Hello everyone,
And welcome to the Update 15.1 PTE, this PTE is now LIVE - running throughout the weekend and we’re looking forward to getting your input on some of the content we’ve been working on listed below:
Patch 15.1 Content:
- Carentan Skirmish
- SME Skirmish
- Updates to the Field Manual
- German Practice Range
- General UI and user flow changes
Server rotation:
- Carentan - Rain - Skirmish
- SME - Night - Skirmish
German Practice Range
With the Practice Range already being available for the U.S. Forces, the next logical step was to bring this functionality so that players can experience the same mechanics with the German Forces. We have brought this into a variant of the existing Normandy map to keep the experience thematically authentic while providing a safe space for players to hone their skills using the existing German equipment.
Carl Rutter, Senior Level Designer - Expression Games
Field Manual
As part of our UI/UX improvements, we’ve been working towards making features such as the Field Manual a much more intuitive experience for players to access and browse. With a whole new layout, an expandable category interface and a search bar feature, the new and improved Field Manual design allows for a much more streamlined experience for players to learn about the inner workings of Hell Let Loose.
Jack Jenkins, Senior Game Designer - Expression Games
Carentan Map Update Breakdown
During the development of the previous Sainte-Marie-du-Mont town centre updates, internal discussions mirror the recent community requests for a similar upgrade to the Carentan town centre.
Using a similar process to that undertaken during the Sainte-Marie-du-Mont update, we utilised both internal playtest feedback, and common community sentiment across social media to help guide proposed changes.
The main objective of this update to Carentan was to increase the total playable space while refraining from making the town centre a maze-like experience. These new routes act mainly as side paths and shortcuts, allowing players to either avoid highly contested bottlenecks or give them another avenue to counter these chokepoints. Furthermore, these routes also offer useful areas to place both outposts, garrisons, and forward positions across Warfare/Offensive and the new Carentan Skirmish map.
The above GIF showcases the reduction of invisible walls throughout the area, in turn showing the extent of the new pathways throughout the town. These changes should not only improve navigation but also help drastically reduce instances of being stopped from entering an area because of an invisible wall.
The following images show before and after shots of the key routes that have been implemented throughout the town.
Kienan Southern, Level Designer - Expression Games
North West of Town Centre
North East of Town Centre
East of Town Centre
Town Centre
Town CentreCarentan - Control Skirmish
To help increase the number of urban maps available to play in Skirmish, the fan favourite Carentan will be available as of the release of Patch 15.1.
To make the most use of the extensive urban setting of the map, players will fight over the Town Centre making their way through the streets, alleys and newly opened gardens to take control of the objective. As always, please use the linked forms to share your thoughts and feedback with us. 
Kienan Southern, Level Designer - Expression Games
Sainte-Mère-Église - Control Skirmish
With the want to make more popular urban maps available with Skirmish mode, and to tie in with the 80th anniversary of D-Day, we are proud to announce that Sainte-Mère-Église will be joining the Skirmish roster. Fighting over the town itself, players will have to navigate the variety of narrow streets, open courtyards and enterable buildings to dominate the town.
As you can see from the in-game tactical map, we know that churches are often a dominant structure, however, to mitigate against dominant spawn camping, we have decided not to include the church itself within the hard capture, retaining the church as a viable strategy for planning your teams’ offence/defence but not being the sole focus of the capture point. As ever we are keen to hear your thoughts on the map and the capture point, so feel free to use the feedback forms attached to let us know what you think.
Carl Rutter, Senior Level Designer - Expression Games
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 Steam, we encourage everyone to take part to be able to share feedback.
❗Known Issues
For today’s session, there is a list of unfinished items/bugs that we’re aware of, including:- [Field Manual] UI and layout redesign is currently ongoing and may have some content/functionality issues
- [Barracks] UI and layout redesign is currently ongoing and may have some content/functionality issues
- [Loadout Screen] UI and layout redesign is currently ongoing and may have some content/functionality issues
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.
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!
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Submit Feedback: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpUNFBURFpNQ0o5NklKVzRaRFEyVkkwWFIyNi4u
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Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpUOEY3RzZLTzlJQzBHVjNROVFHV0tVTEZIQS4u
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.
