Beiträge von Candyman

IS-1

The IS-1 was an early variant of the Soviet Stalin heavy tank, developed from the battle-proven KV type. The KV was one of the most well-armoured heavy tanks at its point of introduction, but by 1942 was vulnerable to experienced anti-tank teams and heavier German armour. In addition, it was slower, more expensive, and no more heavily armed than the now large numbers of T-34 tanks rolling off the production lines.

The decision was made to improve the armour and armament of the KV, which would enable it to retain its battlefield niche. The resulting redesign would be named IS-1, after Joseph Stalin. The chassis, iterated on the KV, deleted the hull gunner position and instead had the driver seated in a centrally located compartment. Its weight was used more efficiently with critical components being better armoured while actually being lighter than the KV. The turret retained the three-man configuration of the KV, but was fully cast and fit the powerful 85 millimetre D-5T gun.

The IS-1 performed well, but the T-34 would eventually be up-gunned with the same 85 millimetre gun. Thus, experiments to put increasingly larger guns in the IS hull would continue and the definitive production variant would be the massive 122 millimetre gun armed IS-2.

BA-10

The BA-10 was a Soviet armoured car from the Second World War. A pre-war design placing an armoured hull over a Ford AA-derived chassis, the BA-10 had a somewhat ungainly appearance and a high centre of gravity. It was armed with a 45 millimetre gun, giving it excellent firepower for its weight.

The BA-10 found itself somewhat poorly suited to the rigors of Eastern front combat. Its thin armor and high profile made it vulnerable to fire, and tracked vehicles proved to be better at traversing the poor roads that stretched across the Soviet Union. Where available, it would use its speed to serve as a reconnaissance vehicle instead.

Onwards to the weekend!

That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into the armour overhaul. It'd be great to hear what you think, so share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

July 27th is rapidly approaching, so you won't have long to wait until you can get stuck into these sweeping improvements.

Have a great weekend everyone!

We'll see you on the frontline.

Developer Briefing #135 - Armour Overhaul

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #135!

This week we're got a big one for you as we delve into and detail the armour overhaul coming in Update 10 on July 27th.

From the changes themselves to new additions and our reasoning behind them, today we're pleased to be in a position to sit down and go through everything with you.

A lot of these changes have been inspired, guided and provoked from community feedback, so thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us on armour throughout Early Access.

Right, let's rev the engines and get stuck in...

A Message From Max - The Armour Overhaul: Changes, Details & Reasoning

Hi everyone,

We’ve been working very hard on our continued armour rework - the majority of which will be landing with Update 10. We’ve incorporated feedback from across the entire community and it’s meant reworking many areas of our code and logic - including both projectiles, armour, the way armour functions on the vehicles, and the componentry of each piece. Alongside this, it’s also meant reworking the complex driving models for every vehicle in the game in order to get the best possible outcome - that balances expectation with reality.

It has also touched the base roster, ammo quantities, vehicle costs, sound effects, visual effects and many more aspects (such as no longer allowing AT to reload a launcher/AT rifle while sprinting!), as we rebalance the entire armour spectrum in line with adjusted line-ups and the coming new medium tank offerings for both the US and German forces (Sherman for the US and Panzer IV for the Germans).

In Hell Let Loose, armour is designed to function largely as it did in real life - with tense duels, surprise attacks from superior positioning and requiring the support of the surrounding team (when it comes to protecting the flanks from infantry attack).

Armour Hit Boxes

The largest rework by far has to manually build and apply accurate armour hitboxes to all vehicles in the game. One of the large issues previously was projectiles would strike small pieces of geometry on the exterior of a vehicle (like a hook or spade or edge) and it would lead to random outcomes (be in a bounce, non-penetrating explosion or penetration).

This led to very unsatisfying gameplay, where some vehicles could be destroyed in a single shot, or some other totally random outcome. In reworking all of these hitboxes, we’ve now assured a very binary outcome that can both be learned and relied upon. We have found that this now produces better armoured encounters in which crews are able to clearly understand the combat taking place.

Hit Statuses

In line with our efforts towards eliminating the randomness of armoured combat, we’ve reworked both the sound and look of penetrating shots, non-penetrating shots (ones that explode on the side of the vehicle) and ricocheting shots. They are now far more distinct and should help crews keep much better track of how the action is progressing. In addition, the tank shell flyby sounds have been greatly improved, leading to a more dramatic soundscape on the battlefield.

Ricocheting

Non-Penetrating

Penetrating

Resource Costs

In reworking the way Resource Nodes function and accumulate resources, we’ve rebalanced costs of vehicles to match. Our ultimate desire has always been to create relative scarcity of Fuel, that would then force a Commander to make greater strategic decisions with their armour crews to decide which vehicle would be best to bring in to supplement the base roster of vehicles. Something we were missing from our “Company of Heroes” comparisons was a distinct battle order by which a Commander would bring in specific vehicles. We are keen that every decision the Commander makes is driven by necessity and not by endless surplus.

Scarcity of Heavy Tanks

As we begin to introduce more medium tanks to the game, we’re keen to rebalance the base roster (the default line-up each team receives in order to make sure they’re viable from a vehicle perspective). As such, we’ve removed Heavy Tanks from the default line-up to make them rarer and more intentional in their use. We want their presence on the battlefield to reflect a concerted choice and strategy, rather than business-as-usual. In doing so, one of our aims is to shift the standard vehicle effectiveness down - towards medium tanks, light tanks and eventually assault guns. Until this time, Heavy Tanks have often seemed like the majority of the vehicles on the battlefield - which does not reflect the historical weighting and lead to problems elsewhere - such as needing standard anti-tank players to field equally powerful weapons to destroy them.

Ultimately, the sight of a Tiger 1, Jumbo and IS-1 (and eventually the Tiger II, IS-2 and Pershing) should be rare, exciting and terrifying to the enemy, and indicate specific intentions of the Commander.

Engine Component

In line with rebalancing armour and the introduction of anti-tank rifles, we’ve added the engine components to vehicles in order to allow different, less-potent forms of anti-tank weaponry to effectively hinder and nullify armour in ways that aren’t a simple critical-kill.

It is now possible to knock out a vehicle's engine by penetrating the engine bay - resulting in its total immobilisation.

Manoeuvrability and Gears

We’ve worked hard on the manoeuvrability and gear ratios in this rework. We’ve attempted to emulate the real principles of driving in greater manoeuvrability at low gears, while straight line speeds are higher but less manoeuvrable. However, this is still a work-in-progress as we figure out the best mixture of handling.

Physics

We’ve made several improvements to our physics handling and the interrelationships between different vehicles, as well as to the way in which we handle collisions. This has resulted in:

Reduced the likelihood of getting stuck between objects

Reduced the likelihood of vehicles bouncing off objects at speed

Reduced the ability for lighter vehicles to knock around heavier vehicles

Reduced the jittery behaviour of vehicles while stationary or between objects

Fixed visual stepping on tank barrels as they move

Improved the ability for trucks to climb steep angles

Sound Effects

Alongside every other improvement, we’ve worked on the following sound effects:

Added SFX when colliding with objects

Added SFX for entering and exiting vehicles

Added SFX for switching seat in vehicles

Updated Tank Engine and Tracks SFX

Updated Turret traverse SFX

Continued Improvements

As always with Hell Let Loose, we’ll continue to improve this gameplay as we introduce a variety of new vehicles into the game. We can already see the need for a potential armour degradation mechanic in the near future to emulate the failure of a particular surface.

Armour rework Summary

The below changelist is subject to change based ongoing balancing and community feedback after the U10 update.

Added Engine Compartment

Shuts off the Engine and prevents an Engine start

Disables at 0% HP

Enables at 100% HP

Adjusted vehicle health and damage

Mirror matchups will result in ~2 shots to kill

Shooting a higher classed Tank requires 2-3 shots to kill

Shooting a lower classed Tank requires 1-2 shots to kill

Reduced Handheld-AT damage to require an additional rocket to destroy Heavy Tanks Increased AT-
Gun HP to compensate for the PTRS damage and require 2 handheld shots

Adjusted Tank Armor Ratings

Increased frontal armour for most Tanks requiring precise shots or flanked angles

Increased side Hull armour on some Tanks requiring handheld AT to shoot the rear

Increased Turret Cupola armour so it’s no longer a go-to easy weak spot

Adjusted Behaviour of certain areas of Armor

Tank barrels can now ricochet

Turret cupolas can now ricochet

Turret cupolas now only transfer damage to the Turret and not the Hull

Tracks can now be damaged by HE shells

Tracks can no longer be exploited to bypass the Hull armour

Tracks will not ricochet shells

Miscellaneous items attached to vehicles no longer deal damage to the Hull when shot

Other improvements

Removed exploitable locations on Tanks that tricked the system into thinking the shell was impacting
the rear/side of the Tank

Disabled the ability to reload the Bazooka and Panzerschreck while sprinting

Improved reliability of the correct impact/ricochet FX being played

Increased the repair speed of Blow Torches and Repair Stations

Increased Satchel damage to instantly destroy any vehicle

Removed collision from Tank barrels to eliminate jittery movement

Allowed Satchels to be placed on the Tracks of Tanks

Slightly reduced muzzle smoke produced from Tank barrels when firing

Added new FX for shells that hit but do not penetrate

Adjusted the FX for ricocheting shells to be more distinguishable

Updated vehicle seating UI

Updated vehicle component icons

Adjusted gear speeds to be more uniform

Allowed MGs to deal damage to Trucks

Removed Heavy Tanks from automatic HQ spawns and added a Transport Truck to each HQ

Removed resource cost from HQ spawns

Added SFX when colliding with objects

Added SFX for entering and exiting vehicles

Added SFX for switching seat in vehicles

Updated Tank Engine and Tracks SFX

Updated Turret traverse SFX

Increased duration for entering and exiting Tanks

Increased duration for switching seat in Tanks

Refactored vehicle weapons to support Ballistics

Introduced Smart Materials to the interior and exterior of new and some existing vehicles

Shells no longer travel at a weird offset when firing on uneven terrain

Kayle POV -116&StDb vs 82AD - YouTube

Das Letzte Match von uns vom Summer Cup gegen die 82AD (Engländer)

Es kann einem ja nun auch mal nicht alles gefallen.

Ist aber weit genug von der Milsim entfernt damit es noch richtig Spaß macht.

Würde es als Hardcore Taktik Shooter bezeichnen.

Bis jetzt war es nur auf Testsevern zu Spielen, aber macht schon echt laune.

Leider lässt sich hier ja keine dafür begeistern. Mittlerweile habe ich über 2000 Spielstunden.

Inklusive Clanfights, Deutsche Liga, Internationaler Cup, also was die Community da auf die Beine stellt ist schon klasse!

Developer Briefing #134 - Optimisation, New Look Meta Components and more!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #134!

This week Max and the team have got together to give you some bitesize updates on a few different areas of the game.

From optimisation to particle FX and the addition of new audio and visual meta components we're taking a quick look under the hood!

Make sure you stick around until the end too as we'll be revealing some of the new, free customisation items that you'll be able to unlock in Update 10, as well as sharing with you some more details on the Soviet inventory!

Let's get stuck in shall we...

A Message From Max - Tweaks, Changes and Optimisation!

Hi everyone,

We would like to thank the community for jumping into the PTEs and offering fantastic feedback. It’s great to know what you’re enjoying, and the constructive notes are guiding our continued work - be it gameplay, bug fixing or optimisation. Thanks for working with us to continually improve the coming Update.

We will continue to run PTEs over the next couple of weeks to ensure that we have a stable build for U10. Bug fixing and optimization is always a key focus, and we are doing our best to eliminate as many issues as possible before launching out of Early Access.

We are also keen to reiterate that we will be running more thorough PTEs for future updates, as we feel it’s a great opportunity to iterate on fixes and identify large scale issues.

On a final note, we’d appreciate it if the community joined us in helping keep content from the PTEs under wraps by not streaming, discussing or posting photos of the PTE across any open channel and instead give their feedback in the directed locations. We would prefer to be able to keep running these testing sessions and our ability to keep this content a surprise will have a large impact on whether we continue or not.

Optimisation

Hell Let Loose is a tough beast to optimise! With 100 players and concurrent physics on all vehicles (as well as 10+ multi crewed vehicles per game) - it’s definitely a challenge.

That said, we’re working hard to instance, merge and build HLOD out for all maps - including our new Eastern Front maps. Alongside this, we’re reducing poly and triangle counts, as well as looking at our different settings to see if we can assist lower-end players in squeezing out the best possible performance without compromising gameplay (ostensibly by removing shadows or foliage completely).

So far, our PTE’s have shown increased performance across the board and we still have more to do. Like everything in game development, it’s a tricky balance between visuals and optimisation. As we introduce different LODs within the game we also need to adjust them to maintain as high a quality visual as we can.

Particle FX

Particle FX have been an area that were largely untouched since we began work on Hell Let Loose. We’re currently in the process of onboarding a full time FX artist who will work over the existing FX - including muzzle flashes, ambient fires, back blasts and more. Initially though, we’ve gone through and optimised a huge number of these elements in a way that is visually unnoticeable to the player. That said, you can expect both increased performance gains plus a visual fidelity increase over the coming updates. We especially need to nail these aspects down prior to our Fire update.

New Look and Sound to Map Meta Components

We’re doing a pass on many smaller map elements that are crucial to the meta. These have largely gone untouched for the entire duration of development, and we knew that we needed to revisit them.

Sound

Where appropriate, we’ve attached authentic radio clips from each of the forces to both OPs and Garrisons. This is to enable players to get a sense of proximity to a spawn, as well build the immersion of the battlefield soundscape.

Look

Hell Let Loose has hugely dense maps - visually in terms of realistic battlefield clutter and also in terms of gameplay elements - players, ammo boxes, supply boxes, mines, vehicles and much more. Many of you will also know that the meta of Hell Let Loose largely hinges on the placement and destruction of the OP, Airhead and Garrison spawn points, as well as interacting with other small objects such as ammo boxes. There are many times where even experienced players will come within range of the enemy spawn point, but due to intense clutter or bad luck, will fail to see it until players spawn on it, leading to either a successful attack being thwarted due to their failure to find a small object, or a mass spawn-kill as they mow down the recently spawned players.

Instead, we have been road testing a slight shine on battlefield objects of meta significance to increase decisiveness in attack and defense, as well as increase battlefield awareness (without you needing to constantly toggle the HUD to see icons, or open your map).

The shine only occurs when within 30m of the key object, and is limited to objects that demand crucial player interaction (OP, Garrison, Airhead and Ammo Boxes). You will still need to interact with the objects as you always have - as well as learn the difference in appearance between them.

Size

Spawn points are the bread and butter of Hell Let Loose, and their placement can make the difference between winning and losing. We’ve road tested a smaller OP size that is uniform across all forces. It’s far easier to place in trenches and much less obstructive, and the same sizing means that no force experiences a disadvantage when placing them.

We will be applying the same logic to Garrisons in future updates - both making them easier to place, as well as bearing a similar sized visual signature.

Discord - Join the Community

Over the next couple of weeks we will be making some changes to the Discord. This will essentially be an audit to ensure we have all the correct and up to date information, as well as designated locations for different conversations about the game.

The Discord has grown enormously over time, and as a result we’ll be restructuring elements of it so that each channel functions better and all types of player - for dyed in the wool veterans, those experiencing technical issues, those keen to provide feedback, those looking to group up or join a clan and finally a location where newcomers can feel welcome.

Update 10 Cosmetics & Soviet Inventory Info

Here is a sneak peak at a couple of the new free cosmetics coming to Hell Let Loose. We will be following up on how these items will be unlocked/acquired before U10 launches on July 27th.

More of the Soviet Inventory

Lastly this week, here are a few more items that will be included in the Soviet inventory.

RGD-2

The RGD-2 was a smoke grenade type mass-produced in the Soviet Union. Visually little more than a cardboard tube, it was activated by striking the washer included in the body of the grenade against the ignition match. After a few seconds, smoke would billow from either side of the housing. It was available in a number of different smoke colors, and is still being manufactured today.

RG-42

The RG-42 was a fragmentation grenade of Soviet manufacture. A simplified alternative to the complex stick-type RG-33, the RG-42 was able to be produced in smaller factories and workshops. The smooth cylindrical outer shell contained both the explosive charge and a number of steel sheets designed to fragment on detonation.

POMZ

The POMZ was a type of Soviet anti-personnel mine. A simple fuzed TNT charge with a fragmentation sleeve, the POMZ was attached to a wooden stake and embedded in the ground. It was triggered by tripwire, which could be tied to another stake or otherwise attached to the environment.

Onwards to the weekend!

That wraps up this week's Dev Brief, thanks for stopping by!

As you likely already know we have an incredibly exciting month ahead of us as we gear up to leave Early Access on July 27th and welcome in the arrival of the Eastern Front!

Leaving Early Access heralds the next step for Hell Let Loose and we can't wait to take it with you.

Have a great weekend everyone!

We'll see you on the frontline!

The Soviet Arsenal

Mosin

The Mosin rifle was the main arm of the Soviet Union in the Second World War. A bolt action rifle feeding from a 5 round single stack magazine, it fired the powerful 7.62 by 54 millimeter rimmed cartridge.

The rifle was designed by a commission of Russian arsenal designers, with principal work being contributed by Sergei Mosin. The design for the magazine came from a competing rifle submitted by Leon Nagant, and featured an interruptor to allow the reliable feeding of rimmed ammunition.

The Mosin would prove to be durable enough for combat on the eastern front of both World Wars, though the operating surfaces of the bolt were vulnerable to mud. While not exactly cheap to manufacture, the Soviet Union could field tens of millions numbers of the rifle due to their build-up of tooling machinery.

M91

The original mass-produced variant of the Mosin which served primarily in the First World War, the M91 was the longest of all the Mosins. Its rear sight was rushed into production following a change to spitzer ammunition in the early 1900s, and was somewhat vulnerable to damage.

M91/30

The Mosin rifle was updated in form factor in the years preceding the Second World War. The handier 1891 dragoon model was chosen as the basis of the 91/30, being a couple inches shorter than the original infantry model. The rear sight was also improved, and other than a few minor changes the rest of the rifle remained the same.

M38

An even shorter version of the Mosin, the M38 Carbine was used by engineers, artillery crews, and other troops whose primary duties did not involve frontline combat. Lighter in weight but firing the same ammunition as its full-size brethren, the M38's recoil was correspondingly higher.

M91/30 Sniper

The scoped variant of the M91/30, the sniper variant, had a scope mount on the side of the receiver which accepted either PEM or PU scopes. The bolt handle was bent 90 degrees to clear the scope. They were generally made with tighter tolerances, and were capable of higher precision compared to a standard 91/30. Discerning snipers could attempt to obtain ranging PZ ammunition, which would explode on impact with the target.

SVT-40

The SVT-40 was a Soviet semi-automatic rifle used extensively in World War 2. A short-stroke piston design, the SVT was one of the earliest self-loading rifles fielded in a significant quantity by a major army. It fed from a 10 round magazine and could be loaded with standard stripper clips.

Although reasonably rugged, it was necessarily more complex than traditional bolt-action rifles. Troops in the field complained that it was difficult to maintain and susceptible to mud.

The large mass of moving parts in the forend of the rifle and the poorly bedded barrel caused it to bounce when fired, negatively affecting accuracy. PU scopes were mounted to SVTs, though the bedding issue would stop production of these marksman's SVTs by mid-war.

The SVT was intended to be mass issued in large numbers. However the high casualties and equipment losses early in the war forced the rapid refitting of the Red Army, something the simpler Mosin was more suited to. The SVT would serve in a gradually diminishing capacity until production stopped in early 1945. The additional firepower provided was not seen to be worth the additional complexity at the time.

Onwards to the free weekend!

That wraps up this week's Dev Brief!

It's going to be a busy weekend on the battlefields of Hell Let Loose and we hope you all have an awesome one!

Once again welcome to all our new players and also thank you to our existing community for being so welcoming - you rock!

We'll see you on the frontline.

Developer Briefing #133 - Steam Free Weekend, Stalingrad, SMDM & Soviet Rifles!

Hey everyone,

Welcome to Dev Brief #133!

This week we've got a big one featuring a Steam Free Weekend and sale, new Stalingrad information and screenshots, plus an update on Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont and a look at the Soviet Rifle arsenal that you'll be wielding from July 27th!

Before we dive in though we just want to say a huge WELCOME
to all the new players joining us from both the free weekend and the sale - we hope you have an awesome time! We're humbled to have an amazing community here, so don't be shy, say hi when you jump into a unit and make some frontline friends.

Now let's get stuck in shall we...

WELCOME TO HELL LET LOOSE!

Free Weekend

That’s right, HLL is free to play this weekend!

Welcome to all our new players. We will be available for you to enjoy Hell Let Loose for free from 6pm BST today until 6pm BST Monday.

We highly recommend joining the community on our OFFICIAL DISCORD where you can stay up to date with all things HLL, and get support from the community as a new player!

We also recommend taking a quick scroll through our announcements & Developer Briefings. Here you will see we are committed to our development through weekly ongoing communication. You can also see what content we have planned for our next update.

Check them out here!

Steam Summer Sale

In addition to the free weekend Hell Let Loose is -25% Off during the Steam Summer Sale.

Please note: This will be the final opportunity to get HLL at a discounted price before we leave Early Access!

Hell Let Loose

6. Juni 2019
ActionShooter2. WeltkriegMehrspielerFPS

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€
22,49€

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ICYMI - A message from our Lead Developer Max, on Leaving Early Access

Hi everybody,

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be leaving Early Access with the launch of Update 10 in the coming weeks and the introduction of the Soviet forces. For us, it represents the solidification of several foundational elements for the game. We know that there will be many questions around us leaving Early Access and what that might mean for the future of the title.

Don’t worry - as you’ll discover below this represents the completion of some key infrastructure beneath the hood - including finalising workflows that will enable us to work far more efficiently in the future. You’ll also see that we’ve got huge things planned for the game that we’ll talk through below.

Our Goals During Early Access

Hell Let Loose is an epic journey for both the whole development team and community.

Beginning in 2015 as a hobby, we’ve both expanded and learned so much during the development of Hell Let Loose.

When launching into Early Access, we had several key goals to accomplish during the period:

We knew that there were several fundamental infrastructure overhauls that we’d need to achieve during the period in order to make sure we were best set up to support the title well beyond our Early Access period. Our animation system required more than 50 handmade animations per item, our texturing systems meant both our vehicles and weapons were so expensive on VRAM usage that they needed to be crushed in quality, and there was a total absence of ballistics in-game - to name just a few significant absences or issues.

On top of this, we also wanted to build out the core offering of maps, roles and vehicles - and expand and polish Commander abilities.

Lastly, we also wanted to expand the size of the studio and bring on new team members who could join us in refining and building Hell Let Loose long term.

For us, Update 10 represents the success of these initial goals and our leaving Early Access. All underlying infrastructure in the game has been rewritten for much easier iteration, expansion and optimisation and were used to help us introduce the all-new Soviet forces to the game.

............

You can read the rest of Max’s message here, explaining our decision to leave Early Access and how the future is shaping up HERE!

Update 10 Maps!

We have already shown off a bit of Kursk, one of our new maps coming along with the Soviet’s in Update 10. Now we take a quick look at Stalingrad.

Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was a nearly 6-month long engagement on the Eastern Front. German high command had pushed toward the River Volga in a bid to capture the strategic city, but found their progress slowed significantly once inside. One of the bloodiest battles of the war, Stalingrad alone accounted for more than a million combined casualties on both sides.

As combat progressed from the suburbs into the industrial sectors, with constant Luftwaffe bombing turning many buildings to rubble. Unfortunately for the Germans, these bombed out ruins were a perfect hiding place for ambushers and required savage room-to-room fighting to clear out. Soviet strategy was to fight the Germans as close in as possible, so as to limit their ability to use artillery or air support.

Some larger buildings which managed to survive the constant shelling would be built up as fortresses by the men who occupied them. One such building, known affectionately as Pavlov's House, became famous for outlasting a two-month siege while protecting the Russian-held Volga behind.

Ultimately, the success of the Soviet operations in the winter of 1942 would cut the German supply lines and leave their army surrounded in Stalingrad. The Germans continued to hold their portion of the city and attempted to break out toward friendly lines for another few months, but would eventually collapse and surrender from lack of supply in 1943.

Stalingrad is a very unique map amongst the existing Hell Let Loose rotation. While urban, the nature of the way the city was built allowed for long, wide roads and larger, spread-out buildings. The result is a mixture of key vertical locations (atop apartment buildings or smaller brick office blocks), open fields of fire across roads and destroyed city blocks, and dense room to room fighting in the factories and workshops. Vehicles are extremely potent due to long sight lines, while infantry have the ability to manoeuvre amongst the rubble.

Back to Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont

We have already talked about the SMDM overhaul in Dev Brief #131, but we thought it was worth mentioning again as we know the community loves this map.

Additionally one of our community members, Sam_15_SVK
, has made some comparisons to the old vs new SMDM. We thought it was fantastic and worth sharing.

You can check them out HERE!

SMDM - A Brief History

The area around the village of Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont, in the Normandy region of France, was the site of many frantic skirmishes on the morning of June 6, 1944. Soldiers of the American 101st Airborne were assigned to secure the routes inland from the beaches, and eliminate any artillery batteries which could threaten the coming amphibious landing. Loading into C-47 transport planes, the men would parachute in zones radar-designated by Pathfinder teams sent in advance of the main wave.

The paratroopers and their transport crew had trained ceaselessly for the operation. Yet, as the planes flew over the mainland, trouble began to arise for the men of the 101st. Flak fire from the anti-aircraft batteries tore the sky asunder. Heavy could cover and the darkness of night obscured the landing zones, and the radar transponders malfunctioned. Many flights were blown off course, and many more had to drop their cargo blind into the darkness below. Cockpits shaking from Flak fire, the pilots could only pray that the paratroopers made it to the ground safely.

Fortunately, most of the 101st were unharmed in the landings. Often scattered and out of position, they would have to wander in the darkness as they worked to regroup their forces and begin to accomplish their assigned tasks. A workable number of soldiers had been assembled by dawn, and at around 8:30 A.M. First Lieutenant Richard D. “Dick” Winters, took a dozen men to destroy the artillery battery at Brecourt Manor.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, the battery was destroyed without incident. Similar operations in the area assisted the soldiers landing at Utah beach, who had made significant headway inland. Armor arriving from Utah would finally swing the battle for Saint-Marie-Du-Mont in favor of the 101st, and the village would be taken by the end of the day.

Hey everyone,

Today we're pleased to share with you all that Hell Let Loose will be leaving Steam Early Access on July 27th, heralding the arrival of the Eastern Front and the Soviet Army.

To mark the announcement, Lead Developer Max sat down to share a few words on how we've got to where we are today, including a first look at a small part of our Early Access launch trailer:

The full trailer will be coming soon...

If you're particularly interested in the trailer tease you can watch that part straight away below:

Yep, that's Stalingrad!

Naturally this is a big step for Hell Let Loose, and the next one on our continued journey that we're excited to take. To go into more detail and hopefully answer any questions you may have, Lead Developer Max shared some thoughts and details in Dev Brief #131 which I've brought across for anyone that may have missed it.

A Message From Max - Leaving Early Access and Welcome to the Eastern Front

Hi everybody,

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be leaving Early Access with the launch of Update 10 in the coming weeks and the introduction of the Soviet forces. For us, it represents the solidification of several foundational elements for the game. We know that there will be many questions around us leaving Early Access and what that might mean for the future of the title. Don’t worry - as you’ll discover below this represents the completion of some key infrastructure beneath the hood - including finalising workflows that will enable us to work far more efficiently in the future. You’ll also see that we’ve got huge things planned for the game that we’ll talk through below.

Our Goals During Early Access

Hell Let Loose is an epic journey for both the whole development team and community.

Beginning in 2015 as a hobby, we’ve both expanded and learned so much during the development of Hell Let Loose.

When launching into Early Access, we had several key goals to accomplish during the period:

We knew that there were several fundamental infrastructure overhauls that we’d need to achieve during the period in order to make sure we were best set up to support the title well beyond our Early Access period. Our animation system required more than 50 handmade animations per item, our texturing systems meant both our vehicles and weapons were so expensive on VRAM usage that they needed to be crushed in quality, and there was a total absence of ballistics in-game - to name just a few significant absences or issues.

On top of this, we also wanted to build out the core offering of maps, roles and vehicles - and expand and polish Commander abilities.

Lastly, we also wanted to expand the size of the studio and bring on new team members who could join us in refining and building Hell Let Loose long term.

For us, Update 10 represents the success of these initial goals and our leaving Early Access. All underlying infrastructure in the game has been rewritten for much easier iteration, expansion and optimisation and were used to help us introduce the all-new Soviet forces to the game.

Why leave Early Access?

As developers, we’re aware of every issue within the game - both technical, bug or features that could be polished, changed or refined. We’d be happy to stay in Early Access for several more years, however as part of our original commitment we felt that it’s important to draw a line under what we’d consider to be the “base game”.

As mentioned above, Early Access represented a time for us to implement huge infrastructure overhauls to the underlying code of the game - including entirely reworking our animation, sound effects, ballistics, mapping and texturing pipeline in a way that means our future work is far easier to adapt, optimise and expand.

We are also aware that every player will have their own feeling about what would be considered critical to achieve before leaving Early Access - and that there won’t necessarily be consensus. That said, it’s important to reassure the community as a whole that this is the end of the first foundational stage of our development.

Lastly, leaving Early Access will help us as a studio to continue to work on and support Hell Let Loose well into the future.

When will we leave Early Access?

We will be leaving Early Access with the launch of Update 10. We will be doing a special announcement this Sunday with the exact date as well as first teaser footage of the second unrevealed map and our new Eastern Front trailer.

Are you leaving Early Access because of the console development?

No. Many Early Access games stay in Early Access while also launching on console.

Will you honour Kickstarter Backers pledges?

Yes. We are fully committed to honouring these pledges and will be following up with specific backers. For example, we are currently testing one of the kickstarter uniform rewards in the PTE.

Does this mean the meta or “feature/bug I don’t like” will never be fixed or changed?

No. Hell Let Loose is an enormous game with hundreds of features that all need to coexist and all will continue to be refined or changed as we always have.

New content will continue to shift the meta towards our ultimate vision for the title. For example, the introduction of halftracks will shift the way in which teams stage attacks into enemy territory, while the new armour rework will shift the power of AT from the straight destruction of vehicles to component damage.

Does this mean that updates and work will slow down or end on Hell Let Loose?

No. This simply represents another milestone in our development journey. We will be releasing a roadmap soon to outline what you can expect to see in the future. This roadmap will include large amounts of content underpinned by continued polish, fixes, balancing and optimisations.

The future includes:

Addition of new Western and Eastern Front maps

Continued polish on all existing maps

Addition of new forces and theatres

Addition of new vehicles eg. halftracks, jeeps, heavy tanks, assault guns, specialist variants etc.

Addition of new weapons eg. trench guns, flamethrowers, mortars, FG-42 and many more

Addition of new gadgets and features (night maps, flare guns etc.)

Expansion of types of deployable emplacements (HMGs, AA guns etc.)

Expansion and continued balancing of Commander abilities

Campaign mode to tie public matches together

Solo and grouped matchmaking

And much, much more.

Thank You

Fundamentally, World War Two is an enormous conflict, with thousands of different aspects worth exploring. As a development team, we’re fully committed to continuing to work together with the community to build on this core foundation of Hell Let Loose well into the future. We’re very excited to have you on the journey with us!

Onwards to the Eastern Front!

That wraps up today's announcement!

Thank you all so much for your continued support and we'll see you later in the week for Dev Brief #132!

See you on the frontline.