Hey everyone,
It's time for Dev Brief #103!
With Update 8 just around the corner, we want to make sure we communicate some key new features and changes :)
Hand Carried Supply Crates
The Support role has been overhauled to now replace the current “build the box” mechanic with a hand-carried supply box. We’ve often felt that it’s important that one of the key gameplay loops in the game - building Garrisons - was able to be achieved with an infantryman - and that the entire team does not solely rely on a truck delivery.
This was done for many reasons - the key one being that a single player flipping a truck could lead to the entire capitulation of the front line and the loss of the game. Often, when designing Hell Let Loose we want to distribute total responsibility for victory or defeat across a large array of roles - as this way the success of a team is shared by the entire team - not just balanced on the actions of a single player. This places greater emphasis on team cohesion, as opposed to just having a singularly good player in the key role.
Now that Support is able to carry supply boxes, we’ve reduced the total number of supplies in them to 50. This is enough to build a Garrison or Resource Node, but not enough to fully construct the large scale defenses that we’re adding in Update 8. Our Supply and Resource economy is something that we’re going to be focusing on over the coming months as we play and interact with the systems. We don’t doubt that valuable community feedback will help us find the sweet spot, but we feel the current system is a good place to start.
German hand carried supplies
US hand carried suppliesKilling the Redeploy
The redeploy/rearm mechanic has been a persistent and ongoing ugly gameplay loop. Now that we’ve overhauled the hand-carried supply crates, we’ve also managed to overhaul the way in which supply crates and ammo boxes are re-armed in the field.
The basic design challenge here was attaching a cooldown to the dropping of Supply Crates, while also making sure that their re-arming was not continually contingent on the existence of Supply Trucks.
The conundrum was three-fold:
- If we enabled Support roles to re-arm off truck-dropped Supply Crates, then we’d create the same issue we intentionally avoided (ie. one bad truck driver throwing the whole game).
- If we allowed you to re-arm on death then we wouldn’t eliminate the cheesy redeploy mechanic.
- If you could re-arm continuously in-field at no cost then it eliminated the need for Supply Trucks.
Ultimately, we realised that we had these design limitations:
- Resupplying needed to be limited by time in order to make sure the resource flow didn’t render Supply Trucks obsolete.
- Resupplying in-field needed to not hinge entirely on Supply Trucks.
- Resupplying in-field needed to happen outside of the life-death loop.
So, we explored many different options and have implemented to following:
Previously: to restock a supply crate or ammo box you’d simply redeploy or commit suicide.
Now: walking within
50mtrs of a Manpower Resource Node will start a cooldown that will re-arm your Supply Crate at the end of the cooldown. Similarly, if you’ve expended your ammo box, walking within
50mtrs of a Munitions Resource Node will trigger your cooldown to re-arm the ammo box.
Some things to note:
- Once the cooldown is triggered, you do not need to stay in range of the node.
- Dying will not reset your cooldown - it will continue while you’re dead.
- We recommend placing the nodes near a key Garrison, or not far from a key Garrison so that you automatically replenish the bulk of your supply and ammo carriers as they respawn.
- Replenishing supplies crates and ammo boxes will reward the node-builder with score.
- The resupply zones are now marked on the map as circles around the nodes.
- A small HUD graphic and sound effect will play when the resupply is complete.
- Rearming takes 5 minutes from the point the cooldown is reset.
Resource Node Functionality
Munitions Node - Resupplies ammo boxes.
Manpower Node - Resupplies supply boxes.
Fuel Node - In-field function is still to come.
"Walking within 50 meters of a Manpower Resource Node will start a cooldown that will re-arm your Supply Crate at the end of the cooldown."Ammo Type and function Firearms Ammo - Resupplies firearm ammunition
Medical Ammo - Resupplies bandages, syringe, morphine
Explosives Ammo - Resupplies AT rounds, satchel charges, grenades
We will look to add more ammo, when and where it is needed.
XP and ‘Prestige’
In Update 8 you’ll notice that the total player level has been increased from 100 to 200, and that your relative veterancy is now distinguished every 50 levels with a medal attached to your name on both the scoreboard and your in-game icon. This is designed as we originally intended - to quickly demonstrate your relative experience within the game to the players around you.
For those of you long-time veterans who’ve reached level 100 - fear not! We’ve implemented this level cap extension in a way that respects your total experience gained. You may find yourself at levels well in-excess of 100 immediately following Update 8.
We also want to note that Update 8 sees the introduction of player icon scaling - where allied player icons get smaller over distance - leading to a far less cluttered HUD.
Meta Changes from U7
We’ve watched many videos on the topic of the meta changes (including Bill’s latest one on the subreddit) made in Update 7 that eliminated the use of red zone Garrison deployments and the mass redeploy mechanic as a strategy. The feedback has been useful to underline the issues introduced by that change and how it aligns with our design around the function of each spawn mechanic. Next week we’ll be talking through the future plans for the game.
Currently we’re using our Early Access period as one in which we can nail down the key metagame components and test many of these aspects (many of which we as developers are not yet happy with). This has been a challenge as we’ve often been dealing with legacy solutions, as well as working within a continuously adjusting timeframe - this has affected our ability to bring in additional features that will create new ways of spawning.
Next week we’ll chat through future plans for the metagame, as well as explore the current issues and how we think they will change in the future.
Let’s Hear Your Wilhelm Scream Update
We have begun to officially contact those who’s VO’s we are likely to use. We apologise in the delay here, as we have been incredibly busy working on Update 8.
We offer our sincere thanks and gratitude to you for taking the time and effort to think up, record and send your voice lines in for the Hell Let Loose Wilhelm Scream. It can be a daunting task for one to publicly present their own work and voice to a community - especially for judgement! Assessing the submissions has been very difficult but also hugely fun. We have some very talented people in the community! Our sound designer Adam has been truly inspired by the submissions, even by the ones that won’t make it into the game.
If you made a submission and do not receive an email from us in the next 2 weeks, we want to thank you for your participation and implore everyone to get involved in the future and have another shot if we decide to run another VO submission or similar opportunity!
You will likely begin to hear the new VO’s come Update 9, and we will be making sure those who did make it into the final version get an in-game credit and a special role in the Discord!
That wraps up this week's Dev Brief.
See you on the frontline!
