Hell Let Loose News

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #58!

This week we're giving you a first look at a brand new map coming in Update 5, as well as sharing all the info you need to take part in tomorrow's 'Play with the Devs' session!




A message from Max, Lead Developer on Hell Let Loose.

"We've spoken often about some of the gaming influences that have shaped our approach to the development of Hell Let Loose, but one that deserves more praise is the fantastic Forgotten Hope 2 mod for Battlefield 2. 

In homage to the same map from FH2, we wanted to try our hand at recreating the famous Purple Heart Lane." 

That's right, Purple Heart Lane will be coming to the game in Update 5!

Below we've got a few images to give you a taste of what's coming, with a more in-depth look coming next week that will include 'those' four bridges!

Before you can secure the bridges, you'll need to secure the roads.

Ready to get your boots wet?

Flooded fields are a good sign that you're closing in on the map's key objectives...


Are you ready to fight at the site of "Cole's Charge"?




Join us tomorrow for a gameplay session with some of the Black Matter team, including Lead Developer Max!

We'll be jumping onto a European server for two hours to catch-up with as many of you as possible on the frontline.

Event details:

• Friday 17th January
  
• 7pm GMT / 8pm CET / 11am PT / 2pm ET to 9pm GMT / 10pm CET / 1pm PT / 4pm ET
  
• Server name - 'Play With The Devs Night'
  

The aim is to have some fun with you and chat all things Hell Let Loose for a couple of hours.

We'll be doing more events like this in the future. These events will include combined events with established clans and communities, as well as playing on different server regions such as US East / West.

If you'd like to get involved in future events we'd love to hear from you.

See you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing #57!

This week we're revealing another tank variant, a new uniform for US forces and the date for our 'Play with the Devs night'.

Let's get stuck in!




In last week's Developer Briefing we confirmed that the first US heavy tank rolling out would be the 75mm 'Cobra King' Jumbo.

Ain't she a beauty!

This week we're happy to introduce the iconic 76mm Jumbo variant!

Knock Knock!

The 76mm 'Nice and Easy' will be fielded as the second variant of the US heavy tank, costing slightly more fuel than the 75mm Cobra King.






The 75mm Jumbo will be slightly cheaper than its 76mm cousin and armed with rounds that produce more shrapnel when they detonate, making it more effective against infantry and soft targets.



The 76mm will be better against German tanks, particularly more heavily armoured ones.




Upon the arrival of both the 75mm and 76mm Jumbos they will be applied to specific maps / battles. This will be further expanded upon as we figure out and settle on an appropriate lineup for each game mode and battle - if you have suggestions on this let us know, we'd love to hear what you think!



As we create and add more tanks and vehicles to Hell Let Loose we'll be further tailoring the deployable lineup to be map specific. This will give the Commander the ability to choose which tanks to deploy when calling in armour reinforcements using fuel.

All going well both Jumbo variants will be rolling onto the battlefield in Update 5. This is not the last Sherman that we'll be adding!




Dropping into Update 5 will be a new, free high-level unlock for all infantry roles on the US side.

Say hello to the Airborne uniform!

These renders are a WIP and not final. Further passes will be made before release.

We will assess a possible implementation of airborne mechanics once several key features have been polished and introduced into Hell Let Loose.




We're keen to kick off 2020 by getting stuck into the action on the frontline with you all!

This will be a great opportunity for us to play with the community whilst giving you the chance to ask us questions, chat about Hell Let Loose and generally have some fun in-game with the team.

We'll also take the opportunity to ask you about how you're finding your time on the front!

For the evening we'll be running a dedicated server where members of the team will split off into different units, giving us the chance to play with as many of you as possible each round!

The Details

• Date: 17th January
  
• Start Time: 7pm GMT / 8pm CET / 2pm ET / 11am PT
  
• Duration: Two hours
  
• Server: European region, name pending
  

Full details for the event will be made available in next week's Developer Briefing on the 16th.

We're running a European server this time, but for the next one we'll look at doing a US server!


That wraps up this week's Developer Briefing, we hope you have a top weekend!

See you on the frontline.

Hey everyone!

Happy new year from the entire team at Black Matter and at Team17!



We’ve got one hell of an action-packed year planned so we’ll be starting to reveal more content and take a detailed look at what’s coming week on week.

As a reminder, here’s but a few of the new content drops that’s coming in the first third of the year -

• New non-verbal communications systems (including pinging, map marking, quick-marking and more)
  
• New vehicles
  
• New FPP & TPP animation system
  
• New maps
  
• SFX engine upgrade and continued overhaul
  
• Ballistics overhaul
  
• Polish of HUD and UI elements
  
• Expansion of existing mechanics
  
• New loadouts
  
• New customisation
  
• Rebalance of progression systems (to generally make it faster for many roles to progress)
  
• Fixing of bugs and crashes (the exp bug is the first on the list)
  

And loads more, including our regular bug fixes and optimisation work. We’re keeping a few things under our helmets that we’ll be revealing when the time comes.




January 1st marked not only a new decade, but also the 20,000th user joining the HLL Discord. We want to say thanks to the community for being so welcoming and friendly to newcomers - in both showing them the ropes in game and on the forums, subreddit and Discord.

The Hell Let Loose Reddit community is also going from strength to strength, thanks again to being so welcoming and producing some of the finest memes from the frontline.

Check out the official Discord and Reddit to join in - all players are welcome.




We’ve teased the US heavy tank offering for a while now and many of you quickly spotted the thickened frontal armor and 75mm barrel as the key standouts for the variant. We’re now excited to formally reveal and show off the M4A3E2 Sherman "Jumbo" variant.

In homage to the Battle of the Bulge and in preparation for our scoping out of vehicle camo variants, we’ve dressed it in the iconic livery of the “Cobra King” - the most iconic Jumbo of the entire 4th Armored Division.



Cobra King was issued to 37th Tank Battalion of the 4th Armoured Division on the 24th or 25th of October 1944 and was assigned as the company commander’s vehicle of Company C.



During the German winter offensive, the Battle of the Bulge, the important crossroads town of Bastogne, Belgium had been cut off and surrounded by German forces. Patton’s Third Army was tasked with trying to break through the German lines in the south with the 4th Armored Division as the main spearhead of this counterattack. On December 26, 1944, Lt. Boggess, commander of Cobra King, was fighting his way on the road from Assenois, Belgium to Bastogne.

The following passage is from an article written by Charles Lemons, former curator of the Patton Museum:

“Cobra King was way ahead of the rest of the column and had just destroyed a German bunker along the road when Boggess spotted several uniformed figures in the woods near the bunker. They wore the uniforms of U.S. soldiers, but knowing how Germans were disguising themselves as Americans, he maintained a wary eye. He shouted to the figures. After no response, he called out again and one man approached the tank. “I’m Lieutenant Webster of the 326th Engineers, 101st Airborne Division. Glad to see you.” With that meeting at 4:50 p.m. on December 26, 1944, Patton’s Third Army had broken through the German lines surrounding Bastogne.”




The Jumbo was not a typical heavy tank in the same vein as the Tiger, or the Pershing. Born out of necessity, the Jumbo was an up-armored and up-gunned version of the medium Sherman tank - with additional armor welded to the casemate and the front chassis, with upgraded gearbox to account for the additional weight.



While able to weather brutal fire to the front, the Jumbo will need to guard its flanks and rear from long range anti-tank fire. Designed to play the same role it did during WW2, the Jumbo is the mainstay American “assault” tank - the armored spearhead designed to soak up damage as it drives a column of Shermans into the enemy lines. Be wary though - while the Jumbo’s main gun packs a punch you’ll need to account for the slightly slower speed on account of the additional armor.

The Jumbo will be deployed to the battlefield in Update 5.



This will not be the last Sherman implemented into the game...

Oh and one more thing, you'll be getting a full reveal on a certain new uniform for the US next week:



See you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the whole gang here at Black Matter and Team17!



We’re looking forward to 2020 and will be catching you on the frontlines over the holiday period.

We’ve got a ton of content, features and fixes to come in the new year and we’re excited to get back to work and act on the feedback we've received from you all since Update 4 dropped.

Our regular, larger dev briefings will return next week!

See you on the frontline.

Hi everyone!

We’re excited to release Update 4! We hope over the next couple of weeks you find time to kick back, relax, eat, drink and spend time with family - and maybe join us in the trenches for some brand new battles!

Update 4 is here and it brings with it a brand new map - Sainte-Mère-Église (complete with Warfare and Offensive mode) - as well as the German Offensive gamemode for the newly overhauled Foy. We’ve also tried to include as many bug fixes as possible - clearing the slate for the new year so that we can get a good sense of where we stand moving into 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s323FmqZSY4

Finally, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, we’ve added some new free Winter Warfare customisation helmets and heads, available between now and January 13th, 2020. Grab them here before they go:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1205050/Hell_Let_Loose__Foy_Winter_Warfare_Helmet_Pack/

We wanted to include a quick note before you read the changelist. On first appearance, you may think that we’ve taken our foot off the gas - and that it’s not nearly as extensive as it usually is.

As it’s cutting close to Christmas, we made the decision to split much of the bug fixes between Update 4 and Patch 9. Looking at the changelist in early November, we saw that it had such a significant number of changes we felt it would be best to spread the risk between two separate dates - giving our brilliant QA team enough time to fully check so many significant fixes and additions.

Thanks to your feedback, we’ve been able to pinpoint outstanding issues from the previous patch - the most significant of all being the progression and experience issues. We’ve been spending a large amount of time digging this specific issue and it is the highest priority on our list currently.

You may see the deployment of the “Punching Bag” servers over the next couple of weeks. If you see these servers active, we’d love you to jump in and assist us in gathering more information on the bug. We’d also like to say that we’re very thankful for your patience and assistance in nailing it down so far. Thanks to your help we’ve managed to refine the code and fix the most significant of the issues around experience gain - and we feel that with your help we’ll be able to fix this for good.

Over the Christmas and New Year break we’ll be monitoring feedback, spending time in the community and will be joining you on the front line. We feel as a team that the holiday break is a great time to relax, spend time with family - but also to assess where we are in our development goals and in how we feel the game is playing in full.

New year, new animations and SFX!

We have some absolutely huge overhauls coming in the first third of 2020 - including the TPP and FPP animation overhauls, the sound engine upgrade and continued sound work, continued HUD and UI changes, gameplay loop overhauls (supplies and ammo), a potential Unreal Engine version upgrade (from 4.21 to 4.23) as well as many features that have not yet seen the light of day. We’ll be hitting the ground running as we work towards what we feel is a high quality level and representative of a product we’re proud of.

If you’ve enjoyed the Hell Let Loose journey so far, then we’re incredibly excited to show you what we have in store for 2020.






Sainte-Mère-Église

Sainte-Mère-Église is here! As our sixth map in Hell Let Loose - our third added since our release - it’s the most urban environment so far. We’re excited to battle across fields, lanes and through the gardens, streets and church of this iconic French Norman town.



Available Modes:

• Warfare
  
• German Offensive
  

Foy

In the spirit of the Christmas season and to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Foy has undergone an extensive overhaul - lifting much of its visual appearance, polishing its weather effects, adding more detail and cover and adding an all new gamemode.

Available Modes:

• Warfare
  
• German Offensive
  

HUD/UI

We’ve made some changes to the way we show the coming sectors in Offensive mode to the attackers. We’re going to be playing these changes with you to get a sense of how they’re affecting gameplay and whether or not it’s in line with our intended design. Of course, we’ll also be reading and collecting your feedback around the change.


Customisations

Each patch and update we’ll be adding more and more customisation options. Our end goal is that every level you gain in both career and role will unlock a new uniform, head or helmet.



New Winter Warfare customisations are now permanently available to all those who play Hell Let Loose:

• New German summer splinter smock uniform (unlocked at role level 6)
  
• New German winter splinter smock uniform (unlocked at role level 8)
  

• High probability fix: players will sometimes be kicked out of a server for bypassing the queue after correctly waiting in the server queue.
  
• Added increased server crash logging and auto-delivery to better profile experience/progression issues and server crashes.
  
• Added increased client crash logging.
  
• Fixed: players are able to get their camera to briefly clip through an object if they crouch while climbing or vaulting.
  
• Fixed: Closing the scoreboard while the 'Personal' tab is highlighted results in a black square to appear over the tab the next time the scoreboard is opened.
  
• Fixed: The distance of friendly players is shown on the deployment screen's map if the user observes their locations before deploying for the first time on a server.
  
• High probability fix: players can see the "Can't Spawn At That Location" message after the game has ended.
  
• Fixed: When driving a tank in a strong point the 'Strong Point' text is missing from the HUD.
  
• Fixed: The first enemy to enter an empty friendly sector may cause the friendly sector's map icon to briefly flicker red.
  
• Fixed: Server Admins are unable to distinguish between VIP Players.
  
• Fixed: Inconsistent Rcon rights of Owners.
  
• Fixed: Users can cause a client crash if they open the in-game RCon Console during a map change.
  
• Fixed a potential client crash caused by wrecked tanks.
  
• Fixed: Within the 'Video' settings, changing from a custom 'Master Quality' to a preset one without applying the change will result in the preset being applied to the menu the next time the user opens up the 'Video' settings.
  
• Fixed: German players are able to build spawn points within the restricted beach area on Omaha.
  

Foy

• Fixed: Long snow mound section in F10 is missing bullet collision.
  

Omaha Beach

• Fixed: there are two areas of incorrect collision in sector I3.
  
• Fixed: sunlight passing through the sides of the trench.
  

SFX

• Increased attenuation radius of grenade collisions.
  
• Updated aircraft audio for B17, P47, Heinkel and BF109.
  

As you know, recently the German forces have been getting new armour and customisation options deployed to the front.

Well, in early 2020 the Americans will be getting some new toys to play with. Initial intel is hazy, but we're confident you'll decipher what's coming...

What could Uncle Sam be rolling out?




This uniform will be dropping in...


See you on the frontline!