Hey everyone,
Welcome to Developer Briefing #154!
Another week has passed and another dev brief has arrived. It seems we are edging closer and closer to the end of the year! Not only does this bring many celebrations on a festive level but it also brings us closer to the launch of Update 11!
In this week's brief we are taking a moment to reflect on what we've learnt from the recent PTEs.
PTE Reflection
So far we’ve held 3 PTEs for players to jump in and test the new content that’ll be coming in Update 11. Along with all the bug reports and feedback submitted, the team has been having an absolute blast jumping in-game with you all and hearing first hand your initial reactions. With the feedback you submitted we’ve been able to iterate on a number of both new and pre-existing aspects of the game.
Armoured Warfare
During the initial PTEs we understood that players found the mobility of the new German medium tank (Panzer IV) left much to be desired when compared to Panther. Refining vehicle physics in UE4 is no easy feat due to their complexity, especially when it comes to tracked vehicles like we have in HLL.
That being said, we went back to the drawing board and implemented a set of ‘experimental’ values for the Panzer IV that greatly boosted its ability to turn quickly and perform rotations in tight areas using the lower gears. Other than a few minor kinks the results have come out looking very positive and player feedback reflects the same sentiment.
In addition to tweaking new content we’ve also made some changes to existing content, specifically in relation to the current meta. With Update 11 we’ve increased the fuel cost of fielding heavy tanks and reduced the damage output of recon vehicles. We expect these changes to result in teams utilizing medium tanks in their armour lineup more often, leaving heavy tanks as a reward for efficiently utilizing resources and protecting their fielded crews while recon vehicles pose a lesser threat due to their reduction in damage against armoured targets. The balancing of armoured warfare will continue to be an area that we monitor and tweak as necessary, looking at other variables such as cooldowns, reload times, turret traverse times and more.
Trench Gun
Those of you who participated in the PTEs will know that the Trench Gun has to be one of the most satisfying weapons to use. Being effective at both mid and close range engagements, the Trench Gun is a surprisingly versatile tool great for clearing out trenches while leaving a trail of blood and gore, or dropping foes in rapid succession with the ability to rapidly pump shells one after the other.
Based on player feedback from initial PTEs we increased the firing rate and mid-ranged damage of the Trench Gun to provide a more enjoyable experience that didn’t feel like you were greatly disadvantaged in every scenario where you weren't 10 meters from your target.
Overall we’re very happy with how well the gun feels and performs in a live environment and we can’t wait to include a wider variety of weapons to the HLL arsenal.
Some Community “Tank You’s”
We have seen various community guides and information portals revealing lots of great insight into Hell Let Loose. This week we thought we would mention a couple of sites specific to armour and tanks in HLL. We saw them to be well thought out, with a lot of work going into the sites. So if you get a spare few minutes, feel free to take a look.
https://theline.gg/tankbible
https://icilia95.wixsite.com/tankopedia
Best clips of 2021 from HLL War Correspondents
This brief and the next will see us Spotlighting our War Correspondents and the videos they make. We are very grateful to have a great team of War Correspondents that are happy to produce such great content for you and us to all enjoy and absorb.
As we are now heading towards the end of the year we thought it would be fitting to showcase some ‘best of’ clips to revisit and if you have not seen before, sit back and enjoy.
If you see a Video you like make sure to post in the Discord #hll-videos channel.
Hell Let Loose: For The Medics - Gebatron Gaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJxNPiRoSC4
The Best Moments of Hell Let Loose - Terrydactyl Gaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmYZFcssaRs
BRECOURT | Hell Let Loose | Band Of Brothers | Cinematic Short Film - Nox Cinematic
https://youtu.be/Q3OBMJ2Xm4c
Community Content
We continue to see some great content from the Hell Let Loose community members showcased in the official HLL discord. Separate from the dedicated team of ‘War Correspondents’ the HLL general community comprises every person who is involved with HLL (That means you aswell!).
Let's take a look at some of the fantastic screenshots and artwork that the community has contributed to the HLL official discord.
[233C] Chrysallia Van Cheems - Tank push on Foy
[Void Vizn] Remembrance day Poster 2021
The HLL Seasonal Final is here - November 21. If you are curious about competitive gaming with HLL, we recommend you give it a watch.
Don’t forget that if you haven’t checked out the other Hell Let Loose socials you should do so. Like our discord you will find them great places for information and community interaction.
Join the Discord here https://discord.gg/hellletloose
Our other social platforms can be found here:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HellLetLoose/
Twitter https://twitter.com/hell_let_loose
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/HellLetLoose
Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/HellLetLoose/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hellletlooseofficial/
Steam http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HellLetLoose
Well, it seems we are out of ammunition for this week. Time head back to the armoury and reload. See you all next week on the frontline!