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Developer Briefing #119 - Update 9 Announcement Date & Details!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #119!

This week we've been busy prepping for Update 9's imminent arrival so today's Brief is a bit shorter than usual.

Hopefully today's news on Update 9 will more than make up for it...

Update 9: Blood and Steel - Dropping March 25th

We’re excited to announce that Update 9: Blood and Steel, will be dropping on the 25th of March. The team has been very hard at work on final bug fixes for the update - including actioning community feedback from the PTEs.

Update 9: Blood and Steel will include the following:

Melee combat

Server Admin Camera

Implement correct weapon zeroing for all firearms

Part one of the armour system rework

Meta / Garrison Placement Changes

Community Voice Overs

Steam Achievements

Barbed Wire functionality

Added and refined localization

MG34

Additional loadouts

Continued Bug & Crash fixes

Warmup Staging Period for Warfare Mode

XP level increase

Sound Improvements across the board (BAR to footsteps to death)

UI Changes

Max level Increase

Improved optimisation

Grass and Foliage spawning improvements

Utah Beach Offensive mode for both German and US forces including beach landings

Weapon visual quality overhaul

Improved Damage Occlusion System

On the day we'll be aiming to put Update 9 live at roughly 11am GMT / 12pm CEST, but this may shift slightly. Once the patch is live we'll also be sharing the full patch notes for your reading pleasure!

The Soviet Crewman

Today we’re keen to give you the first look at the Soviet Crewman. While we don’t want to confirm the total number or type of vehicles just yet, you can expect to see a robust line-up of iconic and numerous tanks populating the Soviet lines, which we’ll reveal over the coming months.

Some Big News

We recently announced some big news around the future of Hell Let Loose as a title. You can find out more and it and discuss it with the team over on our official subreddit r/HellLetLoose.

Onwards to the weekend!

That wraps up today's brief!

We've got an exciting week ahead of us and can't wait to welcome you to Update 9: Blood and Steel, so grab your shovels and sharpen your blades, it's almost time to get up close and personal.

Have a great weekend, we'll see you on the frontline.

NEUIGKEITENVERÖFFENTLICHT
Mo., 22. März

Update 9: Blood and Steel - Now Releasing Tomorrow, March 23rd!

Hey everyone,

Just a quick message to let you know the good news that the release date of Update 9: Blood and Steel has been moved forward!

It's now releasing tomorrow, March 23rd, at approximately 11am GMT - Which is also when you can expect the full patch notes to drop too.

We'll see you on the frontline!

Update 9: Blood and Steel - Live Now!
Hey everyone,

We're excited to announce that Update 9: Blood and Steel is live now!

To give you an update on what the team are working on, as well as go through the full Changelog I'll be handing you over to Lead Developer Max!

Update 9 Changelog

Hi everyone,

This year is a very busy one for the whole team and we’re very excited to release Update 9 - which brings with it a ton of long-requested features that we’ve been keen to bring into the game - melee, the MG34, Utah Offensive modes, the admin camera and much more.

We try to list every single significant change, and never mean to omit anything. When this happens, it’s usually a result of human-error in reconciling our in-game bug tracking with the compilation of the notes. We’re striving to provide as much context and information as possible about every line in the changelog.

Like always, we’ll be monitoring all feedback from the Update and integrating it into our development plans. We’re particularly interested to see how the changes to Garrison behaviour affect the metagame and feel that the Admin camera will be a great way for us to better observe in-game behaviour.

Thanks so much for your support and patience over the course of our development. We’re very excited to show you what we’ve got cooking up in the future as we move towards leaving Early Access and fighting on the Eastern Front!

Find out more about some of Update 9's new additions below:

Melee

Utah Offensive

Barbed Wire

MG 34

Admin Cam

Patch Notes

Armour

We’ve done a deep-dive back into our armour code around both the weapon systems and physics systems, and felt that this required a more concerted effort to rewrite and polish both sets of code. As a result of this, we’re separating out balance with deeper system rewrites. In addition to this, we’re currently working to fill out the proper medium armour slots for all forces, as we know that the heavy armour skew in game has been causing issues for an unacceptably long period of time.

Due to the time needed to fix many of these deeper issues, we’re releasing as many beneficial changes as we can, as fast as we can.

Reduced AT-Mine damage to Tanks. Mines no longer instantly destroy the following tanks: Tiger, Panther, Sherman 76mm, Sherman 75mm

Tank MG belt has been increased from 100 to 200 rounds (this is coupled with the fixed zeroing of the MGs)

Improved non-penetrating shell FX on Tanks

Bombing runs and Artillery no longer deals proximity damage to Tanks (only direct hits)

Adjusted the Luchs & Stuart gear speed ratio to be more linear and smooth

Improvements made to damage occlusion (Added multi-point damage occlusion). This affects all heavy weapons (rockets, grenades, mines, tank rounds etc.)

Improved Tanks MG hit detection. Please note, we’re aware of a persisting key issue with regard to the hit detection resulting in specific angles of both the target and the MG resulting in the target taking no damage from what appear to be obvious hits. We have a fix coming for this.

Meta Changes

Disabled building Garrisons in neutral sectors

Capturing a Strong Point on Offensive maps now takes 60 seconds (Was 120 seconds)

Attacker Garrisons placed in enemy Active sectors on Offensive now takes 5 seconds to dismantle for the Defending forces (Was 30 seconds)

Disabled the HQ spawn if enemy is capturing that HQ sector on Offensive

Garrisons can now be placed in the first row/column of enemy sectors for 100 supplies (Unless locked). These are called Forward Garrisons.

Forward Garrisons are disabled if enemy are within 100m (But not dismantled)

Garrisons placed in friendly sectors still cost 50 supplies and an enemy needs to be within 15m of the garrison to disable it.

Removed the 20 second cooldown for disabling Garrisons and Airheads (How long it takes to change from disabled > enemy near)

Airheads now remain for 3 minutes allowing for 6 spawn waves (Was 2 minutes).

If a sector is lost, friendly nodes in the lost sector are destroyed

The engineer can build max 12 nodes per team (4 of each node per team)

Engineers can no longer build the same nodes within 50 meters of another node

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Bug Reporting

We've decided to remove the in-game bug reporting menu in an effort to consolidate the bug reports we’re receiving. Players should instead report any bugs they experience in the game’s Support page on Steam or via the Team17 support page below.

Contact Team17 Support Here

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Gameplay/Features

Added the MG 34 to German forces

Added Utah Offensive US/GER

Handheld weapons and tank MGs are now zeroed correctly by default

Added a 2 minute staging period to the start of Warfare matches.

Added an Admin/Spectate camera for server admins

Increased max player level to 500

Add new rank icons to scoreboard for levels 200-500

Bullets no longer fire with perfect accuracy when leaving the sprint animation. Instead bullets will travel in the direction that your gun is facing

Reduced the AT-gun cost from 100 to 50 supplies

Made barbed wire functional. Due to the implementation, we are aware of specific locations in the game and per gamemode where this is not the case and will be fixing it.

Added a VOIP reconnect option to Audio settings. We’ve worked a lot directly with Vivox around the implementation of the voip systems and it should be far more stable now, but we felt this would be a good thing to have just in case.

Added a new anti-aliasing option called ‘Community TAA’ based on community feedback. We’ve added the most popular mixture of settings to the AA as we can no longer allow manual tweaks via .ini - which was used to remove grass and other objects from the game.

Changing foliage settings no longer causes bushes to disappear

Locked the ability to edit the engine.ini to prevent users disabling Grass/Foliage/Landscape

Blueprints will be despawned after 3 minutes if they are not built

Reduced dismantle timer for friendly blueprints to 2 seconds

Medics now bandage twice as fast as regular infantry

Shortened the Germans OP antenna to be more on par with the size of the US OP. We will be most likely remaking the models for both these and the Garrisons to be more optimised, higher quality and similar in size across all forces for balancing sake.

Increased pistol damage at range (to be a 2 shot kill at extended range)

Bombing runs and Artillery can now do radial damage to enemy trucks

Tracers on weapons are now a fixed 1-in-4 ratio, instead of the "25% chance to spawn" system as before

Vehicle wrecks now despawn when damaged by an explosion or after 5 minutes

Vehicle wrecks will not despawn after 5 minutes if a player is within 100m or is within 250m and is looking in the direction of the wreck

Vote-kicks now ban the player for 1 hour instead of 2 hours

Improved performance on the Enlist screen (Server browser)

Improvements made to damage occlusion (Added multi-point damage occlusion). This affects all heavy weapons (rockets, grenades, mines, tank rounds etc.)

Tanks and all explosives can now destroy both enemy and friendly mines

We’ve implemented a customised threshold on each reload animation, so that if it’s interrupted beyond a certain point the weapon will still be reloaded.

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EXP

Players now receive the EXP reward after a deployable has been built, not when placing the blueprint

Engineers gain 10 Support, Role and Career XP every time a resource node that they placed generates resources (Every 60 seconds)

Passenger seats of the Supply and Transport Trucks now give bonus support score to the driver (+1 Support score every 60 seconds)

Engineers earn 10 Support Score for every 30 seconds the Repair Station they built is used

[Fixed] Inconsistency with the Support Score awarded between the Medic and the player that was revived

[Fixed] Destroying a tank using the Bombing Run commander ability does not increase the Vehicle Kills score

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Animation

[Fixed] Loaded round is not ejected when performing a partial reload with the M1 Garand

[Fixed] Weapons don't leave firing state properly and keep playing muzzle effects

[Fixed] [TPP] The player will remain in their throw animation after throwing their last smoke grenade

[Fixed] [FPP] Character's arms are above their head when looking up and crawling on a sloped surface

[Fixed] [TPP] Players in the driver seat of any truck have no idle animation

[Fixed] [TPP] The 1st seat player of the Pak 40 AT gun has no idle animation

HUD/UI

Added a spawn list to the deploy screen that displays a list of available spawn locations

The game now remembers which units the player has expanded and collapsed when the scoreboard is closed and reopened

When using the Recon Plane ability, trucks now show as a hollow diamond, while armed vehicles show as a filled diamond.

Mousing over supplies on the tactical map now displays how many supplies are remaining

Added a ‘Add Friend’ button to the scoreboard allowing players to add others on Steam

The Ping marker will now show on the edge of the screen if it’s out of view

Commander abilities on the map show as white to teammates making them more visible

Added a ‘Spectate unit’ designation icon to unit the bar. This icon will appear when someone in that unit is in the Admin Cam

Officers of units now always appear at the top of their unit list and scoreboard

Placed Satchel Charges icon has been changed from white to red

Artillery HUD markers now cull at 200M not 500M

Added a prompt to tell the player they need a bandage when they're wounded even if they don't have one in their inventory

Servers running Offensive game modes show which team is attacking under the 'Game Mode' section on the Server Browser

Added VIP slots and server queue information for servers to the server browser

[Fixed] Players are unable to see occupants of other friendly vehicles when looking from inside a vehicle

[Fixed] Player icons in-game scale down and become invisible at 200m regardless of view distance settings

[Fixed] The Commander's name remain's visible in the In-Game HUD if they join a Unit without first Resigning as the Commander

[Fixed] The player does not join a squad when pressing "Apply" on the Change Role screen after changing an appearance/loadout setting

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Loadouts

Sniper

Added a second sniper loadout with AP mines.

Tank Commander

Added a second loadout (Mechanic with a blowtorch) to both forces.

Machinegunner

Changed the default German Machinegunner MG loadout to contain the MG34 as primary weapon. The MG42 has been moved back to role level 3.

The US Machinegunner now has access to the BAR as a second unlockable loadout to provide a moving base of fire.

NOTE: We will be swapping items in loadouts in future updates as we introduce new equipment and weapons.

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Server/RCON

Added the following server options:

Set Vote Kick Enabled

Set Vote kick Threshold

Reset Vote Kick Threshold

Added enable/disable vote-kick server option

Fixed a number of instances that would cause the server to crash

[Fixed] A player banned by using their Steam ID is not removed from the server when it occurs

[Fixed] Player will not see the server message in-game if they do not deploy within 10 seconds of joining the server

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SFX

Added community VO 'death sound effects'.

Added new BAR firing sfx.

Overhauled all footsteps sound in the game.

Adjusted the ‘Mic Volume’ setting to reduce chances of distorted player voices

Added a sound effect for de-spawning vehicle wrecks

Added a sound effect for dismantling an Airhead, Repair station and Supply crate

[Fixed] Tank Hull/Coaxial Machine Gun firing SFX does not correctly play if [LMB] is not pressed long enough.

[Fixed] The foot step audio while crouch running was inconsistent between FPP and TPP

[Fixed] No bullet ejection audio when reloading an empty bolt action rifle

[Fixed] Inconsistent SFX when shooting AP or AT mines

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Visual Improvements

Extended the HLOD Transition Distance to a more acceptable distance. This is a bit of a balance between performance and “melted ice cream houses”.

Updated BAR, Garand, K98k, MG42, Browning M1919, G43, Colt 1911, Luger, P38, STG44 Thompson, Springfield to use the new smart material system. We also cleaned up a lot of the geometry and sights (removed jagged geometry or poorly scaled front sight posts)

Added particle effect for de-spawning vehicle wrecks

Added particle effect for dismantling an Airhead, Repair station and Supply crate

Bandaging wounds now adds blood to players hands

Increased the cull distance for AT-Guns. They should now be visible at longer distances such as Omaha cliffs

[Fixed] Scope becomes fuzzy when using sniper rifles

[Fixed] Changing foliage settings causes grass/shrubs to disappear.

[Fixed] Trees outlines visible on a fire/smoke VFX when having Low/Medium/High video preset selected

[Fixed] Inconsistent VFX when shooting AP or AT mines

[Fixed] The Torch flame will pulse when the game is on a lower FX quality

[Fixed] The smoke resulting from firing shells from the tank appears distorted on Low, Medium or High FX Quality

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Trucks

Improved Trucks collision model to prevent getting stuck on objects

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Bug Fixes

[Fixed] Players deploying the LMG do not update for other players that are further than 500m away and become invincible

[Fixed] The Engineer role's Barbed Wire blocks bazooka/panzerschreck shots, anti-tank/tank shells, grenades and explosions

[Fixed] The airhead can be dropped in areas that will display the "Turn Back" message on player spawn

[Fixed] Inconsistencies between certain tanks applying suppression to nearby friendly Players

[Fixed] The Support and AT's wrench construction animation stops after about 2 seconds

[Fixed] Offensive maps let defender vehicles pass the HQ of attackers

[Fixed] Player may be invulnerable to ballistic damage during vaulting and/or climbing

[Fixed] Starting to capture a sector instantly after the previous one has been caught results in the new sector not becoming enlarged on the player's HUD

[Fixed] Text for Truck seat key bindings can overlap key bind graphic

[Fixed] Satchel charge and impact marks appear to rotate on German Medium tank after undergoing collision

[Fixed] Player will receive 65535 smoke grenades under unstable network conditions

[Fixed] Opening the map while reloading a bolt action weapon will cancel the reload

[Fixed] Multiple collision issues with the AT Gun ghost

[Fixed] Missing progress bar for the 'You Shall Not Pass' and 'Labor of Love' achievements

[Fixed] Map markers do not fade in when the player toggles the HUD on

[Fixed] Selected customisations on Character model may appear incorrect on the front-end menu after exiting a server

[Fixed] Several of the sliders within the game settings produce SFX when being dragged beyond their limit

[Fixed] The "Dead Bodies Despawn Delay" setting does not change as intended, and is always 1 change behind

[Fixed] The "Where's an Engineer?!" achievement is tracking the wrong number of repair stations

[Fixed] The 'Strong Point' hint appears when the player enters an inactive Strong Point

[Fixed] The achievements that involve the destruction of vehicles give more points of progress than intended

[Fixed] The compass sometimes remains pointing towards the neutral sector even after that sector had been captured

[Fixed] The format of the match timer is inconsistent between the HUD and scoreboard

[Fixed] The health of a truck doesn't match up when compared between its HUD and Torch values

[Fixed] The Map Marker List is cutoff on multiple resolutions

[Fixed] The player is unable to dismantle the Barbed Wire constructible

[Fixed] The player will receive the 'Capturing Sector' hint when they spawn as an attacker on an Offensive map

[Fixed] The player will receive the 'You killed a friendly!' warning if they down an enemy and deploy on the enemy's team before the downed enemy has 'Let go'

[Fixed] The reload of a deployed Machine Gun can be interrupted when it appears to be completed

[Fixed] The user does not receive a warning if they opt to reset their settings or hints

[Fixed] The ‘Enemy Near’ tooltip does not correctly update while it is visible to the Player

[Fixed] User is unable to change appearance if the DLC is disabled via Steam whilst it is equipped to the character

[Fixed] Visible issues when leaving a Unit.

[Fixed] Watch build animation will partially loop if an enemy Player enters the build radius

[Fixed] When in proximity of the enemy ghost nodes, the player will see the nodes' HUD icons

[Fixed] The Commander's 'Reinforce' ability can be placed within locked sectors

[Fixed] Captured sectors will go into 'Sector Cooldown' on the in-game map while playing the Offensive game mode

[Fixed] On the Deployment Screen, the selected Spawn Point becomes visually deselected after redeploying

[Fixed] The building animation will continue to play if the player goes into prone while constructing the supplies

[Fixed] With pistol equipped, TPP Character ADS animation reverts to Hip when stop animation is played

[Fixed] [TPP] The Ammo boxes, Ordnance boxes, Medical supplies boxes and Satchel charges are misaligned from the player's hand

[Fixed] [TPP] The off-hand remains the same orientation when leaning with a one-handed piece of equipment

[Fixed] Incorrect role equipment for the US ‘Support’ role when wearing the ‘Airborne M1942’ uniform

[Fixed] Noticeable LOD issue on the Backpack as an US Anti-tank role

[Fixed] The back of the neck of dead players may sometimes clip through Airborne M1942 Uniform

[Fixed] [FPP] Player's hand is clipping with the Marsh Fallschirmjager Smock uniform when holding the Karabiner 98K rifle

[Fixed] Accepting a Steam invite to a server with password will display the Wrong Password prompt

[Fixed] Changing resolution while in 'Fullscreen' can briefly show the confirmation message before reverting back to its initial configuration

[Fixed] Climbing on certain bushes can cause the player to levitate

[Fixed] Disable the engine's shortcut that makes F11 toggle fullscreen

[Fixed] The Vehicle engine start/stop sequence is cancelled if the Player attempts to open the map at the same time

[Fixed] Players are able to immediately fire and with perfect accuracy by pressing the aim and fire buttons simultaneously while running

[Fixed] Players kicked from squad sometimes remain in squad VOIP

[Fixed] Server queue notifications are displayed to non-VIP members when all server slots are set for VIPs only

[Fixed] Servers VIP slots only update after a user joins/leaves the server or the map changes

[Fixed] The player is observed to crash while being "ALT+Tabbed" out of the game.

[Fixed] Player crashed after leaving server and returning to enlist screen

[Fixed] The cursor will be temporarily removed if the player is about to be deployed while navigating a game menu

[Fixed] The Enlist Screen's server queue only updates after a map change or when a user joins/leaves the server

[Fixed] The game will show as "Unreal Test!" on the Steam server list

[Fixed] The player can become a rifleman when joining a locked recon unit.

[Fixed] The player may experience a brief FPS drop upon first selecting a deploy location

[Fixed] The player receives the "Already a member" message when trying to rejoin the same unit he got kicked out of

[Fixed] Turret cannon HUD not updating whilst driving Recon Vehicles

[Fixed] VIP Players are able to join a server during the post-match screen instead of being placed in the server queue

[Fixed] [TPP] Player can perform certain animations with incorrect equipment.

[Fixed] "THAT DEPLOY LOCATION HAS BEEN OVERRUN" shown, but the player is deployed anyway.

[Fixed] Bullets do not penetrate window frames

[Fixed] The Mausbach Approach capture point name is overlapped by the capture point icon from the HUD

[Fixed] [TPP] The watch is misaligned in the player's hand

[Fixed] Multiple issues observed with German revive animation

[Fixed] If an action is performed while the player simultaneously opens up the scoreboard, the action will continue to completion

[Fixed] Garrison icons will stay enlarged after being selected using the ‘Dismantle Garrison’ Commander ability

[Fixed] Certain structures are counted twice in the "View Personal Stats" menu when placed

[Fixed] Artillery Gun Icons on the HUD turn blue when a Unit member is in them

[Fixed] Bullet Casing Ejects FX play at world origin when player hasn't moved for a while

[Fixed] Key-bindings on the In-game map and Hints do not update if the key-bindings are changed via the in-game options menu

[Fixed] All weapons can penetrate the "WaterDeep" material and the damage is not reduced after penetrating

[Fixed] After a map transition, the background and player model of the customisation menu can disappear if the player quickly clicks 'Change Role'

[Fixed] A defunct Unit may be created if another Player swaps team and creates a Unit while the Player is in the ‘Change Role’ menu.

[Fixed] "Supplies Here!" achievement is not tracking the progress made when using Supply Drop as Commander.

[Fixed] "Take Cover" achievement is not tracking the progress made

[Fixed] Backface culling visible on drainpipe.

[Fixed] Inconsistency with support score awarded when placing level 0 constructible ghosts

[Fixed] US Trucks get stuck often under Supply Stations.

[Fixed] A LoD transition issue with the German Munitions node at a short distance

[Fixed] Collision issues with Barns

[Fixed] Invisible collision present on factory asset across multiple maps

[Fixed] Noticeable LOD issue observed on the ‘German Light Tank’

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UTAH

Fixed the German side missing various vehicle spawns

Reduced the extended load time seen on Utah vs other maps

Fixed a number of assets without working bullet penetration

Added missing repair stations to the Warfare game mode

Improved vehicle and player collision on a number of assets across the map

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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HILL 400

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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FOY

The Southern Edge strong point is now more central in the sector than its previous location

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

Road missing collision on Foy map

Improved MG deployment at certain locations

Fixed multiple inconsistencies between the map and the in game areas

Fixed tank & gun shots not penetrating wire fences

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OMAHA

[Omaha] Players cannot go in crouch position inside the small stone bunkers if they are in the prone position

Improved many LOD issues related to buildings and terrain across the map

Fixed multiple inconsistencies between the map and the in game areas

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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CARENTAN

Train track asset is now consistent with the tracks on Hurtgen and Hill 400

Improved vehicle and player collision on a number of assets across the map

Prevented players from getting to certain locations they shouldn’t eg. on top of roofs or inside empty buildings

Fixed inconstant vehicle collision on some stonewall assets across the map

Increased the clearance on the railway bridge located in [J6/J7] so all vehicles can fit

Improved LoD transitions on a number of assets

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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Hurtgen Forest

Fixed a number of assets without working bullet penetration

Fixed the German and US sides missing various vehicle spawns

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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Sainte Mere Eglise

Fixed the placement of 2 preplaced Garrisons so they are not floating or clipping in the Offensive gamemode

Fixed the US HQs having a German and US Repair Station model clipping on top of each other

Improved vehicle collision on a number of assets across the map

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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Purple Heart Lane

Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

Blood and Steel

That wraps up today's Changelog / Patch Notes!

We look forward to hearing what you think of the new additions, tweaks and changes that you're diving into with Update 9.

As always your feedback is integral to us here on the team, so let us know what you like, what you don't and everything in-between!

Oh and keep an eye and ear out for us in battle, we'll be jumping in to enjoy Blood and Steel alongside you all.

We'll see you on the frontline.

Partial Controller Support - Useful Information!
Hey everyone,

As part of Update 9 we have added our initial implementation of controller / gamepad support for Hell Let Loose.

This is the first phase of the feature's implementation and as such it's very much a work in progress. Because of this we wanted to give you a quick low-down on how it works, known issues and workarounds.

For the controller players out there we'd love your feedback too, so let us know any potential improvements that'd benefit you as well as any bugs you encounter - Thanks!

Please Note
: Using a controller does not
add any sort of auto aim feature or targeting support when compared to using a mouse and keyboard. This is intentional.

Right, lets get into the details shall we...

In-game Controls

Movement

Left-analog stick to move player

L3/LS and forward/forward-diagonal to sprint

Right-analog stick to control player camera/direction

Y/Triangle to cycle through equipment

A/X to jump/climb/vault

Hold LB/L1 and RB/R1 to lean

R3/RS to melee

View/Touchpad button (Tap) to open/close scoreboard

View/Touchpad button (Hold) to toggle HUD

B (Tap) to crouch/stand up

B (Hold) to prone/stand up

Left D-Pad to open/close map

- Right-analog stick to control cursor displayed (commander only currently)

- LB/L1 and RB/R1 to zoom out/in respectively based on cursor location

- RT/R2 to select where current cursor is (currently used for commander abilities, liable to change)

- R3 to expand the key

- LT/L2 to place marker

Hold X to swap to bandage when injured

Hold LT/L2, followed by holding R3/RS to bring up marker radial menu (ADS must be used to do this)

Left-analog stick to select marker

Let go of R3 to place highlighted marker

LB/L1 (tap) swap to 2nd piece of equipment in list

RB/R1 (tap) swap to 3rd piece of equipment in list

Weapons

RT/R2 to shoot

LT/L2 to ADS

X/Square to reload

Grenades

RT/R2 to throw grenade (hold for cook)

LT/L2 to underarm throw grenade (hold for cook)

Melee weapon

RT/R2 or R3/RS to melee

Bandage

X/Square (hold) to heal self

RT/R2 (hold) to heal friendly player

Single Purpose equipment (morphine, hammer, torch etc), variable

X/Square hold

RT/R2 Hold

Building equipment (watch/wrench)

LT/L2 to view list of items that can be built

D-pad (up and down) to navigate list

RT/R2 to build selected item

Vehicles (applies to artillery and AT gun)

X/Square hold to enter/exit vehicle

A/X hold to start/stop engine

Left-analog stick (up and down) to accelerate and reverse (automatic vehicles only)

Right-analog stick (left and right) to turn vehicle

Left-analog stick (left and right) to free look/adjust aim

Right-analog stick (up and down) to free look/adjust aim

LB/L1 and RB/R1 (hold) to move down/up respectively in available seating

D-Pad (up and down) to change gears (driver seat) or to adjust turret zoom (other seats)

RT/R2 to fire secondary weapon (normally machine gun, supplies for truck)

LT/L2 to fire Primary weapon (cannon)

Y/Triangle to swap ammo type (if available)

X/Square to reload

L3/LS to beep horn (Trucks)

VOIP

D-Pad right (tap) to toggle on/off currently selected channel

D-Pad right (hold) to bring up VOIP radial menu

Right-analog stick to select VOIP channel from radial

Possible Issues and Fixes

Steam controller configurations

There has not yet been a developer-approved configuration for gamepad controls on Steam for HeLL, however the version that will work best at this time is the default “Gamepad” template that Steam provides. In order to do this, the player will need to ensure a few things are done in Steam settings.

General Steam Controller settings:
To ensure the controller you’re using will work, access Steam>Settings>Controller>General Controller Settings. From here ensure the controller type (PlayStation, Xbox, generic gamepad etc.) is ticked based on what you’re using.

Game-specific Steam controller configuration:
What actions are mapped to the gamepad buttons will be determined by which Steam controller configuration is set for the game. There is currently no default config by developers, and the community created configs (for previous updates) will not be compatible with the layout now.

The best recommendation is to set the controller config for HeLL to the generic “Gamepad” template as provided by Steam. To do this the player will need to: Launch game>Open Steam Overlay>Select “Controller Configuration” in the top right>Navigate to list of controller configs>Select “Templates”>Select “Gamepad”.

HeLL config files

The player may find after ensuring the above is sorted that the controls are present but not quite fully functional. This can be identified if holding the VOIP button does not bring up the radial menu to select which channel to use, or if the scoreboard is mapped to the left d-pad button, instead of the View/Touchpad button. This would indicate an issue with config files for the game, and can be fixed by deleting the current one after ensuring the game is closed, and launching again so it generates a new one which should then provide the correct controls bound to the gamepad. The HeLL config file can be found in this location:-

C:Users<user name>AppDataLocalHLLSaved

Please be aware however, that doing this will reset all Options (gameplay, audio, keybindings, controls) back to their default values, and any adjustments made prior to this will have to be applied again.

Commander Controls

Commander controls on gamepad have not yet been finalised. They are usable, but if you are having problems, you may need to switch back to keyboard and mouse controls when using commander abilities.

Controlling the frontline!

That wraps up the quick 'how to' for our partial controller support introduction! We'll continue working on this feature so it becomes fully functional and fleshed out for those who choose to game with a controller.

We look forward to your feedback, thanks everyone!

We'll see you on the frontline.

Update 9 - Hotfix 1 Live Now!

Hey everyone,

Thanks for jumping in to Update 9! It’s been exciting to see footage from the admin camera and melee, as well as read through the feedback - both positive and negative. As a result, the team has been hard at work since the release pinpointing feedback, aggregating it by severity and risk-of-fix and have worked with the team in QA to release a hotfix for the following issues.

Update 9 - Hotfix 1 Patch Notes
Fixed an issue that allowed the player to deselect their spawn point but still attempt to deploy, leaving them in the 'Deploying' state with no deploy timer.

Fixed an issue that caused MGs to fire offset from where the player was aiming when braced or deployed on a surface. As a temporary solution we needed to revert the change that allowed bullets to travel where the barrel was pointing when exiting the sprint animation. We will look to reimplement this feature once we are sure it won’t cause issues again.

Disabled the vault mechanic on barbed wire placed by the Engineer and prevented players from climbing on the wooden ends.

Fixed the "VCRUNTIME140_1.dll" launch error. Now if the user is missing the required VCRUNTIME it will be installed when the game is launched.

Reimplemented the server welcome message displayed on the deploy screen. The map key and welcome message are now displayed in separate tabs that can be switched between. By default, the welcome tab will always be displayed unless switched by the player.

Fixed the aggressive LoD and billboard issues present on SMDM and Utah that caused trees and buildings to appear low quality at close distances.

Fixed certain bushes having bullet collision on PHL, SME, SMDM and Omaha preventing players from shooting through the foliage.

Fixed the collision on Carentan’s church preventing players shooting through the hole in the roof and a window on SME.

Fixed a material issue that caused weapons and certain character assets to render completely dark when in a shadow on SME.

Applied the correct LoD and materials to the Support’s US & GER Summer uniforms.

Removed a non-existent map from the map rotation.

Fixed the server list not correctly updating when using the sorting options.

Fixed rare server crash caused by client connection.

We want to assure you that we’re taking into account all feedback around the following topics:

Node meta and effect on both Engineer and metagame. We’re especially looking at the way resource gain occurs - both affected by ambient sector resource gain as well as distance-from-HQ modifiers. This has different effects for both Warfare and Offensive modes and separate between attackers and defenders.

Grass and tree LODs.

Please note, we’re also examining all other aspects of the game - both changed and unchanged.

Finally, it appears that there is a single client crash (players will see “ACCESS VIOLATION” when it occurs). We’re fortunate in that this is the only client crash in the game currently, and are currently looking to expedite a fix.

In case you missed it, please see yesterday’s post about the addition of partial controller support.

Ankündigung zu Hell Let LooseDi., 23. März 2021
Partial Controller Support - Useful Information!

Set-up and known issues / fixes.

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

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

We'll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

We're pleased to announce that the latest Hell Let Loose free weekend is live now!

Running from today until 5pm GMT on Monday March 29th, the free weekend is an excellent time to join us on the frontline, hot on the heels of Update 9: Blood and Steel's arrival.

Whether you're a new player looking to try Hell Let Loose for the first time, or an existing community member wanting to get more friends into your unit we want to make sure you hit the battlefields of World War II running!

Welcome to Hell Let Loose!

As you likely already know, Hell Let Loose is a 50 vs 50 WWII tactical FPS where strategy, teamwork, co-ordination and a sturdy trigger are the keys to victory.

To assist those of you new to the game and give you a quick crash course on the different roles, vehicles and game mechanics we'll be posting a 'Free Weekender's Guide to Hell Let Loose' tomorrow. This will provide a swift, new player friendly overview so that as soon as you jump into your first server you're ready for action!

The Hell Let Loose Community

We as Developers are incredibly lucky and humbled to have such a friendly and welcoming community with a deep and valuable knowledge of the game.

When joining a match and jumping into a unit for the first time, don't be afraid to say hi! The chances are a friendly voice for two will welcome you! If you're not sure on something, like which role to pick or how something works, feel free to ask in unit chat too and you'll likely be brought up to speed in a friendly manner.

When joining a community ran / private server, please take a quick second to read through any rules they have. Many players highly rate these admin run servers, whom normally only ask that you make an effort to communicate with your team via voice or text chat / ping in return for a fantastic team orientated experience.

If you want to find some likeminded or more experienced players to squad up with and jump into a game as a pre-made unit definitely come and say hi over on our official Reddit and Discord pages.

HLL Reddit - LFG, Memes, Gameplay and More!

HLL Discord - LFG, Clan Recruitment, General Chatter!

Keep an eye out on the Steam Store Page over the weekend too for some awesome high energy livestreams from members of the [NPA] clan!

If you want to see Hell Let Loose in action and get some top tips, they'll fill your boots!

Free Weekend 25% Discount

To celebrate the free weekend Hell Let Loose will be available to purchase at 25% off throughout the entire event, giving you access to the full game as we head towards launch and the arrival of the Eastern Front later this year.

Hell Let Loose

6. Juni 2019
Action
Shooter
2. Weltkrieg
Mehrspieler
Krieg

Werde Teil der wachsenden Spielerfahrung von Hell Let Loose – einem extrem fordernden Zweiter-Weltkrieg-Shooter mit epischen Kämpfen. 100 Spieler mit Infanterie, Panzern, Artillerie, einer dynamischen Front und einzigartigem, ressourcenbasiertem Metaspiel.
-25%
29,99€
Kostenlos spielbar! Endet in 3 Tage

Jetzt spielen

We'll see you on the frontline!

Developer Briefing #121 - Free Weekend Thanks & U10 Armor Overhaul!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #121!

This one is for real and not an April Fools joke, so stand easy!

This week we're looking back at out most recent free weekend and looking forward to U10 with some initial information on our plans for the 'Armour Overhaul'.

To take you through this I'll be handing over to Lead Developer Max!

A Message From Max - Free Weekend & Armor Overhaul

Before we begin we'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who tried Hell Let Loose over the weekend. Thanks to you, we've managed to set our new record, hitting a peak player-count of over 13,000! Seeing so many of you trying out our game for the first time was very gratifying for us as a team.

Of course, we also have to thank our veteran officers, commanders, and grunts for showing the new recruits the ropes. Hell Let Loose wouldn't be what it is without you, and we appreciate your ongoing support.

Last week we saw the release of Update 9, which focused on delivering a number of long-requested features, adding new options for players and additional functionality for admins.

Update 9 Changelog

Update rollouts are not always as smooth as we'd like them to be, but with your feedback and input we were able to identify a number of issues and push out two hotfixes to deal with the most pressing concerns.

Hotfix 1

Hotfix 2

As we continue into the weeks following U9, we’re closely monitoring your responses as we work towards a patch later this month that will look to address any outstanding nuisances. Below is a brief preview on some of the things we plan to include to give you an idea of what to expect. As usual, this isn't an exhaustive list of what we are currently working on and will look to provide a full changelog on the day of release.

Removing Outposts not belonging to your Unit from the Spawn List

Restoring the green icon for Outposts that belong to your unit on the deploy screen and tactical map

Bullet penetration pass on various assets across maps

Performance optimizations

Fixing a Client and Server crash

Duplicate servers showing on the Enlist screen

Many more various bug fixes

Moving Forward, U10 Armor Overhaul

As we look towards our next major update, we'd like to take the time to outline some of what we're working on in regards to armor. We acknowledge that Armor gameplay has been an unsatisfactory position, and we'd like to dedicate a significant portion of U10 to taking the Armor experience to the next level.

Here are just a few of the improvements and fixes we have planned:

Fixing point of impact shifts depending on tank angle

Vehicle and environment collision improvements

Vehicle Physx improvements

Hitbox adjustments

Adjusting Anti-tank effectiveness

Vehicle availability adjustments

FX - including muzzle and hit

This isn't to say that tanks are the only thing we're working on! Take a look at the roadmap for what else is on the docket for 2021.

Roadmap

That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

We'll see you on the frontline!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #122!

This week we're going to preview the PPSh-41 and show off some of the faces that will represent the Soviet Union in-game!

The PPSh-41

The PPSh-41 was one of the Soviet Union's primary submachine guns of the Second World War. A simplified design made to be built rapidly with limited machining operations, the PPSh-41 used a heavy gauge steel stamping for most of its construction. It was originally issued with 71 round drum magazines copied from a Finnish design, but these were phased out in favor of more traditional stick type magazines.

Reliability was generally high even with the drum magazines, though these were complex and difficult to load. In addition, issues with manufacturing tolerances meant drum magazines were not readily interchangeable between guns. Drums needed to be properly "fitted" to their assigned submachine guns to feed reliably, though this was resolved somewhat by the introduction of the smaller 35 round stick types.

In combat, the PPSh-41 performed admirably. Soldiers appreciated the high fire rate and reliability in close-quarters combat, though the Soviet Union would eventually supplement the PPSh-41 in production with the even simpler PPS-43. The submachine gun as a class would form a major component of Soviet unit composition. Entire platoons would be equipped with PPSh-41s to spearhead an offensive action.

In Hell Let Loose, the PPSh-41 comes in two variants - one with a 35 round stick magazine and the other with the iconic 71 round drum magazine. While the stick magazine benefits from a faster reload and faster transition to ADS, it suffers from slightly increased recoil over time due to its lighter stick magazine. The drum magazine variant benefits from the increased magazine size and slightly lower sustained recoil due to its weight, but has a slower ADS transition and reload time.

Soldiers of the Soviet Union

In designing the faces of our Soviet faction, we endeavoured to take into account the historically broad array of different people groups that were brought together to fight a common enemy. Because of the need to muster every able man for the war effort, soldiers were conscripted from all over the USSR, from the Baltic sea to the Baikal.

Regardless of their origins, each and every Soviet soldier was equal in the face of combat.

That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

What other weapons would you like to see in-game? Who's your favourite Soviet soldier so far? Let us know in the comments!

We'll see you on the frontline!

Developer Briefing #123 - Introducing Kursk!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #123!

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

An Overview of Kursk

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

Fighting on the Steppe

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

Armour

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

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

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

In-Game

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

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

U9 Patch PTE

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

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

That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

We'll see you on the front line!