PTE 14.8 | British Rework Part 2 | Now Live!

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Hello everyone,

Public testing is now underway for Patch 14.8 – British Forces Rework Part 2. This is the final part of the rework, with our focus shifting to Update 15 after 14.8’s release.

This testing period will run over the weekend, closing off at 2 pm GMT on February 12th. 

PTE 14.8 will feature seven maps in rotation across Warfare and Skirmish modes. Our goal for this testing period is to gather your feedback on the latest iteration of Skirmish – thanks to your feedback – on Driel and El-Alamein. In addition, we want your thoughts on how the new tanks function in Warfare; the historical accuracy of upcoming DLC and your impressions on some new weapons.

Please continue to read for an extensive look at PTE 14.8. You can find the Feedback Forms at the bottom of the page.

Thank you, as always, for taking the time to participate in our public testing environments – helping us shape Hell Let Loose for the better.

Next week, you can expect to see a Dev Brief on Mortain – covering changes stemming from your feedback.



Server Rotation:

• El-Alamein - Warfare - Day
  
• Driel - Warfare - Day
  
• El-Alamein - Skirmish - Day & Dusk
  
• Driel - Skirmish - Day, Dusk & Night

Skirmish Mode Updates
Based on the community sentiment feedback from our previous round of Skirmish PTEs on El-Alamein & Driel for the ‘Phased’ & ‘Majority’ modes, combined with the feedback we had received from the Foy & Kharkov ‘Seeding’ mode PTE’s, we have settled on refining the core gameplay loop first for the aforementioned ‘Seeding’ mode before branching out into other modes.

‘Seeding’ has also been rebranded as ‘Control', the decision behind this was to rebrand it into a title that is more fitting for the type of gameplay loop involved.

For 14.8 we will be releasing to you the first ‘Control’ maps under the ‘Skirmish' umbrella: El-Alamein, and Driel, with the potential to explore and refine alternative modes and mechanics in the future.

Since the last PTE, the following adjustments have been made all Control mode maps:

• The match timer has been reduced from 45 minutes down to 33 minutes, which includes the warm-up timer.
  
• The warm-up timer at the beginning of a match has been adjusted to 3 minutes to match Warfare/Offensive.
  
• Overtime that exists in Offensive mode has been implemented. If a team is capturing the objective when the timer hits zero, they then have until their manpower resource depletes to zero to capture the point.

To allow players to begin the match on an equal footing, the following changes have been implemented:

• Each faction now has a set of pre-placed nodes at each HQ, to provide enough Commander resources when the match starts.
  
• Each faction now has one medium-sized tank pre-placed at a HQ from the beginning, to allow the Armour squad to jump straight into the action without relying on a Commander. Each subsequent tank will have to be spawned in via a Commander as usual.

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts on these adjustments, ahead of release.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

El-Alamein (Skirmish) - Oasis Capture Point
With Oasis being the central capture point on the map, it sits right in the heart of our talented Environment Art’s piece of map refresh work, so we decided to make that the centre of attention for Skirmish Mode. The mixture of high, open elevation juxtaposed with the ruined compounds provide an interesting battle ahead which should cater to most playstyles.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

Driel (Skirmish) - Underpass Capture Point
With Skirmish - Control’s focus on a single capture point, we wanted to utilise an area of the map that catered to multiple playstyles, with a myriad of approaches to gain control of the area.

To accomplish this, we created a custom capture point just north of the traditional “South Railway” objective in Warfare and Offensive, allowing players to fight over the “Underpass”. To enhance this area we placed additional train cars to block overly long sightlines straight down the railway tracks, as well as increasing the foliage and defensive structures along the embankments and surrounding the underpass itself.

Kienan Southern - Junior Level Designer, Expression Games

British Rework - Second Instalment
As a design team, we wanted the HLL community to help shape this second installment of the British rework by choosing the tank to replace the Cromwell in North Africa. The public vote showed a clear winner and development began on the Crusader Mk III, which will be available in El-Alamein for players to get hands-on with during this PTE.

The previous improvements that came with part one of the British rework allowed us to take a deeper look into the historical accuracy within the faction and continue to build on what we started. Tweaks to existing loadouts have been made across both British factions, replacing some weapons (like the Pattern 1914 Sniper) with more fitting, historically accurate choices for the theatre and the time.

With these changes to the loadouts and the addition of new uniforms, weapons and tanks, 14.8 is helping to shape the faction into being the iconic WW2 force that many from the HLL community are so familiar with.

Jack Jenkins - Game Designer, Expression Games

Patch 14.8 PTE Changelog
Patch 14.8 includes the second instalment of the British rework, complete with new loadouts, uniforms, and vehicles for the North African (8th Army) & European Theatres.

General Changes

• Introduction of the British Airborne Uniform (Paid DLC)
  
• Introduction of the Polish Parachute Brigade Uniform (Paid DLC)
  
• Introduction of the British 8th Army ‘Near Miss’ Helmets (Free DLC)

New British Forces Weapons

• Gammon Bomb (No.82 Grenade) - European Theatre: the Gammon Bomb (No.82 Grenade) will be available to the Anti-Tank Ambusher, and Engineer Field Engineer loadouts.
  
• Sten Mk V - European Theatre: the Sten Mk V will be available to the Officer Standard Issue, Assault Standard Issue, Anti-Tank Ambusher, Engineer Field Engineer and Spotter Standard Issue loadouts.
  
• No.4 Mk I Sniper - European Theatre: the No.4 Mk I Sniper will be available to both Sniper Standard Issue and Veteran loadouts - North African Theatre: the No.4 Mk I Sniper will be available to both Sniper Standard Issue and Veteran loadouts.
  
• Thompson 1928A1 Horizontal Grip Drum Mag - European Theatre: the Thompson 1928A1 Horizontal Grip Drum Mag will be available to the existing Assault Raider loadout and to the new Automatic Rifleman Drum Gunner loadout.
  
• Thompson 1928A1 Horizontal Grip Stick Mag - European Theatre: the Thompson 1928A1 Horizontal Grip Stick Mag will be available to the Commander Standard Issue and Assault Veteran loadouts.

New British Forces Tanks

• Churchill Mk VII (Heavy Tank) | European Theatre - playable on Driel Warfare
  
• Crusader Mk III (Medium Tank) | North African Theatre - playable on El-Alamein Warfare/Skirmish
  
• M3 Stuart ‘Honey’ (Light Tank) | North African Theatre - playable El-Alamein Warfare

Work In Progress
These PTE sessions are a way for you as a community to feedback on Hell Let Loose work in progress, which means we can look to implement your feedback before a patch or update is released. Although we can currently only hold public testing sessions on Steam, we encourage everyone to take part to be able to share feedback.

Known Issues
For today’s session, there are a list of unfinished items/bugs that we’re aware of, including:

• The game may crash after the timer ends on El-Alamein Skirmish.
  
• On the enlist screen, all servers state the gamemode as ‘Warfare’ (even though it may be ‘Offensive’ or ‘Skirmish’) and only updates once the user has visited said server.
  
• ‘Driel - Day’ has the same icon on the enlist screen as 'Driel - Dusk'.
  
• ‘El-Alamein - Skirmish - Day’ loading screen has incorrect text.
  
• Some Skirmish hints may not contain the final text.
  
• Within Skirmish Maps, some pre-placed nodes may not be visible, however, resources will still correctly increase every minute - the base rate is 50/min for every resource. Reloading into the server resolves this, but is not necessary.
  
• The M3 Stuart ‘Honey’ is missing player collision on its turret.
  
• The Churchill Mk III and Mk VII suspension parameters are still being refined.
  
• The Churchill Mk III and Mk VII has some locations on which satchels can be placed, but not defused.
  
• The Churchill Mk III and Mk VII can have various vehicles drive underneath it.
  
• The Churchill Mk VII incorrectly has heavy armour on its rear section, instead of medium armour.
  
• The Crusader Mk III suspension parameters are still being refined.
  
• The British Airborne and Polish Parachute Brigade Berets have a LOD hole that can appear on the top of their heads.
  
• The British Airborne and Polish Parachute Brigade helmets are not yet implemented in-game.
  
• The ‘Near Miss’ British helmet is currently being displayed as 'Airborne Helmet’.
  
• El-Alamein has multiple objects presenting shadow blending inconsistencies.
  
• El-Alamein has rock formations presenting a poor level of detail.
  
• The Thompson 1928A1 Horizontal Grip Stick Mag has the incorrect 3D preview, loadout icon and line art.
  
• The Thompson 1928A1 Horizontal Grip Drum Mag has the incorrect 3D preview, loadout icon and line art.
  
• The No.4 Mk I Sniper is showing as the non-sniper variant in the barracks and deployment role screen.
  
• The Sten Mk V has the incorrect preview in the barracks and deployment role screen.

Streaming & Recording PTE Sessions
You are welcome to both stream and record PTE footage, but as these sessions are showing unfinished work, it’s always good to let your individual communities know that the footage is from a PTE session, where you might encounter unfinished items, bugs and other issues.

Feedback Questions
Once you have completed a game and are ready to provide feedback, please use the forms below!

How to Take Part
Check your Steam Library for the Hell Let Loose (Public Testing) application, or re-download it from the Steam store, you’ll want to boot this version up to take part in the PTE!

Once you’re in and have selected a server, you’ll be able to test out the new game mode!

Submit Feedback: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpUQjk5V0dGNDhXWFhaMkk2SU40VE1JMERFOS4u

Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpURFVVU1hHREhFVVU4UTVZMFdDMVQ4RzJHWS4u

Please note:
Because PTEs are run on development servers that have logging activated, you will experience a slight decrease in performance. You will also not earn any XP and your progress will not be carried over to the live game.