• Developer Briefing #42 - Omaha Beach!

    Hey everyone,

    Welcome to Developer Briefing #42! This week we’re incredibly excited to share with you more information about our next map coming in Update 3, Omaha Beach!

    Playable on both our existing gamemode and the upcoming ‘Offensive Mode’, we’re confident that Omaha beach will be a whole new experience unlike anything else for the Hell Let Loose community…

    Omaha Beach, Normandy - June 6th 1944

    4419b748bf4910f89e193b9fb916a19c10df47e1.jpg

    The beach!

    697c702ba55aac2f562d620f92a6baa2d70558a8.jpg

    Your battlefield!

    Created using archive footage and satellite imagery, you won’t just be playing on a map called Omaha Beach, you will be playing on an accurate recreation of Omaha Beach itself!

    0aa72c0650882881214824386c6d2726c7984c77.jpg

    100 players will clash on this shore.

    cae20e08ce5d5cda21956bede569ac4ccc2d0f74.jpg

    Fight to capture or defend the actual emplacements from that historic day.

    fa66baf9b0e11b7f87c660ed254d163a55a9c0c5.jpg

    A potential operating base for the United States or last grasp hold of the beach for the Germans? You decide!

    e58ac3f5431f204979238a7a6abeaf1d03b34086.jpg

    Clash at the crossroads!

    100-Player Beach Landings

    In Offensive Mode players on the United States will begin the match at sea in Higgins Boats and be dropped off in waves as they assault the beach defended by players on the German side.

    Yes, you read that correctly, we can officially confirm that beach landings via AI controlled Higgins Boats are coming to Hell Let Loose in Update 3!

    4824904eca343e26102a2ce115849a67ca0858b2.jpg

    You wanted beach focused combat and you’re getting it!

    33c588f9d6b9540c53059e0f1720e7a3f82ad9cf.jpg

    Fight high and low along the beach terrain.

    dd103905070f4d9224cc6dc5d9865a6894402425.png

    Hold the line as the Germans using an extensive system of trenches and bunkers.

    1cc9fd3b5366cda50fdaa87799764b7957fc09ed.jpg

    Furious CQC will occur once the Americans begin their push into the deeply entrenched German position!

    We’ll be sharing exactly how Offensive Mode works in next week’s Developer Briefing, but for now we can tell you that it’s an attack and defend mode involving multiple simultaneously active capture points and a shifting focus across the battlefield as the match progresses.

    What does that mean for Omaha? Well if the United States are able to take the beach and its defences they will then have to push past the shore and take the areas beyond the beach as the Germans dig in and attempt to stop the Allied offensive.

    a29fff8c08c120c3f0093214d88edc8b1afbfa79.jpg

    Village squares...

    6d7218a9e92936df57e10b84b89c8f5eb61dd71f.jpg

    Lush fields...

    346c0cc8515c5040e33dc5fe95784a28db0ebe8b.jpg

    And landmarks!

    Omaha Beach and the new Offensive Mode will launch in Update 3 when it arrives in the near future.

    Hell will be let loose...

    e639d33f0c2d1eb10c06c6ec99fcfc2c9edb208a.png

    Join us for next week's Developer Briefing when we'll be detailing Offensive Mode!

    We'll see you on the beaches

  • NEUIGKEITEN VERÖFFENTLICHT
    Fr., 4. Oktober 2019 17:36 CEST

    von
    Developer Briefing #43 - Introducing the Offensive Gamemode!

    Hey everyone,

    Welcome to Developer Briefing #43! This week we’re thrilled to share with you a first look at new gamemode coming to Hell Let Loose!

    What is the 'Offensive' gamemode?

    The Offensive gamemode is the second to be introduced to Hell Let Loose, and with Warfare will make up the two key game modes that will sit within the Campaign metagame (we’ll explain more about this in the months to come). While Warfare is about two teams attempting to push each other back, Offensive pits one team of attackers against one team of defenders.

    We felt that the best way of introducing the Offensive gamemode was with one of the most iconic Offensive battles of World War Two - the US landing at Omaha Beach.

    Key features:

    Instead of defending a single sector against the enemy team, Defenders will now need to defend two strongpoints per sector line. Should both of the strongpoints in this line be captured, the defenders will need to fall back and defend the new frontline. If they are able to hold the line for 30 minutes, they will win the battle. Once they lose a strongpoint, they won’t be able to retake it. It is important to note that while a player can capture a sector from anywhere inside it in Warfare - in Offensive they must be within the strongpoint.

    Win Condition:

    Attackers:

    Must capture all four sector rows before finally capturing one of the enemy’s two HQ strongpoints in the final fifth sector row in order to win the game.

    Defenders:

    The defending team must stop the attackers from gaining a sector row within the 30 minutes. If they hold the attacker at a row for more than 30 minutes they will be victorious.

    Opening Stages

    Attackers:

    On beginning the game, Infantry and Recon units are able to decide their sector of attack. Once they’ve chosen it, they’ll spawn into one of several Higgins boats in that sector and begin the journey to shore. As they reach shore, the ramps will go down and they’ll need to clear them immediately and get straight to cover - be it a sunken obstacle or sandbar. From there, they’ll need to push up to take the first strongpoints in order to progress up to the bluffs.

    Armored crews will be able to choose a sector to spawn in much like the Infantry, however the Armored crews won’t spawn on landing craft. Instead they’ll spawn beside their Armored landing craft and will need to scramble to quickly mount up in their tanks before the Germans get to their positions on the bluff. From there, the Armored crews will need to begin shelling the bluffs and suppressing the MG positions in order to protect the first landing wave. Note that the attackers begin the game with 1000 resources.

    7eb7d1da619b6f843a16e14e721c8b9762fc5984.jpg

    1b9c35d00022292f45a78393d1cf3abc1ec96e0d.jpg

    8531301142f86317e76b0d5f4c1ca8ff22d0c4d3.png

    We’ve studied large numbers of Veterans accounts to recreate the specific mix of armor and infantry that landed on the beach that morning.

    Defenders:

    On beginning the game, the Defenders have two primary choices as to where they spawn - at front line Garrisons, or at the rear HQ.

    Be aware that the Defenders start with 0 resources, and will therefore need to quickly construct resource nodes in order to begin using Commander abilities, artillery and to spawn in vehicles. The reason for this was to emulate both the surprise of being attacked, as well as to balance the ability for attackers to make headway in the first sector row.

    We also felt that being shot by a Luchs while you’re in a Higgins boat on your way to shore would not be an enjoyable experience (and that historically the Germans were caught without their armor to assist them at the beaches).

    Layout:

    Two randomly chosen sectors per row are active. They can be separated by an inactive sector.

    Tips:



    • We recommend the US Commander begin calling in support on the bluffs in order to screen the initial landing.
    • We also recommend the Officers to prepare smoke to mask the landing location prior to the ramp dropping.

    Offensive and Warfare have been designed to be universal and will be available on all Hell Let Loose maps. Over the coming patches and updates, we’ll be introducing layers to existing maps and new maps. For example, Foy will receive both an Offensive German layer (in which the Germans attack and US defend), as well as an Offensive US layer (in which the US attack and the Germans defend). To differentiate these different layers, we’ll be setting them up with different weather and lighting conditions. For example, the Allies may attack at dusk, while the Germans may attack in dense fog. We feel this is a great way to create new experiences in maps that players are already familiar with.

    Lastly, please know that we as a team are committed to creating the best experience possible. We’ll be watching for your feedback about the battle on Omaha Beach, as well as the Offensive mode more broadly.

    Please note: Offensive Gamemode is the renamed Invasion Gamemode. We felt that “Offensive” was far more accurate in the context of World War Two and would apply to all maps - new and old.

    That's it for this week! We'll see you back here next week for another Hell Let Loose developer briefing!

  • EUIGKEITEN VERÖFFENTLICHT
    Mi., 16. Oktober 2019 18:54 CEST

    von
    Developer Briefing #45 - Reflections on the Free Weekend!

    Hi everyone!

    We want to thank you for an absolutely huge weekend. We had an enormous number of people both jump into the game, and then support the game further by buying a copy! To those new players, we want to say welcome, and to the veterans - we want to say thank you for taking to the front lines to give a guiding hand to newcomers.

    Hell Let Loose is very much a work in progress. As a dev team, we love adding content, fixing bugs, overhauling systems and working to bring the game to the highest level of quality that we can. We hope that over the course of our Early Access you’ll see significant steps forward in each of these areas and we’re looking forward to having you join on the journey with us.

    Reflections on Omaha Beach and Offensive Mode

    We’ve been reading a lot of feedback and feel that Offensive mode has brought a great new set of tactical and strategic challenges, but that it definitely needs to be polished. We collate large amounts of feedback and pair it with meta-data to give us a good picture of win rates and different aspects of how the mode is performing (we’re also playing in there with you!).

    We want to share our reflections with you now:



    • The initial beach experience needs to be much more fraught and dangerous for the US forces. Currently the first beach sectors are captured very quickly - due to an abundance of US armor and the sheer breadth of the beach itself. This is leading to it being easy to push the beach, as well as silent and generally lacking the iconic atmosphere you expect.
    • It is very unsatisfying to push the enemy all the way back to the final sector row and then lose the game as the US forces.
    • Driving a tank out of bounds in Offensive mode punishes you far too quickly - causing a loss of armor that could be avoided if the timers were more generous.
    • It is frustrating as US forces to not be able to push more than one sector in - in order to take down crucial Garrisons and OPs behind the boundary.

    We’ve already implemented tweaks that deal with many of these issues and they’ll be applied the next time we update. We’re using our time in Early Access to really hone in on the key desired experience for both Warfare and Offensive. Tied to these is the resource metagame, role of the Commander and then each role beneath the Commander. As the game develops, you’ll see each role evolve and be fleshed out in functionality and their place on the battlefield.

    Later in Early Access we’ll be introducing the Campaign metagame, in which both Offensive mode and Warfare will sit. Before then, it’s crucial that we make sure both game-modes are performing as intended.

    General Feedback



    • A plethora of bugs, crashes and bad optimisation caused issues for players on lower end machines or specific graphics cards or CPUs. These are all aspects that we’re working hard to fix. Optimisation will be an ongoing thing. Many of our assets are now streamlined and becoming increasingly optimised - but we’ll be doing a large optimisation push for our release from EA.
    • The experience/progression bug is incredibly frustrating for obvious reasons. Fortunately, our QA team were able to jump in over the weekend and play a large number of full population games back to back in order to reproduce it. This is near the top of our list for a fix.
    • Sound attenuation distances were too low and too quiet. In the push to move to the upgraded audio engine, we’ve redesigned our assets and this was an unfortunate side effect. You’ll see a significant fix for this in the next time we update the game. We’ve also worked specifically on the assets for the M1919 and the MG42. We feel they need improvement and you’ll be able to hear the difference in the next time we update.

    Our FPP and TPP animation is possibly our weakest area now - we animations feeling overly stiff and lacking fluidity. We are working extremely hard to bring you our Version 2 animation overhaul. This is made up of three parts:

    1. New photoreal hands, including customisation appropriate hands/sleeves (ie. wearing the winter uniform will mean your FPP hands will be gloved and have the winter sleeves).

    b499448d307b1d338b6bdb5656914156e94c88cc.jpg

    2. IK-enabled procedural animations. This covers a large number of nuances that go into the character of the gunplay. We now have procedural recoil per calibre, animated stance shifting, animated ADS, animated leaning, endless procedural sprints, the ability to blend multiple animations at once (crouch, reload and sprint) and much, much more. The experience now feels like it sits amongst the very best examples in the FPS market and we’re very excited to show you how that will perform closer to the release date. We feel it will be one of the most significant graphical and experience overhauls in the life of Hell Let Loose. Finally, the last major benefit of this system is that it will make our inclusion of new weapons much faster and of a much more consistent quality.

    05aa8fb3671120e958141bf243e91ecb06761a59.gif

    3. Motion-captured full body TPP animations. These bring a level of realism to the player movement that feels far more fluid than what is currently in the game. In addition to this, the system upgrade means that feet now adjust to the surface, the body bends to match the ground when prone and we’re able to blend many animations all concurrently. We feel that this will finalise the TPP experience. Like the FPP overhaul, this also means that adding new weapons is a very painless affair compared to our current system.

    ecf99de542daf1a1179acba5d25d505e4164f06d.gif

    Additional features

    There are hundreds of these - from non-verbal comms, radial menus, better handling of solo-tanking, new weapons (flamers and trench guns anyone?), new maps, new weather conditions, new vehicles, new customisation options and all the rest. We’ve got a huge amount of content in the works that we’re very, very excited to show you.

    Speaking of content...

    Next week we’re proud to bring you a dev briefing on our next map: Sainte-Mère-Église.

    Sainte-Mère-Église is the first large-scale urban map to be introduced to Hell Let Loose and features giant urban battles through backyards, town streets and the famous church and church square. Defenders and attackers in Warfare will begin in the countryside and push into the town in the middle of the map for intense street-to-street combat. Initially, we will be offering Offensive mode that position the Germans as the attackers - as they push in to reclaim the recently captured town.

    8fc2a47a9fc5f1e633544cded4541804a165a805.png

    Sainte-Mère-Église will be coming soon in Update 4 with Warfare and Offensive mode, along with a large number of bug fixes, sound fixes, sound upgrades, Offensive mode tweaks and all new features that we’ll unpack in a dev briefing closer to its launch.

    See you on the front line!

  • Patch #8 - Live Now!

    1039f0dc86df2bb2f948709d11e2be14f536067d.jpg

    Hi everyone!

    We apologise for one of the longest turnaround times between patches that we’ve experienced so far. We had a ton to fix and tweak and wanted to make sure our brilliant QA team had the time to test everything we’re sending down the pipe. With Update 4 currently in full swing and Sainte-Mère-Église going through some final optimisation, we needed to make sure the Patch would be as bullet-proof as possible.

    Patch 8 contains a lot of fixes to both the back-end - including server and client crashes - and to the front end - including the introduction of a new server queue and large-scale tweaks to the Offensive gamemode and fixes to the audio fall-off. There are a lot of notes, so be prepared to dig in.

    Patch Notes

    Features

    Server Queuing

    You can now queue for a server in Hell Let Loose. We’ve currently limited the total queue spots to 6, with Admins having the ability to adjust the number down. We’ve capped the server queue count to encourage server seeding and avoid situations where we may have 100 players queued across a similar region, instead of a new server up and populated.

    Customisation

    Added many new German helmets to the cosmetics array. The majority are unlocked by increasing your Career level. Several are unlocked by increasing the Sniper and Spotter Role level.

    Bug Fixes



    • Fixed: Players have reported their career level decreasing or exponentially increasing after several consecutive games.
    • Fixed: The Allies Medic has graphical issues on all Heads when the Melton Winter Coat is selected.
    • Fixed: Crashed airplanes have increased collision with tanks on the left wing.
    • Fixed: Certain Steam users are not affected by the global banning system.
    • Fixed: Graphical issues can occur when entering/exiting vehicles and changing seats if the player is changing weapons while entering.
    • Fixed: Debug text is displayed when US Engineers attempt to place a resource node on columns I and J.
    • Fixed: The post-match experience calculation may occasionally freeze for Career Lv100 Players.
    • Fixed: The Objective distance indicator does not update accordingly when the player is over a kilometer away from said objective.
    • Fixed: If both final sectors are being captured when a match ends, the following match will not load as the timer will loop indefinitely.
    • Fixed: Two hour bans are not lifted automatically after the two hours have elapsed.
    • Fixed: There is no value next to the 'Audio' sliders and is inconsistent with the sliders in the other settings menus.

    SFX



    • Implemented and expanded bullet fly-by ricochet and snap volume. You will now notice incoming nearby small arms fire.
    • MG42 FPP sound improvement.
    • M1919 FPP sound improvement.
    • All weapons have been rebalanced, polished and had attenuation adjusted to keep them louder at range.
    • Vehicle engine and fire sound mix changes.

    RCON



    • Added a new RCON command “Set High Ping Threshold” to change or disable kicking players with high ping.
    • Added a new RCON command “Set Max Queued Players” to change the number of players that can be in the server queue at the same time.

    Visual Improvements



    • Tweaked TPP muzzle flashes to be 3D and now visible from front-on.

    Omaha Beach



    • Fixed: Players can clip through a bunker roof by performing a jump-prone action while standing on-top of an item.
    • Fixed: Grass and terrain clipping inside one of the bunkers in sector I3.
    • Fixed: A small tree has incorrect bullet collision.
    • Fixed: Two bunkers in I4 have invisible collision blocking their entrances.
    • Fixed: A bunker in I3 has invisible collision blocking its entrance.
    • Fixed: A specific building's front wall has no player collision.
    • Fixed: There are multiple cases of destroyed tanks with partially failed collision along the shoreline of Omaha Beach.
    • Fixed: Partially failed collision with a destroyed armored vehicle in the H7 sector.
    • Fixed: Window LOD issue in Omaha sector D5.
    • Fixed: There is a layer of water present in the fountains and wells that does not react to bullet penetration.
    • Fixed: Destroyed buildings between the cliff and the beach will change their geometry due to an LOD issue.
    • Fixed: Extended collision is present of the grounded cliff faces placed behind the German artillery in sector A6 of the map.
    • Fixed: The player can get stuck inside one of the stables present in a a specific barn in the B7 map sector.
    • Fixed: There is a visible seam in the water when deploying on the US team.
    • On Omaha, the player is able to see a small section of the edge of the map in sectors A7, A5 and A4.
    • Fixed: Wave animation present on a net located inside a barn in the F6 map sector.
    • Fixed: The brick walls near the beach on Omaha are observed to have visual issues.
    • Fixed: An audio error is occurring in specific areas of the beach.

    e9d199590b2b7cfe0b88f98a0afb901e756545c1.jpg

    Offensive Gamemode

    We’ve read a huge amount of feedback across all channels, as well as collated our own through playing the map with you. We’ve made some changes to the gamemode below and outlined our rationale for those changes. Please know that we’ll adjust any of these changes against your feedback and our play experience. We are keen to make sure the Offensive gamemode has the right level of intensity and asymmetrical balance as we can achieve.

    Reduced number of first active sectors on the beach from two to one.

    Currently the US forces are able to spread themselves easily into the inactive sector and push around the German defenders and take the beach faster than we’d intended. We’ve altered the first row of the Offensive mode to now only have one active sector that the Germans must defend and the US must attack.

    Attackers now land only in the single active sector.

    The largest change to the gamemode is that for the first sector only, we keep only one strongpoint in play. This means that the landing experience will be far more intense and fraught, with the US forces taking considerable fire as they come in. Instead of deciding to land all along the beach, US forces will now need to land in the active sector - consolidating both teams efforts around one location. Please note: once the first row (the beach) has been captured the available sectors will widen back out to two.

    US tanks now only spawn in the active sector.

    Due to the US forces being able to field three tanks immediately on the beach, the Germans were often more scared to peek at the beach than the attackers. We’ve limited the attackers tank spawn to the active sector, meaning that they’ll have one instead of three tanks to use. Once the first row is taken, all other sectors will spawn their tanks as normal.

    Allow attackers to push beyond current attacking sector by 1.

    We felt that this was overly restrictive and punished the success of the attacking force. This was designed to consolidate action around the front line. Instead, we now let the attackers push into the sector beyond the active one, but limit them from pushing deeper than that.

    Increased the turn back timer to 30 seconds for vehicles out of bounds.

    While Infantry could nimbly turn around, many vehicles were overshooting the boundary and being destroyed simply because they could not reverse or turn fast enough. We’ve increased the turn back timer for vehicles to 30 seconds in order to make it much easier to retreat without losing your vehicle. We recommend that you don’t leave your vehicle in this time.

    Round start timer for staging.

    We’ve implemented a two minute round timer for staging, so that players with slower HDDs are able to load and form up before all landing on the beach (or running to their MG nests).

    SMDM



    • LOD issue occurring on one of the trees in the German spawn.
    • The in game map does not correctly represent the actual position of the player by approximately 10m in specific locations.
    • Stretched textures are present on non-ground floor levels of the Brecourt Manor.

    Crashes



    • Fixed a potential server crash triggered by character customisation.
    • Fixed a potential server crash in the replication graph code.
    • Fixed a potential server crash triggered by an issue with the engine’s garbage collection.
    • Fixed client crashes when changing map to Omaha from an active game.

    In Testing



    • Sainte-Mère-Église German Offensive and Warfare Gamemodes.
    • New unlockable role loadouts.
    • In-game loadout and customisation selection.
    • Server host reserved slots.
    • Continued wide-spread optimisations.

    Currently working on (non-exhaustive list, we just want to give you some idea)



    • Continuing HUD and UI updates.
    • 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.
    • 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).
    • Wheeled vehicles.
    • Three new maps are currently at different stages of development.
    • Updating all audio and SFX. We’ve been testing reflections and different reverb volumes alongside all new weapon fire and reload sounds.

    One more thing…

    We’ve read the subreddit, Discord and forum feedback and are making the Garand sight picture easier to use! You can expect to see this in U4.

    Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts and feedback on all elements of Hell Let Loose with us, it does make a difference.

    d8179e13df92f28caa84a94ab7de251a1cdaa9ce.jpg

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

    See you on the frontline!

  • Hey everyone,


    We hope you're enjoying this week's patch and improvements to Offensive Mode!


    The team have been eagerly collating your feedback on the changes, as well as balance and bug reports as we prepare for our upcoming patches and Update 4.


    Now to the Dev Brief...



    Urban Combat in Sainte-Mère-Église

    This is your tactical map for Sainte-Mère-Église, our first urban combat focused map that's coming to Hell Let Loose in Update 4.

    85665c19dd536071a2f3bcffa26a38dbe548a69f.jpg

    All strongpoints in this map are placed on urban areas with many inside buildings, two near bunkers / trench systems and one in the map's graveyard.

    Get ready for some of the fiercest CQC fighting yet in Hell Let Loose. Fight for every room, house and street as you push to secure ground and drive the opposing team back.

    Urban Warfare

    We've grabbed some fresh new images from Sainte-Mère-Église to highlight what you'll be fighting for when Update 4 drops.

    1bab170c694cca0eadf75ad86b3c54ee5cfa75d4.jpg

    House to house fighting will be rife in this area.

    fd1afac8c29952d8ee37c3b9a2118f00ac05e462.jpg

    Garrison the buildings, build deployables and lay traps to secure choke points.

    1e54dfaec91fb6507ac83069d11e11adc53542bf.jpg

    You've come to a crossroads, will your path lead to victory?

    7e46ce33ab3385f44bd4afeb6f024cdcf37d610b.jpg

    Watch those firing lines!

    8823e1944170d27913f1330fcca3521d44c24d0f.jpg

    Holding the church's spire will provide strong overwatch for the surrounding area

    8a2e554a3e0800ae02b2fffec96aef05aa260e14.jpg

    A good location for an AT gun perhaps?

    14bf8e3f394c9084d43ae7ec8e5609ccd723c295.jpg

    There'll be time for gardening when the battle is won!

    ecbfb3ec24ffbcd357b97234909321b58ee7a902.jpg

    An ideal place for a Garrison, if you can secure it.

    1b1f0ae306bc655e49b1d6eef4cb210f9cf95d7b.jpg

    Every wall, every window, every shadow. Be ready to fight.

    That wraps up our look at the urban locations you'll be fighting in when Sainte-Mère-Église lands in Update 4.

    It'd be great to hear what you think about what we've shown here, so let us know in the comments!

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

    See you on the frontline!

  • Schwierig Leute von solch Spielen zu überzeugen, entweder man mag es und probiert von selbst oder eben nicht.

  • Developer Briefing #48 - Loadouts!

    Hey everyone,

    Welcome to Developer Briefing #48! This week we’re taking a first look at an upcoming addition to Hell Let Loose - Loadouts!

    We know that many players are dedicated to specific roles - often to fulfill a specific function or playstyle that they most enjoy. However, we’re also aware that some of the prescribed loadouts don’t reflect the historical variety many soldiers had access to, or are inappropriate for specific functions you wish to serve (for instance holding a long range SP with short range weaponry).

    As a dev team, we’re also keen to widen the total armory available to better reflect the full scope of the war (Flamethrowers, Grease Guns, FG 42, MG34 just to name a few!). With 14 roles already available to you, loadouts are unlocked via role level progression, and are a way for us to reward your loyalty to a role as well as introduce new weapons and features.

    Loadouts in Hell Let Loose

    8d1515a5f45656bf8d26682a63e3b817e611d4be.jpg

    Will unlocked loadouts be better than the Standard Issue or lower level loadouts?

    No. Loadouts are designed to broaden the spectrum of experience with a role - not to function as a straight buff or power creep. For example, while the Support role will eventually be given access to weapons like the Flamethrower in one loadout, they’ll also have access to a dedicated Logistics loadout that will increase the Supplies they can deploy. The Flamethrower will be formidable and useful on some maps and in specific locations, however on open field maps it would be wise to opt for a more useful long-range loadout. That said, our design philosophy is to allow you to be creative with each tool we give you, and so we’re excited to see the way you use different loadouts to different effect.

    Another example is the Officer role. In Update 4 you’ll notice that the Officer will be able to unlock their first loadout at level 3. This contains a primary weapon change - allowing you to trade in your trusty SMG for a longer gun - something we know many Officer players have been asking for. Some players will find that very helpful for longer ranged maps, while some may opt to stay with the standard Issue, the choice will be yours.

    Finally, some loadouts will be designed around flavor, or historical function. The Medic will have access to a Padre loadout that increases their total medical supplies, but removes all firearms - to better reflect the historical role of medics as non-combat personnel.

    Will the current Standard Issue loadout be nerfed?

    15021f7ecb0e4261550abd040720d7800d8c1b08.jpg

    No. Besides several ugly gameplay loops around the ammo boxes and supply crate redeploy meta (as well as total bandage and morphine count for medics), we’re generally happy with the way each role is playing. We do not feel it fair to limit or remove gameplay features that you are already familiar with.

    How many loadouts per role can be unlocked?

    Each role for every force in Hell Let Loose will begin with the Standard Issue loadout (what you currently have access to in-game) and will unlock 3 additional loadouts at levels 3,6 and 9 respectively - bringing the total loadouts per role to 4. These will be introduced over the course of development as weapons and features are added.

    Will this mean that everyone will use automatic weapons?

    There’s a certain level of automatic weapon to rifle ratio that we want to maintain across the spectrum - for balance purposes, but more importantly - to preserve the historical ratio seen during the war itself. With this in mind, all our loadouts are tailored to preserve this, as well as reflect the slightly varied arsenal from the war. For example, the US Officer will initially have the Thompson, M1 Carbine and potentially the Garand. We’d then give him the Grease Gun as an option too when we add it.

    Part of the reason for the load-outs is to vary and add weapons to the game without hard-swapping it out from someone’s favourite role (you can imagine how frustrated a player may be if we remove or swap the weapon they're most accustomed too).

    b3d5b89f98bd9236d2113789d72eaffde3a8f82e.jpg

    Officers will soon have a longer ranged option for combat engagements!

    Weapons we'd like to add to the game for the current forces are:



    • Grease Gun
    • MG 34
    • Trench Gun
    • Flamethrowers
    • FG 42
    • 1 or 2 additional Tommy variants.
    • Panzerfaust

    There’s also huge capacity here for us when it comes to adding more firearms, as well as melee weapons and more utility.

    That wraps up this week’s Developer Briefing! The Loadout system will be rolled out in Update 4.

    P.S. We know the EXP System is an important part of the loadout system and are aware of an existing bug that can inhibit progress. This week we’ve been working closely with our Discord community by running ‘punching bag’ servers to assist us in some bug fixing, with a primary focus on the EXP and server crash bugs.



    We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s got involved, it’s been very helpful and progress is being made.

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

    See you on the frontline!