Hey Everyone,
Welcome to Developer Briefing #68!
Today we’re going to talk through some of the design changes coming to the vehicle roster and the meta behind it.
If you’ve followed us from our Kickstarter days, you’ll know that we’ve always intended to build out the real-time strategy elements behind the game - in order to put greater weight on strategic choices, resource management and how each battle is played.
This is why we’re now excited to start unveiling some of the new mechanics we’ve had on the backburner for the last six months!
Your Army, Your Rules
Until now, our limited roster of vehicles has meant that any additions were made to the “base roster” available to both teams (ie. the vehicles that spawn in-map and continue to respawn throughout the game). What has resulted is a bit of a varied mix across all maps and forces - with some less desirable results.
From now on, we’ll be finalising the base roster of vehicles across all maps. They’ll look something like (this is not final):
3 x troop transport (a half-track, truck and jeep)
2 x supply vehicles (two supply trucks)
3 x medium tanks (three 75mm M4A1 Shermans)
1 x light tank (one Stuart)
3 x troop transport (two half-tracks and one kubelwagen)
2 x supply vehicles (two supply trucks)
2 x medium tanks (two Panzer 4s)
1 x heavy tank (one Panther)
The important thing to note here is that the numbers will vary per force, as we’re keen to reflect asymmetrical balance present in the war (typically - better, but less numerous German tanks vs numerous but less well-armored Allied tanks) and give each force a distinct and historically appropriate flavour.
So what’s new, Commander?
Simply -
Fuel abilities.
From the next Update onward, the Commander will have the ability to select specific vehicles to spawn from each of their respective categories. Each vehicle costs an amount of Fuel, and each has a cooldown to stop a Commander cheesing the mechanics by draining their entire Fuel resource.
PLEASE NOTE - The following icons and UI are a work in progress!Step 1 - Decide you want a vehicle
Step 2 - Select your vehicle and spawn location, fuel allowing
Step 3 - Profit!
Teams that are able to keep spawned vehicles alive will benefit from an overwhelming armor presence on the battlefield, and a clever Commander will be able to run specific strategies as more vehicles are added to the game. We fully expect that some will be map type specific - with Heavy Armor taking a backseat in forest maps while more cheaper, more nimble vehicles join the line. Similarly, a cheaper transport vehicle like a Halftrack may give far greater utility to the battlefield than yet another heavy tank.
The base roster of vehicles will respawn as they always have (costing Fuel each time they respawn), but the additions to the battlefield are where we think you’ll start to see a difference.
As you can imagine, this will place even greater emphasis on team communication, as specially spawned vehicles will provide a greater threat to your team, or may indicate a specific strategy being deployed by the enemy. Calling them out will be crucial.
The first new vehicles to be added to the Commander’s array will be the Recon vehicles for both teams. We know that many of you believe they’re simply a wheeled light tank, so we’re very, very keen to show you exactly what they bring to the battlefield.
In addition to this, the Heavy Tanks for both teams (the Tiger 1 and Jumbos) have been moved to the spawn array too. Over the course of the coming months we’ll slowly be replacing the base roster with much more vanilla everyday variants, and moving the more powerful, interesting vehicles to the Commander’s array.
We’re also keen to assure you that this is still just the tip of the iceberg of what we have planned for Hell Let Loose. There are many more real-time strategy changes and additions to come as we rework the supply, ammo and resource metagames.
That wraps up this week's Developer Briefing - we'd love to hear what you think of these exciting changes coming soon to Hell Let Loose, so drop a comment below for us to read!
See you on the frontline!
