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Developer Briefing #38 – Unit Management System!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing 38! This week we’re pleased to share with you that Unit Management, a feature we know you’ve patiently been waiting for, is coming to Hell Let Loose in Update #2.

Unit Management will help Officers run their unit, and keep it banded. This is to encourage chatty units, playing with friends, role playing or bringing tactically like-minded players together.

The full ins and outs of this system can be found below…


Your Unit, Your Rules!


When creating a unit and taking the Officer role, players now have the choice as to whether they want to make their unit open or locked.



The only way a player can join a locked unit is via approval from the unit’s Officer. This is achieved by receiving an invite from said Officer, or by sending a join request to a locked unit and having it accepted.

When using this system, there’s a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Officers can only invite players in the deploy menu and can only invite unassigned (not in a unit already) players.

2. If an Officer is deployed and alive, unassigned players can send a join request, which will then lead to an actionable prompt on the receiving Officer’s screen.



To further highlight the importance of Officers, we’re also adding a feature that messages every player in a unit that lacks an Officer that they should probably consider addressing this. Players will be encouraged to do this upon using the deployment screen.


What shape is Italy?


Unit management will also bring with it the ability to boot players out of their unit, if you’re an Officer.

Players that get removed from this method will be removed from their unit upon death, before being prompted to join another unit on the deployment screen.

Here’s a heads up on what happens to players in different kicking scenarios:
  • Kicked players will be in the same unit VOIP channel, until they die.
  • However, Kicked players do not show up in units and do not count towards a unit’s size.
  • If a Sniper is pending to be kicked on death in a Recon unit, another player can join as a Rifleman immediately and swap to Sniper when the role becomes vacant. (No Sniper stacking!)


Harsh, but fair.


Just because we’re adding a kicking feature, it doesn’t mean it should be used on a whim. Ideally newer players or those lacking the experience of more veteran players will be met with patience, encouragement and comradery.

But, we know that people get kicked for different reasons, so when a kick does occur the affected player will receive a notification as to why they got kicked upon death.



The three reasons for the boot that an Officer can give are the following:

1. Not using teamwork
2. Not staying with the unit
3. Making room for a friend

If you find yourself without a unit at the deployment menu, simply join another, or create one of your own.


Officer’s Rules!




That wraps up our briefing on unit management. Thanks again for your patience whilst we worked on adding it to the game, you won’t be waiting long for this!

If you're enjoying Hell Let Loose we'd love you to leave us a Steam review.

See you on the frontline!

Developer Briefing #37 - Hands on with Hell Let Loose!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing 37! This week we’re getting handsy as we share a first look at updated hand models that are coming to the game in the future!

We’ve also got a sneakiest of peeks of something else at the end of today’s brief…


Handy Update


Being an FPS, you look at your hands a lot in Hell Let Loose. Currently this is the view players see when holding their weapon:



We feel it conveys pretty clearly that it’s a hand, doing hand things such as holding, aiming, reloading and firing your weapon. But the team felt that there was room for improvement here, by giving players more realistic hands we feel that player immersion can be further increased - so here’s what you can look forward to in a future update:

Smaller, more detailed hands.

More detail in the wrists.

Visible veins and skin detail.

This change will apply across the board, whether you’re handling a weapon, driving a vehicle or using equipment / medical supplies.

We’re excited to see this combined with our future animations update to create a smooth, gritty and satisfying feel to each movement and action you take in-game.

Updated hands also means updated sleeves…

Crinkles and imperfections will give a more ‘worn’ feeling to the sleeves.

Indentations and creases will be prominent too!


Suits you sir!


A little look at something that’s coming together…



If you're enjoying Hell Let Loose we'd love you to leave us a Steam review.

See you on the frontline!

Patch #5 - Live Now!

Hey everyone!

We’re currently hard at work on all the content coming in Update 2. However, there are some core issues that we want to finalise and fix before we start pushing out more new features. We’re attempting to balance fixes to critical issues in Patches while still being able to focus on a huge game-changing bulk of work that’ll come in the next Update.


VOIP


Applied several changes to the Vivox code and then changed the way channel switching and channel muting is handled. This should fix many cases of the proximity and leadership VOIP breaking.

YOUR HELP: VOIP bugs have been difficult to reproduce and fix as they often occur on high population servers and can be difficult to intentionally trigger. If - after this patch - you are still experiencing any issues with VOIP, we would greatly appreciate it if you would report the issue in our special VOIP feedback Discord channel: https://discord.gg/beJj8Rv

This will allow us to follow up with you to get exact specifics and discover if your issue is bug related or hardware related.

We understand that VOIP is a critical part of the Hell Let Loose experience and we will be working until all issues are eradicated.


Functionality


Reworked the server search code. The outcome of this is a more methodical but accurate server listing. You should now be able to see all current servers as opposed to having several missing (often your own regional servers) or having different outcomes every time you refresh.

PLEASE NOTE: Many reports of issues with the server browser have resulted from user-side settings. We recommend making sure that your firewall is not blocking the application and your ISP is allowing port forwarding. If you still cannot see servers, please drop us a line in the feedback channel on our Discord and we’ll follow up with you.


SFX
  • A scream sound effect no longer plays when a player dies due to drowning.
  • New US AT 57mm cannon fire sound


HUD/UI
  • On the map key, Unit and Team Member icons appear stretched vertically
  • Fixed compass bearing showing 0° and 360°.
  • The top German HQ spawn overlaps into the out-of-bounds area on the Utah map.


Visual Improvements
  • German LMG tracer rounds are of a higher light intensity than its muzzle flash.
  • Fixed waves being visible inside the beach puddles on Utah.
  • Fixed windows overlapping walls in numerous maps.
  • Fixed tanks being able to drive up specific small hedges.
  • Fixed bullet collision on multiple tree assets.
  • Fixed tanks from floating above bomb craters.
  • Fixed German Munitions node producing feathers FX when the sheet metal is shot.


Currently working on (non-exhaustive list, we just want to give you some idea)
  • Additional RCON commands.
  • Making vaulting more responsive, fluid and polished.
  • Continuing HUD and UI updates.
  • Making MG deployment more responsive, fluid and polished.
  • Implementing mocap and making large changes to our TPP animation systems. These will result in a much more natural look and feel.
  • Our FPP experience - with a focus on gunplay - is being overhauled in a separate branch. This is to both match our new TPP look, but also to greatly increase the fluidity of the FPP experience.
  • Unit management functions (kick/invite and lock).
  • Vehicle locking system.
  • Anti-griefing mechanics.
  • Progression system: We will be unveiling how this will work before release.
  • This ties to a cosmetic system.
  • Optimisations.
  • Diving (performed by proning while sprinting). This is wrapped up with our FPP overhaul currently.
  • Bullet penetration.
  • Map balancing (addition of cover and other features in locations that are either boring or creating a tedious gameplay experience).
  • Vehicles.
  • New gamemode.
  • Three new maps are currently at different stages of development.
  • Updating all audio and SFX. Specifically, vehicle engines, tracks and other aspects are being overhauled at the moment. We’ve also been testing reflections and different reverb volumes alongside all new weapon fire and reload sounds.

We’re currently finalising the contents of Update 2 and will shortly release a revised roadmap.

If you’re enjoying Hell Let Loose, you can help us by leaving us a review on Steam.

See you on the frontline!

Developer Briefing #36 – Tiger 1 First Look!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Developer Briefing 36! This week we’re taking a first look at an upcoming addition to Hell Let Loose, the infamous Tiger 1!

The Tiger will be coming in a future update that will mark the arrival of the first Heavy Tank in Hell Let Loose. The USA equivalent will be coming slightly after that, so we look forward to seeing how the US armour and AT units adapt to this new presence on the frontline during the interim…


The Tiger’s roar


Weighing in at 54 tonnes and packing a devastating 8.8cm KwK 36, the Tiger 1 was a fearsome piece of German engineering. Those that could avoid the ire of the Tiger’s armaments would then have to contend with armour that could be as thick as 100-120mm in key locations!

Locking down the area

The Tiger’s HE rounds excel at providing ranged support to German infantry, but it really shines with its AP rounds that can cut through all Allied armour with ease.

Overwatch initiated

Key information
  • Top speed: 18km/ph
  • Respawn Time: 10 minutes (Double that of Panther)
  • Fuel Cost: 100

Due to the expensive cost and long respawn time of the Tiger, German players will want to make sure that it’s well supported by infantry lest it get overwhelmed and destroyed by US infantry and the swifter Sherman tanks.

When the Tiger 1 arrives in Hell Let Loose it will be available for German forces across all maps and be added to their current quota of Panthers and the Luchs.

Crouching tiger, hidden tank

Taming the Tiger


US forces attempting to take down this juggernaut will want to avoid a frontal confrontation at all costs. Instead they’ll need to focus on achieving multiple penetrating hits on the sides and rear of the tank.


A message from Max – Lead Developer


Hi all,

We're excited to introduce the apex predator into our armour food chain and watch the way it's used on the battlefield. Like always, we're continuously working on more vehicles, features, FPP and TPP animation overhaul, SFX overhaul, new maps as well as continuously fixing issues.

Stay tuned as tomorrow we’ll be releasing our next quality of life patch which we’re hoping will improve VoIP stability as well as address the empty server browser issues reported to us by the community.

If you're enjoying Hell Let Loose we'd love you to leave us a Steam review.

See you on the frontline!

Patch #4 Hotfix - Live Now!

Hey everyone,

We've just deployed a small hotfix following the launch of Patch #4.

Thanks to your feedback we were able to identify and fix the following issues:
  • Fixed player icon legibility issues on the map.
  • Fixed a bug where supplies built by the Support role aren’t shown on the map.

We really appreciate you making us aware of things like this, nice one community!

See you on the frontline!