Even still, given the number of games we have in cycle already, and the fresh addiction to a MMO for Kilen and myself, I find the chances that we will revisit HLL anytime real soon to be slim. It’s not that we don’t love the game. I mean we do. Mostly, time is also a factor. We generally only play HLL when we have at least 3+ people, and as of late that has been quite rare, save for this weekend.

Stay safe out there, Soldiers. Until we meet again. -Hobbit

Experimental Branch #1 – Update 19

Welcome to our first Experimental Branch for Hell Let Loose. In this Update 19 test, get ready for:

• New Map – Smolensk
• New ‘Artillery Squad’
• New Vehicle Type – SPA (Self Propelled Artillery)

We have also heard your feedback since Update 18 regarding our new UI changes. Upon jumping into this first Update 19 test, expect to see the following inside of the settings menu.

• Ability to toggle on/off information from the KIA screen
• Ability to toggle on/off network instability icons

If you would like to get more information on Smolensk and the Artillery Squad & SPA additions, do head over to Dev Brief #211 for more information.

Feedback Forms:

Please share your feedback to us using the below forms:

Bugs Reporting Form

Update 19 Testing Feedback Form

Known Bugs & Issues

When you jump into Experimental Branch #1, please be aware of the following issues & bugs that we are aware of.

Do note that the majority of the issues are related to the new SPA vehicles. With this in mind, we are really interested to see how the changes to artillery with the inclusion of the New ‘Artillery Squad’ plays into the Hell Let Loose gameplay loop, rather than just the SPAs due to a few of the known issues.

• The title will crash when loading into any none Smolensk Map
  • For Server Owners looking to move your servers over for testing sessions with your communities, Smolensk should be the only map in rotation for this test. Do not use other maps.
• [SPA] Visual ballistic trajectory of shells does not appear realistic.
• [PTE][SPA] [Smolensk] RUS attacking commander can spawn a Soviet SPA
• [Tank Rework] Recon Tanks’ speeds have no terrain modifiers applied
• [SPA] SPA artillery shells bounce upon first impact
• [SPA] KV-2 driver’s coaxial machine gun fires straight on only.
• [SPA] Artillery squad outpost cannot be picked up.
• [Artillery] Artillery squads can drive recon tanks.
• [SPA] The Brummbar has a turret health pool without having a turret.
• [SPA] The KV-2 can be penetrated by the panzershreck from all sides.
• [SMO][B4] Rubble pile turns purple when viewed from a distance

How to access – Steam ‘Experimental’ Branch

Many of you may not have used the beta branch system before, so we’ve popped in a description of how to access this new branch below

You can access the New Steam Branch by navigating to:

Steam → Hell Let Loose → Properties → Betas → Experimental Branch

Please note:

• The “None” option is the default/main branch that has the current Live Update 18 build.
• The “experimental_branch” right now has our first testing build for Update 19.

Hotfix #3 – Releases tomorrow on 11 November

As well as our Experimental Branch launching today featuring new additions to Update 19, but we also have our final Hotfix for Update 18 releasing tomorrow. This is a relatively minor hotfix with the majority of the major issues fixes in Hotfix 1 and Hotfix 2, as well as the work we continue to do with GSPs on server stability. 

That said, we’ve fixed a few of the client-side crashing issues:

• The title crashing due to team kill prompt
• [RCON] Being punished by the admin will not display the cause of death or the admin message
• Client crash when exiting admin camer
• [GSP] Server crash inside FRigPivot when updating actors