So what’s new since ALPHA?
Firstly we want to introduce you all to our Hurtgen Forest map. Hurtgen Forest is one of the most dense maps in Hell Let Loose – set in the famous sprawling pine forest, it’s carved up by a weaving network of muddy forest trails and natural choke-points that will force armor to a crawl. Deforested clearings make great places to establish firing positions and the dense forest forces infantry into close quarters combat. Hurtgen is perhaps the most technically challenging map so far – with over 80,000 pine trees we’ve worked hard with our friends at Team17 to optimise as much as possible, and we’ll be using this map to establish bench-marking on both server performance and load, net-code performance and load and graphics optimisation. Our philosophy in developing Hell Let Loose is to try and use each map to present a different challenge where different styles of play are naturally stronger or weaker according to the environment. For instance, Hurtgen will force tanks to proceed very cautiously (as they did in the actual battle!) whereas a map like Sainte-Marie-du-Mont or Foy will provide open stretches of field for easy manoeuvring.
Don’t worry though – we will be returning to an overhauled Sainte-Marie-du-Mont soon in further planned Beta periods leading up to Early Access.
- Improved player movement system – Re-enabled strafe sprint and added strafe gun tilt and various effects to make movement feel more organic.
- Strong Points – Strong Points are single significant locations in each sector that double the capturing or defending power of each player within them. While you can still capture a sector from anywhere within it, Strong Points provide a location that a defending force can fortify and secure against attackers. It provides a way for us to give some focus to the battles that rage for the sector – allowing both attackers and defenders to bring their artillery, mines, fortifications, armor and other weapons to bear in an attempt to wrest control. This is to correct a significant issue we discovered in the Alpha – where defenders often could be bypassed entirely by an attacking force – creating disparate, strange and unsatisfying game-play where the enemy was often all around you – as opposed to tactically trying to break through your line.
- New weapon animations – Across the majority of weapons.
- Dismemberment – Heavy weapons will dismember.
- Player controlled artillery – An artillery battery is available in the HQ sectors for teams to rain hell onto the battlefield at real scale. Taken from munitions resource.
- Map Size – We know there are ongoing discussions around this, so we want to give some quick insight as to why we have made the decision to keep the narrower (1.2km wide) 3 sector wide front-line. Our Closed Alpha testing provided a chance for us to test some fundamental meta-game design decisions early in the development process. After playing, we realised that the breadth of the map broke several key game-play aspects that are crucial to creating a World War Two experience – one that is defined by a tangible front-line and the tug of war over territory. Put simply – when the map was 2km wide, our player density on the front line was lowered to 5 players per 200m when every single player was on the front line and playing infantry. After introducing artillery, AT guns, armor and numerous other non-front line related roles and functions, the best case scenario was significantly lower – leading to battles of very few players for enormous pieces of territory – or even worse – both teams bypassing each other and racing to the others base. The size of the landscape meant that artillery would struggle to make a meaningful impact, tanks and other vehicles would often be alone and infantry battles would comprise of only a few soldiers. Players could lay mines and the enemy would be able to easily bypass them. As you can imagine, that is a critical issue when trying to emulate the highly iconic front line warfare of World War Two and an even bigger issue when we manage to make a 50 vs 50 experience feel smaller than a 12 player game.
We have tested the current size thoroughly alongside the new Strong Points and have found that the meta-game and general experience now mirrors an epic World War Two struggle – with a tangible front line that rewards tactically astute players for breaking through and creates interesting strategic decisions for both teams as they approach different terrain, fortifications, bottle-necks and killing fields.
- Engineer role and fortifications – You can place the following fortifications with your wrench tool:
Razorwire of various sizes
Sandbags
Dragon’s Teeth
Czech Hedgehog
Belgian Gate
Vehicle Repair Station
- Deployables – AT mine and AP mine
- Anti-tank Role – Bazooka, Panzerschreck and deployable crewed AT Gun (Pak40 or 57mm M1)
- Tanks – The Panther and Sherman tanks will be the key vehicles we are testing during Beta, with more troop transport varieties coming soon.
Tanks will be a force to be reckoned with as we have realistic PhysX
Driver has hull MG
Gunner can use AP or HE3 man crew
Three man crews: Driver, Gunner, Tank Commander
- Armoured roles – armoured vehicles can only be crewed by specific armor-focused roles (the Crewman and the Tank Commander).
- Machine gunner bi-pod deployment and bracing functionality – Can brace fire by holding right click and can now deploy on any hard object for accurate fire.
- Sounds – Updated weapon sounds. Sound design is important to us and this will be an ongoing focus. All sounds in Beta are a continuing work in progress.
- New look Garrison and OPs – We now have a watch mechanic for deploying spawn points. This design decision was made in order to streamline deployment design so that a new player is able to pull out their watch, right click select either the OPÂ or Garrison and hold left click to place.
- Smoke – Fire large smoke shells using the Artillery, or throw a couple of smoke grenades using the Medic or Spotter roles.
- Graphics and Net-code Optimisation – A huge and continuing amount of optimisations to the net-code and graphics should ensure you have a much smoother play experience than our Closed-Alpha. These optimisations will continue all the way to Early Access and beyond.
- Resources – We will be looking at the total number of resources won and lost in order to make sure they make a tactical and strategic impact on the flow of battle.
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