Hell Let Loose News

Hello everyone,

We loved your positive reception to the Mortain changes shared in the latest dev brief! Thank you for participating in PTEs and sharing your insights – we’re pleased with the valuable feedback the testing periods have provided.

We’re delighted to reveal the Hell Let Loose 2024 roadmap! All content stipulated below is not an exhaustive representation of this year’s content – all updates will continue to comprise quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes.

The content ahead represents a stable development plan and allows us to confidently meet targets, having learned from overly ambitious roadmaps in the past. Everything below will be released across all platforms.



We’ll share more on each aspect of the roadmap as we progress.

Thank you, we’ll see you on the frontlines in an exciting year for Hell Let Loose!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/686810/Hell_Let_Loose/

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our Mortain-focused dev brief, highlighting various changes and implementations thanks to your feedback.

Mortain is a new map for Warfare, Offensive and Skirmish gamemodes. This map is based on the US defence of the French town of Mortain, which sits in a shallow valley – where the US rallied against German troops amid Operation Lüttich. The battle took place in August 1944, in Normandy, France.

In this dev brief, one of our Senior Environment Artists will cover enterable buildings, provide additional context on Collégiale Saint Evroult and La Petite Chapelle Saint-Michel, discuss the environment; foliage and more. We want to be as transparent as possible when it comes to our development process on new maps – and we hope this provides useful insight into what it entails.

Mortain is due for release after part 2 of the British Rework.

[h2]Your feedback[/h2]

I would first like to say a huge thank you to all of the players who participated in the Mortain PTE. The team across all disciplines are incredibly grateful for the tremendous amount of feedback, both positive and constructive about your experiences. Now we've had time to thoroughly process your comments, let’s talk about some of the pain points and changes we have already started to implement thanks to your suggestions.

Another thing to note is that when we have released images of Mortain in the past, I've used offline rendering techniques to produce the best image quality possible. But, to give you the most up-to-date images since the map is still in development, the in-game screenshots within this dev briefing are taken straight from the engine in real-time, so what you are seeing is Mortain from a developer-only point of view and may not represent in-game accurately. All of the work in this briefing is a work in progress and subject to change.

[h2]Enterable buildings[/h2]

We acknowledge that players generally really enjoyed the urban combat that Mortain had to offer. Still, one consistent piece of feedback we received is that it was disappointing how few buildings were enterable by the player.

In truth, this is a concern we had about the map for a while, but due to the amount of new content required for Mortain and the significant amount of work required to retrofit old interiors with our refreshed buildings, we decided to create a singular variation of enterable buildings that could be reused across the map. Upon reflection, however, we understand that more enterable buildings are a priority for players. I'm happy to say that we have successfully created 3 more variations of enterable buildings and have begun their rollout in Mortain.

In real terms, due to the number of reusable assets we utilise within Hell Let Loose maps, this means up to 63 buildings already placed in Mortain could potentially be accessible across the map, with the possibility of more to come.

Given that we want the map to flow and provide enjoyable combat for players, our Level Design team now has the task of deciding which buildings they feel appropriate to be enterable - and will be implemented with support from our Technical Art team, to ensure this doesn't impact performance.

In addition to this, we are currently producing an extended amount of modular pieces used in our destroyed buildings kit, including floors, stairs and strategically placed inner walls, to offer players a similar experience to fully constructed enterable buildings, while maintaining the destroyed appearance and feel we offered in the PTE. We are excited to implement the new assets and thank the community for raising concerns which have created positive changes for Mortain's urban gameplay.

[h2]The town environment[/h2]

As with any PTE, members of the development team jumped into Mortain to experience first-hand how players were feeling as it went live and one piece of consistent feedback we heard was that the town, and in particular the buildings, felt too clean and lacked immersion.

Admittedly, with Mortain being the first map constructed by Expression Games, optimizing old assets and applying memory-saving shaders was our priority. We wanted to tackle performance issues seen across other maps, and although we researched to make sure textures and materials were dated correctly for the period and location, we missed the mark on creating a town that feels engaging and at war. Now that we are confident that our optimization work has been effective, we will look to polish the visual aesthetic of the town to be more in line with an active battlefield.

For us, that will include reworking textures to look old and grimy, smaller varieties of rubble will be implemented to compliment our existing piles and a VFX pass will be done as well as other ways we are looking to add polish and immersion.

[h2]Collégiale Saint Evroult and La Petite Chapelle Saint-Michel[/h2]

Besides enterable buildings, further feedback we received, is that players were disappointed that both the Collégiale Saint Evroult and La Petite Chapelle Saint-Michel are unenterable.

We completely understand the community's frustration with the decision to have them closed off, and so I'd like to give a brief explanation of why this was the case.

Collégiale Saint Evroult - The large church within Mortain town, is a historically accurate building that remained largely untouched during the conflict, but I should start by saying that we agree that it really should be open.

The decision to keep the Collégiale Saint Evroult closed was made very early on in the development of the map. As with any game, there are a certain amount of people working on a given piece of work, and at the time we prioritised our efforts across lots of content which is to be revealed in the roadmap. Being a historically accurate building, we would look to provide an accurate representation of the interior, as well as the exterior, which is a large task given its size and technical complexity.

Having reassessed what we need to focus on to meet our proposed schedules, we have decided to concentrate our resources on delivering the rest of this year’s roadmap content polished and on time.

That being said, we want to be as transparent and open with players as possible, so the possibility of us opening the church post-release of the map is not out of the question, we just need to balance it across our priorities as a team and the roadmap going forward. For the time being, we will look to add set dressing around the church so it’s clearer to players that this isn’t accessible.

[h2]La Petite Chapelle Saint-Michel[/h2]

Much like the Collégiale Saint Evroult, La Petite Chapelle is a historically accurate building that would require a bespoke interior mesh, and although it could be feasible to open the Chapelle in time, we feel getting the town to a good place is our greatest priority, and so this also won't be available on the release of Mortain.

We received lots of positive comments about the elevation and uniqueness of the Petite Chapelle capture point, and the current consensus is that it's well-balanced from a gameplay perspective, so any decision to open it would have to be carefully considered. But again, this is not out of the question further down the line.

[h2]Foliage draw distance[/h2]

The positive reception to Mortain's luscious new foliage has been overwhelming, although we acknowledge that there were some teething problems.

To ensure the map ran smoothly during testing, we overcompensated by culling grass, trees, and crops earlier than we needed to. Given that the performance for Mortain's wooded areas is good, we are confident that we can push the distance at which foliage culls further away, so there should be less advantage for snipers and players with a keen eye.

However, we cannot guarantee that the foliage will always keep you hidden from several hundred meters away, as we need to ensure that the map still runs smoothly and that comes at a great cost. Despite this, we hope the next time you play Mortain there is a noticeable difference when observing foliage at a distance, and as a minimum, it maintains consistency with other Hell Let Loose maps in terms of render distance.

[h2]Final words and a small teaser of the new front end![/h2]

Although this is a general overview of the key pieces of content we are currently working on, every comment and score submitted through the PTE feedback form has been analysed by the team, so there are lots of changes being worked on that aren't mentioned in this summary.

I hope that this insight into our plans for Mortain shows our commitment to listening to and actioning your feedback. Hell Let Loose is defined by its gritty feeling and tactical gameplay, but more importantly, its community. As developers, we naturally won't get everything perfect the first time. But, I know first-hand that every person on our team is dedicated to bringing you the best experience possible, so we thank you all for your contribution to making that a reality.

See you in-game,

Ryan Thomason-Jones - Senior Environment Artist, Expression Games

We hope you enjoyed reading about the changes and improvements coming to Mortain. We’re looking forward to sharing more details and developer-focused information throughout the year.

Thank you to the development team across all disciplines for their contributions to Mortain, and for sharing their hard work and passion for Hell Let Loose.

Mortain will release after part 2 of the British Rework; but before that – the roadmap. Reveal coming shortly!

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.



[h2]Server Rotation: [/h2]

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

[h2]Skirmish Mode Updates[/h2]

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

[h2]El-Alamein (Skirmish) - Oasis Capture Point[/h2]

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

[h2]Driel (Skirmish) - Underpass Capture Point[/h2]

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

[h2]British Rework - Second Instalment[/h2]

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

[h2]Patch 14.8 PTE Changelog[/h2]

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.

[h3]General Changes[/h3]

• 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)
  

[h3]New British Forces Weapons[/h3]

• 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.
  

[h3]New British Forces Tanks[/h3]

• 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
  

[h2]Work In Progress[/h2]

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.

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

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.
  

[h2]Streaming & Recording PTE Sessions[/h2]

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.

[h2]Feedback Questions[/h2]

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

[h2]How to Take Part[/h2]

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

[h3]Please note:[/h3]

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.

Hello everyone,

Patch 14.7 is now live on all platforms! This update is primarily focused on bug fixing and enhancing the in-game experience. This version also targets some of the crash issues that console players have been incurring.

Up next is Patch 14.8 – a larger, content-heavy update that we’ll expand on in Dev Briefs soon.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Mortain PTE. The feedback has been invaluable, and we will be detailing what’s changed in the weeks ahead.

[h2]Patch 14.7 Changelog[/h2]

[h3]General[/h3]

• [Fixed] When disconnecting controller, players cannot use the mouse to clear the "Controller Disconnected" prompt
  
• [Fixed] Lost Connection to Host dialog box cannot be navigated with controller
  
• [Fixed] Focus is lost from the "Accept Invite?" prompt when spamming "request permission to join a unit"
  
• [Fixed] When launching the title in Offline mode a softlock is occurring on the IIS screen
  
• [Fixed] The DAK - Uniform is clipping with Erich's head in game and in barracks
  
• [Fixed] The Churchill Mk III presents extended invisible collision when attempting to place a satchel on the front of the tank.
  
• [Fixed] There is no Chat page in the Communication tab of the Field Manual
  
• [Fixed] Relaunching the game will reset multiple Gameplay settings to default
  
• [Fixed] The title does not render text in the Basic Training menu when the device is localized to Japanese.
  
• [Fixed] Player is unable to join some servers due to an error that occurs when a large number of servers are displayed at once
  
• [Fixed] Player is unable to join some servers due to a Game is Full message despite multiple empty slots being present
  
• [Fixed] Disconnecting on the Enlist menu, backing out and then re-accessing the menu will occasionally cause a crash.
  
• [Fixed] [Console] The player encounters a crash when suspending the application during the bootflow
  
• [Fixed] [Console] The title sometimes crashes when attempting to join the server in Warfare & Offensive mode
  

[h3]Stalingrad[/h3]

• [Fixed] [B5] Burned wood asset has a metal PFX when being shot
  
• [Fixed] Brick stove asset presents wooden PFX and SFX when being shot
  
• [Fixed] [B5] Players can clip inside the terrain in sector B5
  
• [Fixed] [H8] The terrain in sector H8 has no player collision
  
• [Fixed] [F8] Players are able to clip inside a part of the terrain found in sector F8
  
• [Fixed] [E5] A specific mudbank is missing player collision in sector E5
  
• [Fixed] [D4] Players are able to clip inside a part of the terrain found in sector D4
  
• [Fixed] [I4] The player can clip through the terrain in sector I4
  

[h3]Hill 400[/h3]

• [Fixed] [F6] Mud SFX can be heard while walking inside the bunker
  

[h3]Hürtgen Forest[/h3]

• [Fixed] No footsteps SFX can be heard inside bunkers
  

[h3]Utah Beach[/h3]

• [Fixed] No footsteps SFX can be heard inside bunkers
  

[h3]Kharkov[/h3]

• [Fixed] Mudbanks have slush/water sound effect when the player is walking/sprinting
  

[h3]Kursk[/h3]

• [Fixed] [C2] Invisible collision present on one side of the bridge
  

[h3]Purple Heart Lane[/h3]

• [Fixed] When quickly turning around, the rain effect on PHL will briefly disappear and will then slowly come back in.
  
• [Fixed] Rain effects in PHL cannot be seen when shadow quality is set to High or lower.
  

First off, a huge welcome to our new players; our recent influx of players who've joined us on console and PC. It’s completely normal to be closing down your machine for the day after an abundance of deaths, compounded by disorientation and dubious reactions from veteran players.

The first round of public testing for our new Warfare and Offensive map, Mortain, starts now! Taking place over the weekend, running until Monday 22 January, 11 am GMT.

We loved seeing your excitement for Mortain’s reveal in our previous Dev Brief [read here], so we’re opening the doors early for feedback. Mortain is still a few months out, so we want to collate your impressions as soon as we can, to ensure it’s polished and balanced for release.

This testing period aims to gather your insight on the overall level design – we want your thoughts on capture points, playstyles, vehicle spawns, artillery positioning, pre-placed garrisons, flow, art, and any issues you may encounter.

Please scroll to the bottom of the page for links to the forms to fill out feedback. Thank you to all of you who are taking the time to participate and help improve Mortain.

[h2]Historical Summary of Mortain[/h2]

In 1944, German forces attempted a counter-offensive against the allied Operation Cobra breakout from Normandy. This counter-offensive was known as Operation Lüttich. This was planned to cut off the US spearheads, establish a German defensive perimeter in Normandy, reach the coastal port of Avranches, and seal the Operation Cobra breakout.

On the 7th of August, German forces assaulted the US-held Mortain and was successful in capturing key locations. This assault led to bitter and fierce fighting at Hill 314, with the US forces being surrounded becoming one of the recognisable heroic stands of WW2.

[h2]The Ambient Sounds of Mortain [/h2]

As this is the first full map release after taking the project on from Black Matter, we wanted it to have as much detail as possible from a sound perspective.

Mortain uses a newly developed audio system, where random ambient sounds are switched out depending on your location on the map. In short, these ambient sounds follow you wherever you go and are playing all the time, but will dynamically change when you enter a new location. This covers urban areas, forests, destroyed buildings and so on. A similar system was already in place for explosions, so it seemed like a nice progression to move this into the ambience system to support the lush areas created by the environment art and level design teams.

In the last major update, we added functionality for weapons to sound different when fired in enclosed spaces like churches, bunkers, houses and so on. We wanted this to continue in Mortain; so all interior spaces have this treatment, from pillbox-type bunkers in the forests, right up to large houses in the destroyed town. We loved seeing the positive reactions when players first heard these changes last time and would like this to continue when playing in Mortain. We really hope you enjoy the sound of this new map as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Richard Blackley - Audio Director, Expression Games

[h2]The Art of Mortain[/h2]

Mortain introduces extra detail not previously achievable on Hell Let Loose maps. It's important to us as a team that we strive to improve the visual quality with every new map and so I'd like to mention a couple of changes we’ve made when creating Mortain that gives examples of where we’ve improved previous workflows.

The foliage has been reworked from the ground up. On previous maps, this was procedurally spawned using the landscape materials, which added a huge performance impact when blending several surfaces. Every tree, bush and blade of grass has been hand-painted to allow us more flexible control over foliage density, variety and different species. New meshes, shaders and textures have been implemented across foliage types, which visually are a marked improvement on previous iterations.

Given the density of this new foliage, there may be cause for concern surrounding performance, however in our testing so far, foliage has shown to be very performant. Although PCs in general tend to have more processing power than consoles, console players should expect the same foliage quality as PC players without impact.

Almost every building in Mortain has been reworked with new textures, geometry and shaders, which in extreme cases have up to 100x fewer draw calls than buildings in other maps. These buildings all utilize detail normal maps, which is a technique used to enhance visual fidelity up close, while not making a significant impact on performance. This technique has also been applied to props where possible to offer similar benefits.

Something we’re proud of, is providing players with an accurate depiction of the region, so the terrain uses real-world DEM/height data and has been compared with maps from the period to ensure we stay true to the shape of the battlefield at the time, accommodating for gameplay where needed.

Being the first map without Black Matter input, there has been a tremendous effort from the team to understand how Hell Let Loose maps are built and thanks to this we believe that Mortain offers a unique experience that no other map does, but also sticks to the principles that make them so immersive and believable.

We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback, listening to any concerns and implementing changes where necessary so that when Mortain releases officially, we can offer an enjoyable experience that players are excited to play.

Ryan Thomason-Jones - Senior Environment Artist, Expression Games

[h2]The Level Design of Mortain[/h2]

Mortain is officially the first map the team at Expression Games has researched, designed, and built from the ground up with new workflows and processes.

It was important for the team to choose a map that offered something different compared to other maps we currently have in Hell Let Loose.

Mortain was not only of historical importance during WW2 and Operation Lüttich, but also the location itself and how it could support the Hell Let Loose game modes. Mortain provides our community with a new, but still ‘tied to its roots’ experience and stood out to us as a location with lots of potential.

Mortain has a lot of history both before and during WW2, with iconic and memorable locations, including the battle-scarred town of Mortain featuring the US headquarters - Hotel De La Poste, Hill 314 that was held by US forces against German attacks and the stunning Petite Chappelle Saint-Michel that sits on top a cliff south of Hill 314.

It was very important for the team to include all of these locations and do it the right way, with extensive research and careful consideration for historical accuracy, but with a little room for creative license that still felt grounded and believable.

Mortain offers an abundance of variation, one of which is the elevation of the map, including cliffs, steep slopes and hills. The map also features lots of dense forests, fields, rocky formations and farms, and it is this level of variation that will challenge squad teamwork and tactics in different ways and emphasise the importance of different roles, which we feel is critical to creating memorable Hell Let Loose battles.

I’m incredibly proud of the team and the amount of love and care they have put into the map. We hope our community enjoys playing the map as much as we’ve loved making it.

Chris Robinson - Lead Level Designer, Expression Games

[h2]Capture Point - Hill 314[/h2]

For Hill 314, we wanted to take a location that is both historically accurate and exciting for a Hell Let Loose experience never seen before in a central Europe map. The high elevation provides excellent vantage points and supports rugged challenging terrain for vehicles to have to navigate. The defensive trenches provide opportunities for gritty infantry-focused crossfire battles to take place.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

Capture Point - Hill 314

[h2]Capture Point - Petite Chappelle Saint-Michel[/h2]

To capture the majesty of the Petite Chappelle Saint-Michel, we decided to make that the heart of the Capture Point theme. Taking reference of the existing countryside at the time, this enabled us to cater a dense woodland experience to break up those long sight lines. The natural terrain encourages players to build their defensive network to maintain maximum control of the point.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

Capture Point - Petite Chappelle Saint Michel

[h2]Capture Point - Hotel De La Poste[/h2]

Situated as the last bastion of the U.S. defence of Mortain, the Hotel De La Poste tells the story of how battered the town was with artillery fire during Operation Lüttich through a Capture Point blend of narrow, partially destroyed streets, fragmented urban warfare and close quarters combat.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

Capture Point - Hotel De La Poste

[h2]Capture Point - German Recon Camp[/h2]

With this Capture Point, we wanted to create a fictitious yet believable outpost that the German forces could have used to scout the Allied forces at Petite Chappelle Saint-Michel and Hill 314. This camp features two netted trench systems, tiered in height to allow for infantry crossfire between them. Both trenches surround a lookout tower, which is the prime position for Officers to mark approaching enemies through their binoculars and coordinate the team's defensive strategy.

Kienan Southern - Junior Level Designer, Expression Games

Capture Point - German Recon Camp

[h2]Capture Point - Destroyed German Convoy[/h2]

The Destroyed German Convoy captures the theme of a true story based on fleeing German forces that was stopped in their tracks by artillery fire. We knew these events happened but were unsure of where exactly. Because we found the story compelling, we decided to use this event as a Capture Point theme and provide routes along a main road that vehicles would have to either carefully navigate, or employ their strategic battle plan to circumnavigate the area.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

Capture Point - Destroyed German Convoy

[h2]Development Approach[/h2]

Our approach to map creation follows a series of stages from our internal workflows and processes, with feedback and reviews to follow each stage. With Mortain we focused on the layout and theme of the Capture Point first, going through several rounds of iteration and feedback to make sure that they flowed nicely, and were believable, before expanding this process out into what we call “Transitional Areas”. A “Transitional Area” is defined as a space in between that connects each of the Capture Points, to allow the player a seamless transition from area to area.

With a close collaboration with the art team, we have been able to create a believable map from the ground up that not only looks amazing but also functions well for a Hell Let Loose experience. The art team was given the flexibility and freedom to add their artistic flair on top of the existing blockouts, and really bring the story of the map to life.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

Mortain - Tactical Map - Work in Progress

Mortain - Transitional Area - Early Blockout


Mortain - German HQ - Early Blockout


Mortain - German HQ - Early Blockout

Mortain - Le Hermitage Farm - Early Blockout


Mortain - Destroyed German Convoy - Early Blockout


Mortain - Town - Early Blockout


Mortain - Hotel De La Poste - Early Blockout

[h2]Playtesting[/h2]

With regard to playtesting, it was important to not only enjoy the fruits of the teams' labour but to highlight and catch any fundamental issues with how the map flows and functions. Dedicated Commanders, Officers, and Tank Commanders, who had a lot of experience with Hell Let Loose, were assigned beforehand, to ensure that no matter what stage of development the map was at, the match would be played as close to authentic as possible. Following the conclusion of the match, a debriefing session was held, to discuss any issues/feedback from the team, these were always captured and collated so that we could take appropriate action to strengthen the map.

We were also not afraid to contrive our playtests to cater to specific scenarios, for example: If we were unsure of how a particular Capture Point worked from a Level Design point of view, we would spend time focusing only on the single Capture Point and address any feedback afterwards.

Carl Rutter - Senior Level Designer, Expression Games

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• [WIP] The client will crash when choosing to leave the server.
  
• Floating Artillery - Offensive only - Functionality OK
  
• [Mortain] The user is unable to place down outposts or garrisons when standing on rubble piles or sidewalks
  

[h2]Where is the Roadmap?[/h2]

It’s essentially finished. The content is all planned and dates have been set. We just need to do our due diligence and ensure that all disciplines agree on timelines, to ensure we can deliver promised content on time. Then we can focus on turning an exhaustive spreadsheet into an appealing asset. We’re hoping to share this in February! We’ll keep you posted.

[h2]Work In Progress[/h2]

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.

[h2]Streaming & Recording PTE Sessions[/h2]

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.

[h2]Feedback Questions[/h2]

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

[h2]How to Take Part[/h2]

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/ZcW9ccDYbi

Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/e/UWa8kRYhMQ

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.