, we can confirm a fix for the loadout bug has been submitted, and will be available for you to stress-test in a PTE session this Friday, on the 29th of September.

We know there’s still a long way to go to optimise and improve Hell Let Loose, and while we’re continuing to focus on bug-fixing and making good on the British forces, we also don’t want to leave you waiting too long for new content.

To find out what you can expect to see from Hell Let Loose for the rest of this year, please read on!



Our environment tech-art team have been working on bringing night variants to a number of the existing maps, including:

• Carentan
  
• Sainte-Mère-Église
  
• Utah Beach
  
• Hill 400
  
• Driel
  
• Kharkov
  
• Stalingrad
  
• Omaha Beach (Dusk Map)
  
• El Alamein (Dusk Map)

Each of these maps will be available for testing in the PTE this Friday, and the Carentan and Sainte-Mère-Église night variants will be the first to land in Patch 14.4 early next month on the 12th of October, alongside general bug fixing.

Offering more diverse gameplay, with opportunities to re-strategise on your approach, the night map versions will sport atmospheric lighting that will put heavy reliance on communication and coordination to obtain the win.

These new night map variants have been fine-tuned, from adjusting the skylight to allow for more bounce and directionality, to introducing a star field to create an even more dramatic night-time skyscape.


Carentan at Night


Sainte-Mère-Église at Night


Considered an elite airborne unit, the Fallschirmjäger - German paratroopers - were also known as ‘The Green Devils’ thanks to their forceful fighting spirit and tactical superiority.

The distinctive uniform featured several safety features, in order to avoid injury during a hard landing. The jump smock ended at the mid-knee, preventing any entanglement with the parachute lines, and was partnered with knee pads that aimed to protect a soldier’s knees through extended periods of crawling or kneeling. Ammunition pouches were also designed to be worn securely around the neck, rather than the standard belt.

This DLC will be available for players to pick up from the Additional Content Hub with the next Patch, 14.4, and use on Infantry and Recon roles!


Fallschirmjäger Uniform DLC (1)


Fallschirmjäger Uniform DLC (2)


Reworked and evolved, the new version of Dive to Prone will also be available for testing this Friday!

A lot of time has been spent fine-tuning and polishing the dive to prone feature - to not only ensure it’s not exploitable - but also give it a much more realistic and tactile feel, by utilising tuneable parameters including:


Players will now carry momentum throughout, which means you’ll be unable to change direction mid-dive, and instead only able to control direction once friction with the ground is gradually re-established on landing.


Players can no longer dive while jumping - instead, the new animation queue system is used to begin the dive when the player lands from a jump.


This ensures players aren’t able to dolphin dive, by including a cooldown that prevents the action from being carried out too soon after completing a dive.


The duration and speed of the slide has been tuned down to feel more realistic, and is now impacted by whether you are entering dive to prone from standing vs crouched.


In the previous version, there was a camera limitation as the dive ended, which was a result of the system that controls head bobbing under locomotion switching between profiles. This system has now been rewritten to be more versatile, and now has the capability to smoothly transition between profiles, and visual quality is increased.


The new dive to prone will properly conserve momentum by using the speed that the player was travelling on dive initiation as the start speed, rather than using the stance’s maximum speed.


We have also disabled aiming-down the sights for a duration on landing, as well as introducing a camera shake that is triggered on contact with the ground.



We will be holding a PTE session from this Friday, the 29th of September until the 2nd of October, where you’ll be able to jump on and try out each night map variant, the new dive to prone functionality, as well as help us assess any inadvertent impact from the loadout bug fix, plus share feedback on initial mantling and vaulting improvements.

A changelog for this session will be shared on Friday, alongside the feedback and bug reporting forms!




While night variants offer more ways to enjoy your favourite maps, we’re also introducing a new dusk variant map for El Alamein, in November, which you’ll also be able to try out in the PTE this Friday.

Rather than the cool, low-light tones of the night maps, this variant will feature darkened lighting, gently lit with a fading glow that not only provides a new atmosphere, but also offers an initial reduced visibility variant for El Alamein that players can utilise to navigate the vast, open terrain.


El Alamein at Dusk

Driel will also be receiving a night map version with Patch 14.5 - providing the cover of night to give you opportunity to explore new manoeuvres.


Driel at Night


Also landing with Patch 14.5, players will be able to get hands on with the initial improvements to the British forces, including updated desert uniforms for both German and British soldiers, as well as new British tanks, and new British weapons to replace the previous loadouts.

You’ll be able to test out the rework in a PTE session before Patch 14.5 goes live in November!

We’ll be going into more detail on the rework soon, but for now, here’s a little teaser on progress:


British Desert Uniform]


British Helmet with Chinstrap


German DAK Desert Uniform


British - Stuart Honey Tank - High Poly


Lee Enfield No.1 MkIII Rifle


During our AMA in July, we mentioned wanting to continue to support Hell Let Loose delivering a historically accurate and authentic World War Two experience - aiming to maintain unprecedented attention to detail in the historical depiction of the uniforms, weaponry, and tactics of period military units, however, we also recognise the brutality of armed conflict on a global scale and the unique atrocities which occurred, on all sides, during the Second World War. We also understand that many players have a deep passion for the history of particular units, as well as their uniforms and equipment - and we want to facilitate this passion, while encouraging that we all remain respectful of the events that occurred and the enormous human toll it had.

For Patch 14.5, we are working on introducing the Erbsenmuster Pattern 44 uniform as a paid DLC, which will only be available to infantry and recon roles.

Take a look at the work in progress:


Erbsenmuster Pattern 44 Uniform WIP


There will also be a free weekend in November for you to enlist friends to take the frontlines and try out these new map variants and part one of the British forces rework!



Cooling down for Christmas, both Stalingrad and Kharkov will receive their night map variants, and the patch will primarily focus around general bug fixing.


Stalingrad at Night


Kharkov at Night


For the remainder of this year and into next, we want to continue improving your experience with Hell Let Loose, and you will find that we are continuing to release patches rather than updates.

We consider updates to be significant content drops, which would include new maps, modes, and forces. Patches are now our smaller releases that focus on game improvements, community requests, bug fixes, and smaller pieces of content, such as map variants.

During our AMA and Dev Interview, we talked about the many things that we know the community would like to see implemented, and we will continue working towards these while delivering smaller content releases. There will be larger content updates next year and we’ll talk more about those, including Mortain and part two of the British rework, soon. Until then, we’ll see you all on the frontline!


Vivox will be holding maintenance between 7pm BST and 8pm BST tomorrow, Thursday, 28th of September. You may experience downtime with VOIP, but services should resume before the time has elapsed.



Help us to help spotlight your events and tournaments!

We know there are many communities across Hell Let Loose that take part in organised play, whether that’s roleplaying, custom games and events, or tournaments. We want to help showcase some of these and are working on the ways in which we can support them.

A form collecting details on your community and event participation has been sent round our PC and Console War Arrangers on the official Discord, however, we want to make sure all community leaders have had opportunity to submit their details to us.

If you are a community leader and have not already completed the form, please use this link: https://forms.office.com/e/BLF0bbH35W


Only one representative from each community should complete the form.


Having started earlier this month, TAW Hell Let Loose Division have begun a campaign that occurs every Sunday at 19:45 BST in the TAW EU Campaign server where players can take part as two rival teams clash in a relentless struggle for supremacy.

In this campaign, maps are treated as sectors, each a game-changer, where conquering these sectors earns the teams supply points. With these points, new weapons, equipment, and commander manoeuvres can be unlocked.

To find our more and take part, please visit:

Discord: https://discord.gg/tawhll
TAW: https://taw.net/




Make sure to post your videos in the #hll-videos channel in the Official Hell Let Loose Discord for a chance to be shown in future Developer Briefings!


Your average Hell Let Loose experience summed up in one video using clips from SoulSniper’s Soldiers of Fortune server: https://youtu.be/JzZQbbtSr9o


When luck and strategy come together to give you an 18-person satchel kill, shared to Reddit by u/VittorioJedi!

After working with the squad to breach the outer layer of fortifications, a carefully placed satchel takes out the last German nest on Carentan Town centre: https://reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/comments/16kzd7d/18_with_one_satchel/


This video from The Fresh Baked Goods shows how tanks can be used to support infantry movement from the backlines until it is time to help break through on the last point: https://youtu.be/2A-N-_E-bls?feature=shared


Submit clips and artwork by joining the Discord for a chance to be shown in a future dev brief!

Discord https://discord.gg/hellletloose

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HellLetLoose/

Twitter https://twitter.com/hell_let_loose

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/HellLetLoose

Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hellletlooseofficial/

Steam http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HellLetLoose

Hey everyone,

The hotfix for Patch 14.3 will have now begun rolling out.


Console players will also be receiving a hotfix later this week, as some of these fixes will need to go through a separate process.

Fixes are underway for the below items:

• [Fixed] Vivox Error 1019 when connecting to channels

We believe we may have fixed an ongoing VOIP issue where players can find themselves getting disconnected randomly and then being unable to reconnect.

• [PC] [Fixed] All Practice Range achievements are not unlocking

• [Fixed] Character previews scale incorrectly
  
• [Fixed] Fix for tank driver seat FOV
  
• [Fixed] Fix for Sherman doubled-up scope
  
• [Fixed] Tank scope offset on certain resolutions
  
• [Fixed] Tank cross hairs incorrectly aligned

Hell Let Loose did not previously offer ultrawide support - although it did have compatibility - and those using ultrawide monitors played with a cropped and highly scaled version of the game that cut off the character model's hand and majority of the weapon, as well as cropped tank scopes. Compared to those playing on a 16:9 resolution, the sights were far more zoomed in and appeared larger, giving ultrawide players somewhat of an advantage.

Ultrawide support was highly requested by the community, and Patch 14.3 introduced this support, which now provides the same 16:9 game resolution for ultrawide monitors.

This does mean that, for those used to the zoomed-in appearance, this change can now feel somewhat jarring, and the distortion of the peripheral edges - standard on 16:9 - may feel increased.

Depending on your settings, some players may have tried to compensate for the previous lack of ultrawide support by increasing their FOV to 120, and maintaining Y axis.

With the added support, we recommend changing these settings to the below in order to reduce any fish-eye effect:

• FOV 90
  
• Maintaining X axis

Cover Image by [233C] Chrysallia

Hey everyone,

Thank you for sharing your feedback with us while getting hands on with Patch 14.3!


Since releasing Patch 14.3 yesterday, we have been reviewing the logging that was activated with this patch, and believe we have now finally identified the cause of the loadout bug.

It would seem that every so often, we lose the cached stats data for a player, and aren’t able to validate their loadout, which means they are instead reset to default.

We’ll try not to get too excited about the fact we may very well have identified the cause - and are now preparing a fix - and will keep you updated on our progress!

• Fix for Vivox Error 1019 when connecting to channels

We also believe we may have a fix for the ongoing VOIP issue - the one that has been plaguing many players in Hell Let Loose, where you can often find yourself getting randomly disconnected and then being unable to reconnect.

A fix is now being worked on that we hope will make some improvements to this, however, we won’t know if it will fix all VOIP issues or just some, until it is tested at scale in a live build.

Rather than make you all wait for the potential fix and try it in a PTE, we’re keen to get this out to you as soon as possible, in the hotfix on Monday, 18th.


Our wonderful player support team have been sorting through your reports, and have identified some items we would like to tackle in a hotfix, planned for PC on Monday, 18th of September.

Console players will also be receiving a hotfix on Thursday, the 21st of September, as some of these fixes will need to go through a separate process.

Fixes are underway for the below items:

• [PC] All Practice Range achievements are not unlocking

• Character previews scale incorrectly
  
• Fix for tank driver seat FOV
  
• Fix for Sherman doubled-up scope

Players on ultrawide will have found that their FOV was incorrectly extending tank cockpits, rather than just the environment in view. Now having ultrawide compatibility, reducing FOV to 90 from 120 will correct this, however, a fix is being worked on that will ensure players will not need to change this value every time they enter a vehicle.

If you’ve also noticed a fish-eye effect across the game while using ultrawide, this may be due to having previously toggled maintaining Y axis for a better FOV. With the new ultrawide compatibility, you may now want to look at changing this setting so you are maintaining X axis, instead. This option can be found under your Video settings.


Video Settings - Switch to Maintaining X Axis


The final hotfix changelog for these fixes will be shared on Monday!

Hey everyone,

You can expect Patch 14.3 to drop today, at 2pm BST!

After PTE feedback confirmed less stuttering, we are hopeful this patch will improve performance, while we continue working on bringing optimisation updates with each new release. With this patch, you’ll be able to get hands on with the Practice Range, as well as the initial improvements to the stability of the British force’s firearms. We’re getting closer to an official timeline for the re-work of the British forces, which will include new, more accurate weapons, tanks, and uniforms - so make sure to keep an eye on future dev briefs!

There were some players confused by the time it took the last relatively small patch for Patch 14.2 to install on their PCs. Like all game updates on Steam, updates are downloaded and then patched, which depending on your hardware, may take some time while Steam readjusts the file structure.

Check out the changelog below, and we’ll see you on the 27th for the next Developer Briefing!



In this patch, we’ll also be turning on additional logging, which we hope will help prove our theory on what is causing the loadout bug. We have identified a number of potential failure points in the stats code, and the logging we have added will verify if any of these are happening. That additional info will help us determine a fix in the near future!

• Basic Training
  
• Additional Content Hub
  
• Practice Range

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback on the Practice Range during the Patch 14.3 PTE, it was exceptionally useful and we are pleased that a lot of the feedback aligned with what we want to explore implementing in the future - including moving targets, the re-spawning of vehicles and helmets, renaming of garrisons, improved direction and hints, and, of course, having the ability to test each faction.

The first iteration of the Practice Range has been built within the game’s existing functionality which has meant that some of the above suggestions are not something we can introduce just yet, without risking adaptive changes inadvertently affecting live play.

The Practice Range was designed to be a way for players to test out the things they wouldn’t normally be able to do in a live game, rather than act as a tutorial environment. There is much work to be done to help onboard new players, and a tutorial is certainly something we would like to explore in the future.

For Patch 14.3, we have been able to begin actioning some of your feedback, including:

• Extending the shooting range to 500m - although you won’t be able to traverse this additional distance, the extension of the shooting range means players wanting to test out the Sniper role will have the ability to practice landing shots on targets up to 500m away.
  
• Additional obstacles and irregular terrain in the driving range - while there were some great ideas in the feedback from the PTE, we’ve been able to action a few of them by ensuring players have the opportunity to navigate driving past buildings, trenches, and slight inclines/declines in the terrain.
  
• Player-placed garrison spawning - players will now be able to build a garrison within the Building Yard, and spawn in on it.
  
• Added the US Half-track - which can also be used as a way to test redeploying on.
  
• Scarecrow target head shots - headshot SFX will now play when hitting the head, not just the helmet

• Performance improvements to a range of maps
  
• Some LOD fixes to address transition issues

• Improved micro-stutters
  
• [Increased] Commander Level Requirement from 10 to 30
  
• [Added] [PC] Additional ultrawide screen support

We are continuing to work on optimising ultrawide support, and are working on resolving the following issues for a future patch:

• Some UI and menus leave blank spaces on either side of the screen when playing on an ultrawide display
  
• Character previews in the Select Your Role menu may appear too large when playing in ultrawide
  
• The tank commander’s periscope overlay is scaled up in ultrawide resolutions, resulting in a significantly larger field of view
  
• Seams can be seen at the top and bottom of the screen when in the gunner's seat of the Stuart light tank on an ultrawide display
  
• Seams can be seen at the top and bottom of the screen when in the gunner's seat of the BA-10 recon vehicle on an ultrawide display
  
• Black bars are visible on the left and right sides of the screen in ultrawide when gunning the Panzer IV medium tank

• [Fixed] British weapons have increased sway when ADSing
  
  While most weapons have now been tackled, the P14 and No.4 Mk1 are still in need of improvements. For more information on what new weapons will be introduced as part of the British forces rework, please click here.
  
  
• [Fixed] British recon tank will pull to the last turned direction when driving straight
  
• [Fixed] British Lewis Gun MG shots appear to be slightly off-centre from sights
  
• [Fixed] Zeroed British Weapon Sights
  
• [Fixed] All Lee-Enfield variants have a stuttering animation and are misaligned while reloading from a TPP
  
• [Fixed] Ping is off-centre when using the British binoculars
  
• [Fixed] Sten gun dropping off at 100m

• Legacy game analytics potentially causing performance issues

• [Fixed] Players can dive to prone by going in the prone position while jumping

This bug allowed players to essentially glitch into the prone position while jumping- and has previously been used as both a way to get out of sticky situations, as well as access normally inaccessible areas, such as rooftops and other platforms to gain an unfair advantage on the battlefield.

We understand that some players have provided feedback regarding the removal of this unintended bug, both during the Patch 14.3 PTE and since, as well as understand that while prone jumping can give players an unfair advantage, it could also be used to traverse the vaulting system when it fails, and add a degree of verticality into their playstyle.

However, with it’s removal in Patch 14.3, we have started the process of laying the ground work that, together with your feedback, will support bringing back a revised version of the Dive to Prone functionality. As part of that work, we have fixed prone jumping - to prevent certain conflicts with the actions, ensuring there are no unintended exploits or behaviours when using it.

We’re still making some final tuning adjustments to the new version, and have had to make sure that Dive to Prone couldn’t be used in mid-air, and have also made adjustments to the cooldown for changing stance too soon after diving, added more friction to reduce the slide distance, as well as limited direction change mid-dive, plus introduced a floor-impact shake. We’ll bring you all the details about these changes in a future developer briefing!

Improvements to the vaulting system are also underway to make it more responsive, which includes ensuring vaulting and climbing operate consistently in accordance with height and distance parameters.

This should mean that vault will be used only for vaulting over things, and climb will only be used to climb onto things, and the system should no longer play the wrong animations causing players to glitch and get stuck, particularly when vaulting through windows.

We’re also carrying out work to make sure vaulting won’t trigger in error for any obstacle below a certain height. Improvements to the third-person vaulting animations has also been carried out across both code and animation to address certain issues.

We hear your feedback, and are making progress with these locomotion improvements, but first want to make sure we remove any issues that can cause conflicts with Dive to Prone.

You’ll soon be able to get hands on with the new Dive to Prone, plus improved vaulting, in a PTE session, so please keep an eye out on future dev briefs and in the #telegrams channel on Discord!



[Fixed] FOV issues in tanks for players with ultrawide monitors

[Fixed] The Panther heavy tank has a faster reload time

[Fixed] Doubled up explosion VFX

[Fixed] Animation issue for Nagant M1895 when reloading

[Fixed] MGs clip through the player model when shooting while being prone and while looking up

[Fixed] Player's left hand becomes unattached from two handed weapons when sprinting in TPP

[Fixed] [PC] Many servers are not appearing in the "All Servers" tab of the Enlist Screen

[Fixed] Player's hand appears offset from their equipped weapon or tool, becoming increasingly offset as FoV is increased

[Fixed] Bullet impact VFX will remain stationary while factory machinery is moving

[Fixed] Broken animation can be observed when going prone while ADS-ing the M97 Trench Gun

[Fixed] There is no mention of the Kharkov map in the Field Manual

[Fixed] MG42 shooting SFX is quieter when single firing

[Fixed] Stone PFX and SFX are present when shooting a German Outpost

[Fixed] US Smoke grenade SFX are delayed and do not match VFX

[Fixed] Flashlight attached to M1941 Summer Field Jacket does not move realistically with body

[Fixed] Pistols are misaligned from characters hand on the Front End and Change Role Menu

[Fixed] No SFX is heard when equipping the Anti-Tank wrench

[Fixed] Weapon displacement appears when stood leaning left and aiming down sights with certain weapons across all factions

[Fixed] Field Manual entry for Driel is incorrect

[Fixed] 'Panther' tank has misspelled name when showing the end game score

[Fixed] Destroyed Cromwell tank is awarded as 'Sherman Destroyed'

[Fixed] Shotguns play bullet drop SFX

[Fixed] Flare guns play bullet drop SFX

[Fixed] All Lee-Enfield variants have a stuttering animation and will be misaligned while reloading from a TPP

[Fixed] British weapons have increased sway when ADSing

[Fixed] No ejecting empty cartridge cases animation when reloading Rifle No.4 Mk1

[Fixed] Kharkov map is missing in the Field Manual

[Fixed] British recon tank will pull to the last turned direction when driving straight




[Fixed] Supply boxes cannot be placed (almost) anywhere on the Ludendorff bridge

[Fixed] Canvas covered assets use canvas bullet penetration values, allowing all types of bullets to shoot through them

[Fixed] [F9] Sheds present wooden PFX and SFX

[Fixed] Grey canvas covered boxes display stone PFX, SFX and bullet mark decals

[Fixed] [E3] Sandbags around an artillery gun have improper bullet FX




[Fixed] [F6] Large Rubble pile has improper collision which allows the player to enter it in some areas

[Fixed] [F5] Player can hide inside a column in the St Mary’s Church

[Fixed] [F3] Half-Track wreck presents the incorrect PFX and SFX

[Fixed] [F1] The pillars of a brick building display metal PFX and SFX

[Fixed] Bridge supports have stone PFX

[Fixed] Wooden planks display stone PFX and SFX

[Fixed] A pile of planks presents stone PFX and SFX

[Fixed] [F5] Stone Stairs in Church Entryway Have Wood PFX

[Fixed] Yellow brick house model has metal SFX and PFX

[Fixed] Wooden assets have stone SFX and PFX

[Fixed] [F4] Stone fence inside of St Mary's Church has no bullet collision

[Fixed] A well asset presents stone PFX and SFX

[Fixed] Bullet decals are not present on train wagons

[Fixed] An interior lantern presents laser beam instead of flame

[Fixed] Metal pot has wood PFX

[Fixed] Destroyed Recon vehicle has Stone PFX/SFX

[Fixed] Snowdrifts present dirt SFX and PFX

[Fixed] [E9] A metal pot hanging from a tree branch present in sector E9, presents wood PFX and SFX instead of metal when shot

[Fixed] [F3] Half-Track wreck presents the incorrect PFX and SFX.

[Fixed] [F1] The pillars of a brick building display metal PFX and SFX

[Fixed] Wooden planks display stone PFX and SFX.

[Fixed] [F5] Stone Stairs in Church Entryway Have Wood PFX

[Fixed] A pile of planks presents stone PFX and SFX

[Fixed] An interior lantern presents laser beam instead of flame

[Fixed] [F1] The pillars of a brick building display metal PFX and SFX

[Fixed] [F3] Half-Track wreck presents the incorrect PFX and SFX.

[Fixed] [F5] Player can hide inside a column in the St Mary Church




[Fixed] Tessellation issues are present in multiple sectors while ADSing

The LOD on the landscape changes based on the amount of screen space it takes up, and when we ADS, the weapon takes up a big part of the screen space meaning the landscape takes up less. This can sometimes trigger the LOD to change and create a landscape-warping effect.

To fix this, we need to tune the minimum screen value to a point where we can ADS without triggering the LOD. Unfortunately, a side effect of this change involves adding more triangles to the landscape.
Sometimes, we may need to do this manually, rather than let Unreal choose where we tessellate, and set it up on the landscape shader where we only tessellate within a set distance from the player.
This can then be used to gradually reduce the amount of tessellation, and are able to only add this detail where it is needed around the player.

[Fixed] The terrain surrounding the trenches were misaligned with the environment

[Fixed] Destroyed trucks have stone PFX and SFX

[Fixed] Palm Trees present LoD transition issues

[Fixed] [B4] Corner Sandbag asset appears discoloured

[Fixed] [J5] Multiple mudbanks are misaligned near an artillery

[Fixed] [I5] Stone well sand presents tessellation issues

[Fixed] [G5] Sandbags are misaligned in sector G5 on El Alamein

[Fixed] [D5] Village has multiple instances of misalignment with terrain and z-fighting

[Fixed] Incorrect penetration value in the front area of a preplaced covered truck

[Fixed] Pre-placed destroyed artillery asset has the incorrect bullet penetration value

[Fixed] Pre-placed artillery covered with camouflage net has the incorrect bullet penetration value

[Fixed] Palm Tree asset has incorrect bullet penetration value

[Fixed] The terrain surrounding the trenches is misaligned with the environment

[Fixed] [A7] Misaligned mudbanks are present near a trench in sector A7.

[Fixed] [A7] Hedgehog is misaligned with ground compared to alternate Hedghehog

[Fixed] [J5] A metal barrel is clipping with a vehicle wheel

[Fixed] [J8] Snow Material is present on a number of barrels in this sector

[Fixed] [F4] - The terrain near a trench in sector F4 is misaligned

[Fixed] [C8] The corner of the building found in sector C8 is misaligned

[Fixed] Climbing on a specific tank asset will set the player on fire

[Fixed] [B3][D8] The outpost can be placed inside the water well in multiple sectors on El Alamein

[Fixed] [I5] Multiple misaligned rubble piles present in sector I5

[Fixed] [F8] Misaligned sand border from a trench is present in sector F8

[Fixed] [F8] Floating building structure is present in sector F8

[Fixed] [H7] Plane is clipping into floor

[Fixed] [C4] Floating rock pile located in sector C4

[Fixed] Loading into El Alamein displays multiple locations while the map renders

[Fixed] Boxes cannot be placed anywhere on the metal platforms of the military watchtower

[Fixed] [H6] Planes switch to a grey texture when viewed from 60m away

[Fixed] Boxes cannot be placed anywhere on the metal platforms of the military watchtower

[Fixed] Destroyed trucks have stone PFX and SFX

[Fixed] El Alamein's loading screen dates are incorrect

[Fixed] Incorrect penetration value in the front area of a preplaced covered truck

[Fixed] Palm Trees present LoD transition issues

[Fixed] Tessellation issues are present in multiple sectors while ADSing

[Fixed] [I5] Stone well sand presents tessellation issues

[Fixed] Palm Tree asset has incorrect bullet penetration value

[Fixed] Pre-placed artillery covered with camouflage net has the incorrect bullet penetration value

[Fixed] Pre-placed destroyed artillery asset has the incorrect bullet penetration value




[Fixed] [C6] Player will fly into the air when vaulting over a specific wall

[Fixed] [J6] Concrete Pipe and Wall have missing textures




[Fixed] When bullets penetrate the Guard House asset, bullet entry and exit location decals are not observed.

[Fixed] Fire particles on trees have LOD issues on Hurtgen Map

[Fixed] Sandbags show metal SFX and PFX when part of ruined AT gun trench asset.

[Fixed] [I8] Multiple haystacks and hay bales present stone SFX and PFX

[Fixed] [B6] Trees in the middle of the trench block player's path

[Fixed] [F4] Wooden board is not aligned with the terrain




[Fixed]

Hey everyone,

We hope you enjoyed the last Developer Briefing! We wanted to round up some of the main topics from the AMA and our Dev Interview in one place, so if you haven’t caught up on Dev Brief #194 yet, we highly recommend taking a read here, plus, you’ll be able to check out progress on the British rework!

As promised, in this week’s dev brief we’ll be sharing more on the updates to the game’s favourite faces - which players who joined us for the Patch 14.3 PTE session will have been able to check out for themselves.


We are aiming for this next patch to release on the 14th of September, and are currently in the process of evaluating and scoping your feedback from the Patch 14.3 PTE session. Some reports of changes to the FOV on ultrawide, particularly when in tanks, are also being worked on, and the final changelog will be shared on release!


All in-game heads have been upgraded in both their textures, and mesh, to fix technical issues as well as increase the realism and sharpness of the current head models. Some heads, such as the US default head, however, received more care and attention to increase the detail of the model and textures but also bring them up to a higher level of realism and standard than other in-game head models.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

During these upgrades, the eyes were a key focus point, with increased sharpness in the textures but also improved shadows in the eyes. This adds an extra level of detail and realism to all in-game head models. - Luke, Junior Character Artist

Soviet Forces Improved Character Heads


German Forces Improved Character Heads


US Forces Improved Character Heads


British Forces Improved Character Heads


All heads were given some slight adjustments to the overall textures, with sharpening, colour correction, and contrast passes, to help them blend better.


US Solider Texture Adjustments

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

To add a level of realism and help the eyes appear to be sunken into the eye socket, I created false shadows at the top of the eyes for all the heads. This is a very basic change that is very effective. - Luke, Junior Character Artist

Eye Shadowing


Acting as the foundation for the character models, the mesh has been updated for soldiers across all forces.


Any visible seam lines have also been softened to avoid hard edges.


Head Seam Adjustments

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

To start, I created some measuring tools in order to correctly measure the eyes to the correct scale for the eye and eyeball, and then worked on scaling the eyes. The shape of the eyelids on some heads also received some adjustments to either create better symmetry, or create a more anatomically correct shape and proportion. - Luke, Junior Character Artist

The eye direction on most character heads has also been adjusted so that it faces directly forward, a process that required manual tweaking for each head.


Eye Mesh Adjustments


While looking at the existing hair in Hell Let Loose, we made the decision to look at increasing the visual fidelity.

While we’d love to look at offering a variety of hair style alternatives in the future, including the possibility of the quintessential moustache, particularly for the British forces, some of the older character models had slightly lower resolution textures, and a more flatly painted look to the hair.

In Patch 14.3, you’ll find the previous textures have now been changed to a close shaven texture:

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

To remove the hair and create the shaven head texture, I used the clone stamp and textures from the other in-game heads and pulled the Normal, Colour, Roughness and AO to create a shaven texture that matches the other in-game heads. - Luke, Junior Character Artist

Shaven Texture


As many people had pointed out in this Reddit post, the US forces default character head, while offering some unique charm, was in fact in need of a bit of a TLC.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

I adjusted the mesh to be more anatomically correct. Changes were made to the head shape, as well as positions to the major landmarks of the face such as the ears, mouth and eyes. - Luke, Junior Character Artist

US Forces Albert - Mesh Adjustments

With new textures and mesh adjustments, Albert has now re-grown his eyebrow after a terse shave in the trenches left a bald patch - or at least, that’s what we can assume.



Brought inline with the other models by fixing the head shape, eye position, symmetry, shadowing and direction, as well as tweaks to the ear position, mouth, and more, Albert still retains his “What did I sign up for?” appeal, but in a more balanced manner.

Although we’ll be sure to miss those puppy dog eyes, his new look will help him welcome new and existing players to Hell.


3,000 of you took the time to vote on the poll for which British medium tank we should introduce for North Africa as part of the British forces rework, with the Crusader Mk.III taking the win with 1.9k votes!

Stay tuned for a future dev brief where we’ll share more on progress.


For answers to questions on game meta, bugs, and more, please read Developer Briefing #194, check out the AMA on Reddit, or visit the Discord to read the full answers in the #ama-july-2023 channel, plus catch up on the Dev Interview!





The BEER Haus community are giving Hell Let Loose players the chance to win a Mini Keg gaming PC, built by Savage Industries, as a thank you for supporting and growing The BEER Haus Hell Let Loose server!

The Specs:

• ASUS ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming WiFi 6e MOBO
  
• Intel i9 13900K CPU
  
• Zotac 3070 Ti
  
• G-Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB
  
• WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X NVMe
  
• EVGA SuperNOVA 850 GM, 80 PLUS Gold 850W
  
• Hyte Revolt 3 Case
  
• EK Nucleus AIO Dark All-in-One Liquid CPU Cooler

Huge thanks to Saucymuffin, TheFreshBakedGoods, RazBora, Terrydactyl, makL, molotovgrl, & squiddsTV for putting this together! We'll also be throwing in some Hell Let Loose DLC, so the lucky winner can boot up then suit up!

Open to US residents.

Giveaway Closes: 30th of September
Enter now: https://gleam.io/zhnct/beer-haus-mini-keg-giveaway


Make sure to post your videos in the #hll-videos channel in the Official Hell Let Loose Discord for a chance to be shown in future Developer Briefings!


Whether you've been playing for a while or are new to the battlefield, GoudaGamer shares some great tips on how you can improve your game sense in this video: https://youtu.be/9OLgWl43ASo?feature=shared


McBluffin Gaming breaks down the five stages every Hell Let Loose player goes through when picking up the game for the first time.

This felt a bit too personal, we won’t lie: https://youtu.be/N1N2YAksql0


Our favourite recon duo are back in action on El Alamein!
Watch SoulSniper’s recent video here: https://youtu.be/Fw1z_zGPW1c?feature=shared


Submit clips and artwork by joining the Discord for a chance to be shown in a future dev brief!

Discord: https://discord.gg/hellletloose

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HellLetLoose/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hell_let_loose

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HellLetLoose

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellletlooseofficial/

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HellLetLoose

Hey everyone,

If you haven’t had chance to read the AMA last month or tune into the recent Dev Interview, we’ll be summarising both in this week’s dev brief, as well as sharing a sneak peek at progress with the British forces rework.

But first, we want to thank everyone who took part in the PTE this weekend and joined us for a few games! Your feedback is much appreciated, and we’ll now be looking at what we can consider for Patch 14.3, as well as for future development.



Over half of those who took part felt that there was an improvement with stuttering, experiencing less micro-stuttering on most maps. We are aware of some reports about FPS drops in the live game since the last patch, and we will continue to look into this.


Three-quarters of those using an ultrawide monitor felt that there was a marked improvement, and the experience was what most players would expect from similar titles.


Over three-quarters of players who used the Panther during the PTE felt that the reload speed was now 'just right.'


Although most players felt the improvements to British weapons were better, some feedback suggested the gun sights were still too large, and further work to improve weapon zeroing was needed.


We already have a list of work we’d like to carry out for future iterations of the Practice Range, and much of this was also identified by players who took the time to submit feedback on their experience. There were also some great ideas that we will take a look at to see how we could implement these in future versions.

Some of the feedback included:

• Increasing Shooting Range to 500m
  
• Moving Targets
  
• More navigation and prompts
  
• Respawning of vehicles and helmets

Having realised our focus needed to change so that we could revisit the existing game and bug database, the roadmap for Hell Let Loose has changed, and we’re working to put a new one together that we’ll be able to talk more about in a future briefing.

Some issues that you experience in the game don’t always happen in our own testing environments, which can make these bugs trickier to tackle, and we can struggle to reproduce certain issues that require a lot of players over a length of time. Reintroducing public testing is already helping with better understanding some of these bugs, while also helping shape the direction of the game.


We know LODs are a big one for the community, and our Technical Art team are making their way through all the levels and optimizing some of the worst offenders. LODs are particularly important for console platforms, and decisions have to be made manually, with artists going in and tuning the distance at what certain objects should start rendering, which can be a lengthy and time-consuming process.

Most of our levels also use something called HLODs:

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

HLODs are a really cool bit of technology which makes it really cheap to render something, and if it's far enough away, it can look pretty close to what it would look like. But the creation of HLODs is tricky, it's very hard to get them to to look great, and is made harder with a more realistic looking game like Hell Let Loose.

It's basically a constant challenge for the tech art team to to balance creating these cheaper to render versions of geometry so this will still run at a decent frame rate on all of the hardware that we support, while not looking terrible - and it’s a time consuming process.

You will notice literally every single update the LODs will be improved in numerous different areas on all the maps, and this is one of those areas where I don't think we could, you know, within the next few years tackle every single part of every single level that exists and make them perfect - so if the community can basically let us know the worst offenders, they’ll go to the top of our priority list. - Kieran, Studio Technical Director

Patch 14.3 will be introducing some further LOD optimization for certain maps, however, if you’ve noticed particular issues that are having a high impact, please let us know by getting in touch with Player Support!


While we’ve made changes to both PC and Console platforms to help reduce rubber-banding, we know there is still more to be done.


We’re continuing to work closely with Vivox to understand how we improve the quality and experience for players.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

They actually recently reached out to us as they had themselves been looking into user reports of voice issues and have managed to identify that there was an issue with people who were using mobile-based
data networks for connecting to the game. There was a high chance that the VOIP basically stopped working and the connection would fail. That has been fixed in the latest SDK which we have updated for Patch 14.3. - Kieran, Studio Technical Director

VOIP can be challenging for us, as it is rare we ever get issues in the development environment, and Vivox identified that there is a configuration difference between what we use for the development environments on the server side, and what’s happening in the actual live game - so we’re also working with them to make sure they’re the same, which may help us better understand some of the issues being experienced, during development, so we can fix them.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

We've typically had to make improvements and fixes and then wait for the next update to go live to then identify what is breaking. We are utilizing analytics to be able to identify issues, so it's a case of every single update we will spend some time sitting down and having a look at those analytics to go like, okay what's broken now, and then we can fix another thing, but again, typically we won't be able to reproduce that issue in our development environment so it becomes a case of making a fix and then the next update goes live we repeat the cycle. So, unfortunately, when it comes to this, it's currently quite a slow turnaround for us - but we do continue to work on it every single update. - Kieran, Studio Technical Director

Both during the AMA, and in the dev interview, we outlined what we’re doing to essentially make good on the British forces - including new, more accurate weapons, uniforms, and vehicles.

This is a large piece of work, and we want to get it right, so improvements to the British forces will be something you see arrive in the game in phases.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

The Bren absolutely should have a bipod. For someone who's been shown how to use a Bren gun by other historians, I can absolutely attest to bipod - the Bren needs a bipod. - Matt, Studio Creative Director

We want to ensure we’re bringing accurate firearms to the game on a per-theatre basis.
For example, although some British weapons were used across all theatres, there were some that were specific to North Africa or Western Europe - and we want to make sure the experience is accurate for both.


Bren Gun - we are going to do a bipod for the Bren, which will be publicly tested to understand the best balancing, whether it sits on the Machine Gunner role, or whether it works for the Automatic Rifleman.

British Thompson - we will be doing the 1928A1 Thompson.

SMLE - we will be doing the SMLE No.1 MKIII that was used throughout WWII.

No.32 Scope with No.4 MKI - as a new sniper rifle.

Sten MKV - as an additional Sten gun.

Gammon Bomb - also known as the No.82 Grenade, this will work as an 'explode-on-impact' device to help specific roles deal with lighter armoured vehicles.


SMLE No.1 MKIII High Poly (1)


SMLE No.1 MKIII High Poly (2)


In terms of armour, we are going to do specific pieces of armour for the British, specifically for North Africa, and have a look at the armour that’s available for Driel, including:

• Churchill Mk.III for North Africa
  
• Churchill Mk.VII for Europe
  
• M3 Stuart ‘Honey’

We have options when it comes to introducing the new British medium tank for North Africa - and we want to give you the vote on what we work on implementing!

Share your opinion and cast your vote for one of the following tanks:

• Crusader Mk.III
  
• Valentine Mk.II
  
• Matilda II

Churchill Mk.III and Mk.VII High poly - WIP


We will also be making good on the uniforms for both North Africa, and Western Europe, including shorts and short sleeve uniforms for the British, as well as the German DAK uniform.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

We'll do the same thing with the camo for those Vehicles [mentioned above] as well, so you'll be able to play North Africa with the correct uniforms, with historically accurate weapons and vehicles and armour, against the Germans with the German equivalent. What it will do, is it will make the theatres much more flavoursome and historically accurate, but much more thematic as a player, so that North Africa will feel very different, as it should, compared to say, Europe.

I hope that gives people some inclination of the commitment we have to making sure
that all the all the gear, all the toys, all the weapons, all the equipment you'll be
playing with, is 100% authentic and accurate. - Matt, Studio Creative Director

Here’s a first-look at some of the uniform work in progress!


High poly for the new British desert uniform


High poly for the new German DAK uniform


Improved British helmet with straps, for a better fit and more accuracy


Improvements to manoeuvrability and how the Firefly works falls into a wider conversation around armour in the game, and it is something we want to look at.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

It’s an interesting one with Hell Let Loose, because of how Hell Let Loose classes it's different types of armour, you know, the Firefly historically is fundamentally the same chassis that's - for want of a better word - as a normal Sherman with a 75mm gun - it just has an almighty 17 pounder on it. So I'm gonna look into this especially when we do the Churchill, I'm going to look into the different game mechanic armour values of Hell Let Loose and how they work in relation to how they worked in WWII. - Matt, Studio Creative Director

Reevaluating the game meta is not off the table for us, and we’re keen to explore what it could look like in the future - whether that be making artillery a Commander ability that can be called in, or a mortar team.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

The next sort of thing I have in my head is around self-propelled artillery pieces - so you get to drive the artillery around as if it were in a vehicle form and the vehicle has an artillery piece on it - and there are plenty of historical self-propelled artillery pieces as well and again, that creates a more interesting gameplay mechanic because they can physically move and maybe they're, depending on the piece that we're talking about, maybe the destruction ability of that piece could vary as well, so I think the the surmise of it is, as always with a lot of game development, there are a lot of things we want to try out and prototype and the way that we work is we'll have an idea - prototype it quickly - as soon as we think it's possible to run it in a PTE where it looks representative of the idea to see if it has legs, then we should do that and get feedback from the community.

Game development is a lot about iteration, so you you try something that could work, get some feedback, iterate, get some more feedback, and iterate and that's where you kind of find the magic in in the mechanics. I think it is very difficult to say on paper “this thing here will work 100% guaranteed” from my experiences and from the team's experience it's better to have a few different systems that we can try quickly and work out so there's lots of different options options to us but it's something 100% we want to look at. - Matt, Studio Creative Director

With some players finding the node system to have become stale, we also want to look at revisiting and understanding where previously in Hell Let Loose, the location of node placement would have an impact.

Creating a deeper mechanic is something we’ll look to do, and test out in a future PTE, where you’ll be able to share your feedback on the direction taken!


Building garrisons and defending them exists as a key mechanic, which can easily be the difference between a win or a loss.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

We may have a new type of Garrison. But I'm going to keep a little bit tight-lipped about it because I think there's a few development things that we've been experimenting with - and we've done some tests within the team that takes the good stuff out of the garrisons and maybe unhinges it from some of the frustrations people have with garrisons and we've done some prototypes and we had a system working that we're very excited about and that we will want to run it in a PTE.

When you’ve been playing the game for a while, you kind of get a feel for “I know there's going to be an enemy Garrison there” and that in itself can be quite a satisfying mechanic, but I don't think that should be the only mechanic within the garrison system. - Matt, Studio Creative Director

We never want players to feel as though they’re not progressing in some form, and some of the new weapon systems we’re going to be prototyping out will be touching on the idea of being able to use XP for other roles.

We also want to look at new loadouts, as well as revisiting existing ones, and will be doing a new set of loadouts for the German forces for El Alamein that would be different to their existing loadouts in Western Europe, for example. These more accurate loadouts will need to be prototyped and eventually put in a PTE for players to feedback on.


There are a lot of variables for us to understand with armour, both as a mechanic, but also with the existing physics of vehicles in Hell Let Loose, and their ability to traverse certain terrain in the game.

We already have prototypes for being buttoned up, or with open hatches, and want to explore smoke dispensers, as well as a flamethrower tank, and are absolutely interested in revisiting armour in Hell Let Loose.

We want to go deeper with tank mechanics, and get to the point where we can introduce an American tank destroyer like a Jackson, or a Hellcat and have that make a lot of sense in terms of mechanics - giving players more opportunities to adjust their playstyle and tactics within a game.

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These are pieces of armour where the actual thickness of their armour is quite low, they're what I would call shoot and scoot type pieces - but they have a hell of a gun. This is where Hell Let Loose with it's Tiger, you know, we all know that there's a lot of myths about the pros and the cons of a Tiger tank - the fact that 90% of the time, they weren’t really capable of moving very far, often breaking down, but the Tiger, that sort of class of tank can dominate a battlefield and everyone just wants to be in that type of tank.

Where I want to get to, is where you can play in a Hellcat and it be a really fun and engaging experience and you understand the tactics of how to use that piece of armour, even though it's classed as a heavy or super heavy gun, but thin armour, so we need to think about armour in the entirety of World War II. - Matt, Studio Creative Director

We are consistently in awe of the incredible efforts clans, orgs, and communities put into fostering organised play and tournaments within Hell Let Loose, and it’s something we want to dig deeper into to see where we can support these efforts.

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I want to pick up the conversations that I initially started when I first came onboard, in terms of going “where can we support you?” and that might look like potential content calendars where we can feature upcoming tournaments and events and support those whether that's with promotion on our channels, or giveaways - DLC, game keys - that can help really drive traffic to these events. - WombatMedic, Community Manager

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to the idea of Hell Let Loose being a viable esports title - including balancing - but we want to support some of the community’s tournaments, and will be looking to re-evaluate where we can showcase these and encourage more players to watch the action and sign up to take part themselves. While we have a War Arranger role in Discord for players to recruit and highlight events, it is something to be expanded on to see how we can support the comp scene on a much larger scale.


We have already done some work on admin cam designs for increased functionality, and will now need to understand when would be best to do the development work.



While not shying away from the workload required to bring a form of server browsing to console, there is a lot to consider:

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The server architecture on the base level is very similar, but in the environment, it’s very different and so it is looking at that and how do we get that to play nicely and is it possible, how do we do that. It's a lot of work basically, and we we want to look at doing that work, but it is - is there any quicker solutions we can do to help console players? Like being able to find maybe certain maps, maybe looking at certain game modes looking, at certain server populations, or how full a server is. We are looking at the longer term thing as well as short term on that, but it is a very tricky piece of work that needs a lot of thought putting into. - Adam, Senior Brand Manager

Another solution we’re looking at in the interim, is voting for the next map - which would definitely help communities better organise competitive games, as well as give them the freedom to vote on what they want to play, versus what the server rotation dictates.

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Ultimately, I think we do want to move towards having this browser, but that is going to take some time, it is far from trivial. This is something where the community can help guide us. We all want that, and we're working towards that, and we will get there, but if we acknowledge that it’s going to take some time - what can we do in the meantime to make your lives a little bit better? - Kieran, Studio Technical Director

Our current focus remains on bug fixing and optimisation, with the upcoming Patch 14.3. With a new roadmap in the works, there will be more content coming.

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That content will be PTE’d, it will be tested beforehand, and we will make sure that everybody is understanding of what's coming, what we’ve tried to do, and where it is, and some of that, it’s not going to be like next year - middle of next year sort of thing - we are looking at what can we bring to the community that's new content, while we're still making sure we do these major fixes first. - Adam, Senior Brand Manager

1). British forces rework - weapons, armour, and uniforms

2). 50v50 combined arms maps, including Mortain

3). Revising Dive to Prone and taking on board feedback from the community

There is content we would love to consider working on in the future, including the Pacific, however, we want to ensure we’re taking a measured approach to new content. A lot has been learnt from the delivery of the British forces, and we need to make sure the forces we deliver are accurate, what you as players expect, and also help inform and be respectful of the various history and forces within World War II.



For answers to questions on game meta, bugs, and more, please read our latest AMA on Reddit, or visit the Discord to check out the full answers in the #ama-july-2023 channel!



Make sure to post your videos in the #hll-videos channel in the Official Hell Let Loose Discord for a chance to be shown in future Developer Briefings!


Missed out on the Patch 14.3 PTE? Check out The Fresh Baked Goods' video break-down of the first iteration of the Practice Range: https://youtu.be/Rvx5hBxRzHA


Shared by u/SuperMalarioBros on Reddit, this edit of trying out the Practice Range during the PTE session got our vote!


Watch Alpine Sniper pick out man from tree on Hürtgen Forest and land some great shots: https://youtu.be/0IdUOekw4nI


Who needs to throw back grenades when you can just deflect them with one of your own!

Shared to Reddit by u/Slap_Life.



Submit clips and artwork by joining the Discord for a chance to be shown in a future dev brief!

Discord: https://discord.gg/hellletloose

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HellLetLoose/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hell_let_loose

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HellLetLoose

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellletlooseofficial/

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HellLetLoose


In Dev Brief #195, we’ll be taking a closer look at the updates to the character models that those who took part in the latest PTE session would have got to try out. Until then, we’ll see you all on the frontline!