Hey everyone,
Welcome to Dev Brief #98!
Today we're going to be talking about some more cool new features coming in Update 8, some of which are a direct result of you sharing your thoughts on teamwork and team composition with us.
Lead Developer Max will be going into full detail below, and make sure to stick around until the around for some brand new Hurtgen Forest overhaul images and more...
A Message From Max - Unit Designation
Hi everyone,
We’re preparing for a series of weeks where we’ll be deep diving into some of the largest changes coming in Update 8. In the meantime, we wanted to touch on something rather small, but that will have a relatively significant impact on team coordination and communication.
Unit Designation
We’ve received brilliant feedback from the community about the need to allow Officers to broadcast to the team what the function of their unit is. Currently in Hell Let Loose, the only information available is the unit name (which we keep consistent to allow for each inter-unit identification) and the type of unit it is (Infantry, Armoured or Recon).
The design of Hell Let Loose has always been a constant tension between keeping things functionally as simple as possible while allowing players to specialise into all manner of roles - both individually and as a unit. The community has often asked for specific unit types (artillery, logistics etc). While we totally agree with the principle of this, we’ve been very reticent to introduce more and more unit types, as the ruleset and architecture behind each is very specific and is delineated to make the code side of things as simple as possible.
That said, we’ve long recognised the need to allow Officers to let the rest of the team know that they’re focused on a particular task - especially so that the Commander is able to get a sense of the resources at their disposal.
Therefore, in Update 8 we’re implementing the ability to mark your unit in the deployment menu with several key designations to better quickly let your team know what your intended role on the battlefield is.
You can now select two different options:
1. You are a VOIP only unit. By toggling this, you will be indicating to the players who join the unit that they are expected to use a microphone.
2. Unit designation. This can be set at different points in the battle by your Officer. Clicking the little arrow will open up a choice of four different designations - Offensive, Defensive, Logistics and Artillery.
We feel that these additions to the UI will serve a key purpose in giving the team a much greater sense of coordination, as well as allowing mic-using players to specifically group together.
While we have designed much of Hell Let Loose to be playable without a mic, we strongly suggest that all players use one in order to have the best experience possible.
Coming Soon
Update 8 is set to be another huge update. In the coming weeks we’ll be deep diving on some meaty changes to the game, including:
- Rework of resource nodes to play a specific function on the battlefield (not just something to hide!) explosion SFX and FX overhaul.
- Deep dive into adjusted bullet damage when it comes to being hit in the extremities and how we’re looking at weapon balance while preserving a fast TTK.
- New Engineer deployables, hammers and the ability to upgrade fortifications. We’ll also be addressing how these are destroyable.
- Transport truck and Supply truck functionality
- Hurtgen Forest overhaul (we’ve kept the topography of Hurtgen Forest, but introduced a lot more cover, but also more clear sight lines).
- Large scale optimisations
- New customisation options
- An expanded level cap and ways we’ll acknowledge your level in-game
Hurtgen Forest Overhaul - New Images
Now an update on the Hurtgen Forest overhaul...
Teamwork makes the dream work!
That wraps up this week's Developer Briefing!
We hope you liked your first look at Unit Designations and how we're further empowering teamwork on the frontline. Finally Commanders, you'll know exactly who your Arty crew are and Arty crews, you can wear your unit badge with pride!
Those of you who paid close attention to the 'Coming Soon' bullet points will have noticed some more content reveals, we'll be talking about all of those in our upcoming Dev Briefs - so if you have a question you'd like answered on anything in that list let us know and it might well get answered when the time comes!
Have a great weekend everyone!
See you on the frontline.