[2023] Developer Briefing #193 - A Closer Look at The Practice Range

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

Hey everyone,

Thanks for joining us for the dev interview that premiered on Saturday!

RazBora and The Fresh Baked Goods did a fantastic job of capturing some more of your questions so we could go into depth around topics like the British rework, meta considerations, and future content.

If you haven’t checked out the video yet, you can tune in here.



In this week’s developer briefing, we’re going to take a closer look at the upcoming Practice Range!

The Practice Range
It has been designed for players who want to improve their aiming skills, better understand the building of defences, or even learn the different seats within a tank.

Originally posted by author: We wanted to give the player, rookie, or seasoned veteran, a safe space to practice some of the game mechanics, as well as what the various roles offer. We hope we have created something players will find beneficial with this first iteration of the practice range! - Nathan, Senior Level Designer

Accessing the Practice Range
To gain access to the Practice Range, players will need to navigate to the Basic Training area via the main menu. Here, you’ll find a new way to access the Field Manual, as well as navigate to the Practice Range.

Originally posted by author: The Practice Range should feel very familiar to the main game when selecting a role and deploying etc. We put a lot of focus on trying to keep as many things consistent to the main game as possible, but we have streamlined some elements (such as redeployment times and allowing the player to select any role within the squad) to hopefully create a better experience. - Nathan, Senior Level Designer

Once a player has chosen their desired role, they can then deploy into the Practice Range using one of the four Garrisons that are each located near a specific area of training, including:

• Obstacle Course
  
• Shooting Range
  
• Building Yard
  
• Driving Range

The Obstacle Course
The first thing we want to help players get to grips with is the mantling system.

This course is specifically designed to help new players master the locomotion in Hell Let Loose by using different movement methods to navigate the obstacles along a path, including proning, crouching, sprinting, and vaulting.


The Obstacle Course

The Shooting Range
While most new players will know how to click and shoot, Hell Let Loose requires a level of control to hit your target. There is a range of targets strewn around the environment where you can finesse your aim, and in this initial release, test the weapons available to the US Forces under each role, aside from the Commander. (If you haven’t watched the dev interview yet, we touched on how training as a Commander will work!)


Rifleman Target Practice


Sniper Target Practice


Machine Gunner Target Practice

The Building Yard
With unlimited supplies, players will be prompted to learn how building and upgrading works in Hell Let Loose, with the ability to build and operate an anti-tank gun, as well as create a range of barricades.


Barricades & Fortifications


Building & Operating Anti-Tank Guns

The Driving Range
Designed to help new players perfect their vehicle handling, you’ll be able to try out a selection of different vehicles, including tanks, to better understand how to operate them.


Driving a Tank


Firing a Tank

Practice Range Achievements
We’ve included some achievements that you can earn by using the Practice Range, including:

• Basic Training - earned by entering the Practice Range.
  
• No Skill Issue Here - earned by playing every role in the Practice Range.

A Note from The Devs:

Originally posted by author: One of the aspects we like most about the Practice Range is that it adds something, we believe, the
game was missing. The fact that players will now be able to take a step back, flick through the Field Manual, hop into the Practice Range, and then can load into the next match with a better understanding, should benefit everyone.

We think we have laid a good foundation to build on with this, and we hope with the community’s feedback and ideas, we can really help improve this space. - Nathan, Senior Level Designer

Patch 14.3 Progress
Patch 14.3 progress is tracking well, and we will be holding a PTE session beginning on the 17th of August and finishing on the 21st, and encourage everyone to take part and share their feedback on both bug fixing, and the Basic Training and Practice Range environments.

While there are many bugs being worked on for this patch which will be shared in the changelog, we are pleased to confirm we have so far prepared fixes for some of the following top community-raised bugs:

• [Xbox] Reloading some guns produces incomplete sounds
  
• [Xbox] Gun fire sounds delayed for some rifles
  
• [Xbox] Missing reload sound of Karabiner 98k
  
• [PS5] British Forces vehicles do not have adaptive triggers set up
  
• [PC] Many servers are not appearing in the "All Servers" tab of the Enlist Screen
  
• [PC] FOV is not correctly optimized for ultrawide monitors
  
• [Removed] Legacy game analytics with the potential to cause performance issues
  
• Doubled-up explosion VFX
  
• [Improved] Micro stutters
  
• British weapons have increased sway when ADSing
  
• British recon tank will pull to the last turned direction when driving straight
  
• British Lewis Gun MG shots appear to be slightly off-centre from sights
  
• The Panther heavy tank has a faster reload than the Tiger heavy tank
  
• All Lee-Enfield variants have a stuttering animation and are misaligned while reloading from a TPP
  
• Weapon displacement appears when stood leaning left and aiming down sights with certain weapons across all factions
  
• Ping is off-center when using the British binoculars

Common Questions
For answers to questions on game meta, bugs, and more, please read our latest AMA on Reddit, or visit the Discord[discord.gg] to check out the full answers in the #ama-july-2023 channel!

War Correspondent, Content Creator, and Community Videos
Make sure to post your videos in the #hll-videos channel in the Official Hell Let Loose Discord for a chance to be shown in future Developer Briefings!

SoulSniper, MIA
One of our amazing War Correspondents, SoulSniper, unfortunately, experienced a house fire early last month and has been out of action while he focuses on getting himself and his family back on their feet.

Many of you will recognize SoulSniper for his classic sniper videos with brother and recon Spotter, Scotty. His family has a GoFundMe set up for anyone who wants to support them during this time or simply wants to share some kind words: https://gofund.me/f2bfaed2

Until SoulSniper is back in action, you can join us in watching SoulSniper and Scotty set their sights on the bridge in Driel and land some insane shots in his latest upload!

https://youtu.be/a8mRmgCOzbU

When 5 Players Are Hunted By 50 Players in a Hell Let Loose Custom Game Mode
Hell Let Loose, but not as you know it! Hosted by the BEER clan and RazBora, this custom match saw five players get hunted down by 50 other players in a tense race to the extraction point. Check out Terrydactyl's video of the event here: https://youtu.be/aGK4VyRAq0E

The People’s League - Season 2
The second season of The People’s League has just begun, with 16 console clans taking to the battlefield to be crowned this season’s champions. Watch the latest match between KRRC vs 83AR here: https://youtu.be/sqmERpAuCGs

Join the Conversation
Submit clips and artwork by joining the Discord for a chance to be shown in a future dev brief!

Discord: https://discord.gg/hellletloose

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


Until next time, we’ll see you all on the frontlines!