Helly everyone,

The Public Testing Environment for Update 16 is live, running throughout the weekend! We'd love to hear your feedback. So please jump in and play Elsenborn Ridge ahead of its release later this year.

• Warfare - Daytime/Blizzard and running throughout the weekend! We'd love to hear your feedback, so please jump in and play Elsenborn Ridge before
  
• OffensiveUS - Morning
  
• OffensiveGER - Night
  
• Skirmish - Daytime/Blizzard

The team is proud to bring to you our next map built from the ground up: Elsenborn Ridge.

Elsenborn Ridge was a less-documented but integral battle nevertheless in the Ardennes ‘44 campaign of WW2. Set in the Belgian region of Büllingen, just 40 miles away from Foy, the U.S. valiantly tried to hold their position in the small village of Wirtzfeld. With territory having exchanged hands multiple times between the U.S. and German Forces, the U.S. was eventually driven out of Wirtzfeld, and onto the Elsenborn Ridge, where they dug in throughout the brutal December period of 1944, having been forced to abandon crucial ammo and fuel stores near the village.

The map joins the battle between 16-26th December 1944 with the U.S. Forces having established their defensive networks on the Elsenborn Ridge, while the German Forces controlled the village outskirts of Wirtzfeld to the South. The map will be coming to the following game modes:

• Warfare
  
• Offensive U.S.
  
• Offensive German
  
• Control Skirmish

Beginning with U.S. territory in the North we have the 99th Command Centre. An operational centre for the 99th U.S. Division holding out on the Elsenborn Ridge. The Capture Point features a logistical tent, some defensive bunkers, as well as some WW1 trenches to help the U.S. forces dig in.


The Gun Battery Capture Point features a strong defensive trench network that the U.S. forces were able to utilise to set up their AA guns in addition to their fearsome Black Dragon artillery guns. Narratively, once the U.S. forces were settled into the Elsenborn Ridge, they rained heavy artillery fire onto the German Forces down at Wirtzfeld. The visibility due to the bad weather was so poor that a lot of the shots were inaccurate.


With the U.S. forces successfully retreating to the Elsenborn Ridge, the rural environment provided little warmth or comfort, so the U.S. established one of many camps for the troops which included temporary mess halls and medical tents.


The Elsenborn Ridge Capture Point serves as an observation post, and the first line of defence for the U.S. forces. It features a defensive trench network, and an abandoned farm house that the troops would use to take turns in keeping watch throughout the countryside.


Farahilde Farm is a farmstead Capture Point that features a traditional livestock farm, with a blend of close quarters fighting within the farmstead, as well as wide open fields for vehicular and long range combat.


The Road to Elsenborn Ridge features a farmhouse that has been converted into a vehicle repair station for the U.S. forces. As such the once open land is now full of broken vehicles and equipment, providing a lot of opportunities for close quarters combat.


The Dugout Tanks are a defensive position that the U.S. used as a vantage point in the Belgian countryside. Using tank turrets that were previously functional even though the rest of the chassis was broken, the U.S. were able to dig in at a particularly troublesome defensive position against the German Forces. The Capture Point features a strong defensive network, with a wide range of flanking opportunities in the wide open terrain on the flanks.

Note: The Dugout Tanks Capture Point will also be used for the Control Skirmish game mode as the active Capture Point.


The Jensit Pillboxes Capture Point features a steep hill that the U.S. utilised to control the main road in and out of Jensit. The pillboxes are temporary structures made from wood and are used to provide devastating ambush opportunities by concealing themselves within the dense forestry surrounding them. It also serves as a staging area for assault forces to move down the map into the German controlled Checkpoint.


The Checkpoint Capture Point is that of a German themed Checkpoint that was often featured in WW2 to control the roads in and out of regions. This particular Checkpoint was key to controlling the main road in and out of Wirtzfeld, so the German Forces put extra emphasis on protecting it by using the nearby barn and protected hillside for storage and supplies.


Moving onto German territory, Erelsdell Farmhouse features a civilian controlled Farmstead, as one of the more relatively untouched areas by either forces, the Capture Point features a more traditional Belgian farmstead with a combination of enterable barns/buildings as well as contrasting wide open fields.


The AA Battery is a Capture Point that has been set up by the German Forces as a means of retaliation against the U.S. Forces on the Elsenborn Ridge. With the exchange of artillery fire through really poor weather conditions being at the narrative forefront, the Capture Point contains an Artillery-themed trench network, surrounded by a mixture of forested areas and open plains that support a variety of tactics and playstyles.


Keen to push our technology forward, we used the improved VFX systems in the Hinterberg Capture Point. Hinterberg is a forested area that was originally held by the U.S. Forces. The German Forces bombarded it with artillery and burnt it down, a key skirmish that forced the U.S. back to the Elsenborn Ridge. The Capture Point features a burnt forest, minimal supplies and defences, and utilises the landscape for a more natural cover experience.


The Supply Cache was originally held by the U.S. Forces. As part of the hasty withdrawal to the Elsenborn Ridge, the U.S. were forced to abandon a lot of the supplies that had been stockpiled, this left the area in a mess and allowed the German Forces to swoop in and steal the remains. The Capture Point is a chaotic space, providing a couple of key buildings overlooking the cap while at ground level, large supply stockpiles provide a lot of cover for infantry focused combat.


During the research phase of Elsenborn Ridge, we learned that the U.S. used the terrain to their advantage quite a lot, and created Foxholes to set up traps for nearby German patrols. The Foxholes Capture Point depicts a no-man’s land area, with hilly terrain designed to provide armour with good vantage points, as well as prominent Foxholes for players to set up ambushes.


Elsenborn Ridge is a map that caters to a myriad of playstyles and strategies; attacking from South to North, Infantry squads fighting over the Fuel Depot Capture Point will get a chance to experience that close quarters combat feeling with danger lurking around every corner while vehicles will have to provide support at a safe distance.

Moving further north, the map opens up to Hinterberg, a burnt down forest section that provides tricky terrain that requires both infantry and armoured vehicles to rely on using the natural landscape to their advantage. It’s here where the Sniper role also comes into its own, offering long distance opportunities down the rolling hills of Belgium.

Next we have the Checkpoint, a roadblock which controls a key road in and out of the region. Here players get a varied mixture of gameplay, the open fields on the approach are a haven for armoured vehicle support, while the intricate web of hillside storage provides infantry with that close quarters gameplay. The changes in elevation of the rolling hills start to make their mark on the gameplay by providing Armour squads the ability to really open up their firepower capabilities

Moving further north way out into the countryside we have Farahilde Farm, infantry squads will have to make tactical decisions when crossing the open fields to reach safety, the armour squads will have high visibility across the vicinity here to cause a lot of damage.

And finally on the Northern part of the ridge we have Gun Battery, a heavily fortified dug-out section full of trenches that allow infantry squads to hunker down while the Armour squads emerge from the treeline ready to push through to victory.


The technical art team have been investigating the introduction of a dynamic weather system to Hell Let Loose, in particular a way to convey the weather that affected troops in Elsenborn Ridge. Historically they were subjected to freezing conditions and blizzards affecting visibility.

We needed a system that could change throughout and be as unpredictable as the weather at that time to reflect these conditions.

A set of VFX particles were created consisting of various intensities of snow. As we needed this configurable, we decided on a set of presets utilising data assets. These made it easy to drive the intensity of each level of snow.

This meant we could tune each scenario easily in isolation. Each scenario includes parameters referenced from the vfx and lighting to allow us to tune the weather intensity and atmospherics.

The VFX scenario was broken down into a set of presets;

• Light snow
  
• Medium snow
  
• Heavy snow
  
• Blizzard snow

The data assets were then accessed by a singular blueprint placed in the map which would blend each preset over time. all of which could be tuned in terms of frequency, probability and transition length. We added the probability of when the transition between each stage would occur in order for us to add a certain amount of randomness to it.

This introduced some challenges for how we would implement this for the online player experience of Hell Let Loose. Changeable weather conditions would need to be consistent over time for each player. The code team worked hard to support in ensuring the levels of snow to blizzard stayed synchronised and consistent throughout.



Freelook is something the community has been requesting in the game for sometime and as frequent players ourselves, it has been somewhat of a personal mission to get freelook in the game. Running through fields always has been a risky endeavour with threats always looming. Freelook allows for a 130 degrees horizontal view angle that allows players to scan their peripherals while running, holding a position or even mounted on your MG. This helps to give players more control over their situational awareness which allows for more calculated actions.

Due to some limitations with our character system, such as first person characters not having full bodies, there are some known issues which occur, this includes some visual clipping with certain weapons and uniforms. We hope to continue looking at solutions for these issues and polishing the system.


For the release of Elsenborn Ridge, we have once again changed the Frontend scene - this time to a full colour night time scene. We wanted to be able to depict the fire and snow which are prominent features in the new map, and perhaps give a sense of the extremities faced during this element of the Battle of the Bulge.

Ability to navigate menus whilst queuing for a lobby

We’re currently working on a requested feature where if you’re waiting to join a server you’re able to freely navigate the menus until you join the server! This will hopefully help reduce frustration in some long server joining times!

This will appear in the top right corner of the enlist screen once you attempt to join a server



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.



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

• [EBR] Certain walls & snowbanks have misaligned collision.
  
• The Wool Greatcoat Winter Uniform has broken cloth physics.
  
• The Wool Greatcoat Winter Uniform fabric is changing shape when the user comes close to the player wearing it.
  
• The German commander body disappears in the Barracks when zoomed in and wearing the 6th Panzer uniform.
  
• The US Engineer when wearing the 16.0 Corps head displays with large black gaps over the face in the barracks.
  
• Machine gunners don’t sit central in the presentation window in the barracks when zoomed in.
  
• The US medic has 2 instances of the Refreshed Winter Uniform.
  
• Exiting Practice Range using Leave Server option will return the player to the deprecated War Room/Basic Training.
  
• [EBR] Pre-Placed German Luchs light tank fails to spawn at German HQ #01 on all US Offensive variants.
  
• [Freelook] Certain pieces of equipment can be used while aiming them with Freelook.
  
• [Freelook] Anti-tank weapons can be aimed with Freelook.
  
• [Freelook] Freelook remains active when entering ADS with weapons which apply a screen overlay.
  
• [Freelook] The user can “aim down sights” while actually looking away from their rifle with freelook.

Please note that Elsenborn is in its final polishing phase, it means you may see:

• Minor collision issues.
  
• Texture issues.
  
• Minor asset misalignment issues.
  
• Performance issues.
  
• Visual effects throughout Elsenborn Ridge are still work in progress.

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.


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


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/5tyS1gJ9QR

Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/e/riXw0eZrgb


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.