Hey everyone,
Welcome to Developer Briefing #116!
This week's one is slightly earlier than usual as we've just put our new PTE app live!
Please note whilst the app is a permanent addition to Hell Let Loose, it will only be 'active' during certain times windows which we'll advertise here on Steam, Discord and our social media channels.
I'll pass you over now to Spono who'll explain all:
Using the HLL Public Testing App!
Today we're launching our Hell Let Loose Public testing app. This is a separate application in your Steam library that you’ll need to download in order to participate in the PTE. Servers will be made available during testing periods only. We’ll announce these times in the HLL official Discord.
The PTE on the EU servers will commence at approximately 11AM GMT Thursday 25th of February, and will run until approximately 8PM GMT (we’ll do an announcement when servers go online). We’ll then switch over and continue the PTE on US servers, where testing will continue from approximately 3PM till 11PM, Eastern Time USA.
Feedback Form
Please use THIS FORM for feedback during and specific to the PTE -
What we are testing:
- The stability and utility of this new public testing app
- Weapon zeroing
- Melee (animations are WIP and are yet to be updated and finalised)
- Changes to the Garrison placement meta (red zone Garrisons)
- Partial reload (ability to discontinue a reload beyond a critical points and still be functionally reloaded)
- UI changes
- VOIP stability fixes, including a reconnect button in the Options menu
- Weapon material overhaul
- Weapon sight picture overhaul (cleaned up and standardised a lot of the sizing and sight cleanliness, geometry and colours).
- Grass optimization, longer cull distances and quicker loading times
- MG34 (animations are WIP and are yet to be updated and finalised)
- New sniper rifle non-blurry optics
- Utah Beach US and German Offensive modes
- Barbed wire functionality
- Gamepad and controller support
- General increased game optimization
- New loadouts for the MG, Commander, Tank Commander and Sniper roles
- Vehicle gameplay experience, including weapon effectiveness, traction and vehicle handling
Please note: this is not the full changelist for U9, it is what we are keen to focus community attention on.
Maps in the PTE roster
- Utah Beach Offensive US
- Utah Beach Offensive Germany
- Foy Warfare
- Hurtgen Warfare
- Carentan Warfare
VOIP
We are continuing to improve the in game VIVOX/VOIP experience. If you do have VOIP issues during the PTE, try the reconnect function in the game menu under Audio and let us know in the PTE feedback form. With your feedback we ask that you please provide as much information as possible, including which server, which map, time and date. Also include if you noticed other people also being affected by the same issue as you, and if you used the reconnect option, if it worked or not.
Sound
Lots of general sound improvements to test, but particular things to listen out for are:
- Community Voice over acting - Wilhelm scream
- Footsteps and movement
- New BAR sound
Servers
We will be testing and observing server stability and performance during the test. If you notice any server issues such as rubber banding and or loss of connection, please let us know in the PTE Feedback form.
Game UI
We have made some significant changes to our UI and HUD as we look to future proof the layout and fix scaling issues for more unorthodox resolutions. Upcoming features and QOL improvements are all part of this. This means there may be bugs related to the UI. We have tried to address as many as we can so it’s playable for the PTE, but please report any UI issues you see.
Player XP
For this PTE all XP levels will be reset as if you are a new player. This does not mean you lose your XP for the Public build of the game, this is just a chance for us to see if any issues are present for new players. In future PTEs we will likely max out the XP level so all loadouts and cosmetics are unlocked and testable. This also means that initially there will be no Commanders, as it requires level 10.
Public Testing vs LIVE Game user settings
There is an issue where launching the PTE will override your .ini files for the base game. This means any selections you’ve made in the Barracks will be reverted to the defaults.
This does not reset any of your progression - only what you have selected.
To prevent your .ini files from being overridden whenever you launch the PTE, we recommend setting a new .ini directory for the PTE build.
STEPS
- Right click Hell Let Loose (Public Testing) in your Steam Library
- Click Properties
- Under Launch Options add “-UserDir=”
Note: Exclude the quotation marks and replace with a suitable directory. The image below provides an example directory of using the user’s AppData folder. Please do not use this example without first replacing the username.
Please note
- Extra drive space will be required (approximately 23 gb)
- Access to the servers will be on a first come first served basis and will be limited to 3 servers / 300 players at a time.
- XP will not be saved during the PTE.
- Achievements will not be able to be obtained.
A Reminder
This PTE build is taken from our live development environment for Update 9, so may include significant bugs or issues that are being currently worked on. We ask you to please report any and all bugs and other issues you may encounter.
Is there an NDA?
While we’re not forcing a strict NDA, we’d greatly appreciate it if you would help us build up to the release by not streaming or broadly sharing content from the test app.
This app has been designed and distributed to assist us in testing and to get your direct and specific feedback about the coming Update. It has not been designed as a marketing tool, and as you can imagine we’d much prefer not to broadly distribute media of content that is a work in progress.
That wraps this week's Dev Brief!
For those of you who take part in today's PTE test - We look forward to reading through your thoughts and feedback.
See you on the frontline