[2023] Public Testing for Skirmish Mode is live for 24hrs!

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

Hey everyone,

Public Testing for Skirmish Mode is now live for 24 hours over on the Hell Let Loose (Public Testing) Steam App!

The Skirmish Game Mode will be coming early next year and we want to make sure we’re able to get feedback from players as soon as possible to action your thoughts and opinions!

This PTE will be played on Foy and Kharkov.

What is Skirmish Mode?
Skirmish is a gateway experience for new players of Hell Let Loose! This game mode allows players to get straight into the action and experience some of the core mechanics of Hell Let Loose with fewer moving parts.

This is a quicker 50vs50 experience for some of our core audience who want to hop in for a few games and immerse themselves in the battle immediately.

Players will still need to use tactics, strategy, and core tenets of success; communication and teamwork will bolster your chances of gaining victory.

Featuring a new type of Garrison - the Forward Position, each side will be limited to one Armour squad and one Recon squad; the Commander can only spawn in medium tanks and no artillery pieces will be placed on the map.

Both teams start with control over their half of the map while the middle sector is neutral with a single Capture Point. Both Teams must fight, attacking and then defending this single Capture Point. Only the middle section of the map and the single Capture Point can change hands. The team that controls the Capture Point, at the end of the game, is declared the winner.

Players within the active sector count towards the capturing power.

Win Conditions:

• Capture and hold the Capture Point.
  
• Controlling the Capture Point after the time limit expires.

Further info:

• Match duration is 40 mins with 3 min warmup
  
• Skirmish mode takes place on a smaller map. Playable space is 1.4km x 1.12km (10x8 Skirmish grid).
  
• Sectors and grid sizes are also smaller to reflect the new map size.
  
• Grid square is 140 compared to 200 of Warfare.
  
• Skirmish mode features a new type of garrison called the Forward Position. Forward Positions have a distance rule of 140 meters from each other. The radius is visually shown on the tactical map.
  
• For Foy and Kharkov Skirmish, We also visually show on the tactical map the soft capture i.e. 2x2 grid square where the Capture Point resides

Skirmish on Consoles
Skirmish will be a selectable option from the main menu, it will not be included in the normal map rotation.

What Skirmish mode is not!
A replacement for Warfare or Offensive game modes. We remain focused on giving players an authentic Hell Let Loose experience with new large maps for Warfare and Offensive game modes going forward, but we’d like to offer a substitute for players who want to play a shorter mode.

It is not aimed at Hell Let Loose players who only play certain roles, for example, players who specialise in artillery, etc.

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 PC, we encourage everyone to take part to be able to share feedback.

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.

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

• When calling in commander abilities or summoning vehicles, the chat message will not display the region name, simply being blank instead.
  
• Redundant capture progress UI is present on all Skirmish maps.
  
• The 'Skirmish' gamemode hint is missing
  
• The 'Spawned on a Forward Position' hint is missing
  
• HQ spawn hint mentions artillery guns in Skirmish mode.
  
• Supply/Ammo Drop can be placed in out of bounds areas of Skirmish maps
  
• The Foy tac-Map requires updating
  
• The map key is placed over the US HQ Spawn 2 which interferes with trying to view and interact with that area of the map.
  
• Listing for Foy Skirmish in the Enlist screen has placeholder name & thumbnail.
  
• There is no road leaving US HQ 1 that joins the main battle theatre.

We will work on getting as many of these issues fixed prior to the launch of Skirmish Mode next year.

Your Feedback
In today’s PTE, we’re looking to primarily get your feedback on the new game mode along with the following questions about the implementation of it:

• Do you understand why we’re adding this game mode?
  
• Did the points you were attacking make sense for the map you were in?
  
• Does this game mode offer a good experience for both new and existing players?
  
• Was the game length too short or too long?
  
• Was armour too powerful or too dominant in the match?
  
• Did you play Recon? If so did that role have a meaningful impact on the match?
  
• How did the exclusion of Artillery impact the experience of this game mode?
  
• Do you feel that the commander’s Bombing Run type ability is too powerful for this game mode?
  
• Did you understand how to use Forward Positions?
  
• What are your thoughts on showing the placement radius of the Forward Position in the tactical map?
  
• Thoughts on showing the soft capture 2x2 grid squares on the tactical map?
  
• Any general thoughts on tactical map locations

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/e/Yw9M0v9Etk

Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/e/P5jWYQTchx


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 exp and your progress will not be carried over to the live game.