[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34012997/1039f0dc86df2bb2f948709d11e2be14f536067d.jpg[/img] Hi everyone! We apologise for one of the longest turnaround times between patches that we’ve experienced so far. We had a ton to fix and tweak and wanted to make sure our brilliant QA team had the time to test everything we’re sending down the pipe. With Update 4 currently in full swing and Sainte-Mère-Église going through some final optimisation, we needed to make sure the Patch would be as bullet-proof as possible. Patch 8 contains a lot of fixes to both the back-end - including server and client crashes - and to the front end - including the introduction of a new server queue and large-scale tweaks to the Offensive gamemode and fixes to the audio fall-off. There are a lot of notes, so be prepared to dig in. [h1][b]Patch Notes[/b][/h1] [h1]Features[/h1] [b]Server Queuing[/b] You can now queue for a server in Hell Let Loose. We’ve currently limited the total queue spots to 6, with Admins having the ability to adjust the number down. We’ve capped the server queue count to encourage server seeding and avoid situations where we may have 100 players queued across a similar region, instead of a new server up and populated. [b]Customisation[/b] Added many new German helmets to the cosmetics array. The majority are unlocked by increasing your Career level. Several are unlocked by increasing the Sniper and Spotter Role level. [h1]Bug Fixes[/h1] [list] [*]Fixed: Players have reported their career level decreasing or exponentially increasing after several consecutive games. [*]Fixed: The Allies Medic has graphical issues on all Heads when the Melton Winter Coat is selected. [*]Fixed: Crashed airplanes have increased collision with tanks on the left wing. [*]Fixed: Certain Steam users are not affected by the global banning system. [*]Fixed: Graphical issues can occur when entering/exiting vehicles and changing seats if the player is changing weapons while entering. [*]Fixed: Debug text is displayed when US Engineers attempt to place a resource node on columns I and J. [*]Fixed: The post-match experience calculation may occasionally freeze for Career Lv100 Players. [*]Fixed: The Objective distance indicator does not update accordingly when the player is over a kilometer away from said objective. [*]Fixed: If both final sectors are being captured when a match ends, the following match will not load as the timer will loop indefinitely. [*]Fixed: Two hour bans are not lifted automatically after the two hours have elapsed. [*]Fixed: There is no value next to the 'Audio' sliders and is inconsistent with the sliders in the other settings menus. [/list] [h1]SFX[/h1] [list] [*]Implemented and expanded bullet fly-by ricochet and snap volume. You will now notice incoming nearby small arms fire. [*]MG42 FPP sound improvement. [*]M1919 FPP sound improvement. [*]All weapons have been rebalanced, polished and had attenuation adjusted to keep them louder at range. [*]Vehicle engine and fire sound mix changes. [/list] [h1]RCON[/h1] [list] [*]Added a new RCON command “Set High Ping Threshold” to change or disable kicking players with high ping. [*]Added a new RCON command “Set Max Queued Players” to change the number of players that can be in the server queue at the same time. [/list] [h1]Visual Improvements[/h1] [list] [*]Tweaked TPP muzzle flashes to be 3D and now visible from front-on. [/list] [h1]Omaha Beach[/h1] [list] [*]Fixed: Players can clip through a bunker roof by performing a jump-prone action while standing on-top of an item. [*]Fixed: Grass and terrain clipping inside one of the bunkers in sector I3. [*]Fixed: A small tree has incorrect bullet collision. [*]Fixed: Two bunkers in I4 have invisible collision blocking their entrances. [*]Fixed: A bunker in I3 has invisible collision blocking its entrance. [*]Fixed: A specific building's front wall has no player collision. [*]Fixed: There are multiple cases of destroyed tanks with partially failed collision along the shoreline of Omaha Beach. [*]Fixed: Partially failed collision with a destroyed armored vehicle in the H7 sector. [*]Fixed: Window LOD issue in Omaha sector D5. [*]Fixed: There is a layer of water present in the fountains and wells that does not react to bullet penetration. [*]Fixed: Destroyed buildings between the cliff and the beach will change their geometry due to an LOD issue. [*]Fixed: Extended collision is present of the grounded cliff faces placed behind the German artillery in sector A6 of the map. [*]Fixed: The player can get stuck inside one of the stables present in a a specific barn in the B7 map sector. [*]Fixed: There is a visible seam in the water when deploying on the US team. [*]On Omaha, the player is able to see a small section of the edge of the map in sectors A7, A5 and A4. [*]Fixed: Wave animation present on a net located inside a barn in the F6 map sector. [*]Fixed: The brick walls near the beach on Omaha are observed to have visual issues. [*]Fixed: An audio error is occurring in specific areas of the beach. [/list] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34012997/e9d199590b2b7cfe0b88f98a0afb901e756545c1.jpg[/img] [h1]Offensive Gamemode[/h1] We’ve read a huge amount of feedback across all channels, as well as collated our own through playing the map with you. We’ve made some changes to the gamemode below and outlined our rationale for those changes. Please know that we’ll adjust any of these changes against your feedback and our play experience. We are keen to make sure the Offensive gamemode has the right level of intensity and asymmetrical balance as we can achieve. [b]Reduced number of first active sectors on the beach from two to one.[/b] Currently the US forces are able to spread themselves easily into the inactive sector and push around the German defenders and take the beach faster than we’d intended. We’ve altered the first row of the Offensive mode to now only have one active sector that the Germans must defend and the US must attack. [b]Attackers now land only in the single active sector.[/b] The largest change to the gamemode is that for the first sector only, we keep only one strongpoint in play. This means that the landing experience will be far more intense and fraught, with the US forces taking considerable fire as they come in. Instead of deciding to land all along the beach, US forces will now need to land in the active sector - consolidating both teams efforts around one location. Please note: once the first row (the beach) has been captured the available sectors will widen back out to two. [b]US tanks now only spawn in the active sector.[/b] Due to the US forces being able to field three tanks immediately on the beach, the Germans were often more scared to peek at the beach than the attackers. We’ve limited the attackers tank spawn to the active sector, meaning that they’ll have one instead of three tanks to use. Once the first row is taken, all other sectors will spawn their tanks as normal. [b]Allow attackers to push beyond current attacking sector by 1.[/b] We felt that this was overly restrictive and punished the success of the attacking force. This was designed to consolidate action around the front line. Instead, we now let the attackers push into the sector beyond the active one, but limit them from pushing deeper than that. [b]Increased the turn back timer to 30 seconds for vehicles out of bounds.[/b] While Infantry could nimbly turn around, many vehicles were overshooting the boundary and being destroyed simply because they could not reverse or turn fast enough. We’ve increased the turn back timer for vehicles to 30 seconds in order to make it much easier to retreat without losing your vehicle. We recommend that you don’t leave your vehicle in this time. [b]Round start timer for staging.[/b] We’ve implemented a two minute round timer for staging, so that players with slower HDDs are able to load and form up before all landing on the beach (or running to their MG nests). [h1]SMDM[/h1] [list] [*]LOD issue occurring on one of the trees in the German spawn. [*]The in game map does not correctly represent the actual position of the player by approximately 10m in specific locations. [*]Stretched textures are present on non-ground floor levels of the Brecourt Manor. [/list] [h1]Crashes[/h1] [list] [*]Fixed a potential server crash triggered by character customisation. [*]Fixed a potential server crash in the replication graph code. [*]Fixed a potential server crash triggered by an issue with the engine’s garbage collection. [*]Fixed client crashes when changing map to Omaha from an active game. [/list] [h1]In Testing[/h1] [list] [*]Sainte-Mère-Église German Offensive and Warfare Gamemodes. [*]New unlockable role loadouts. [*]In-game loadout and customisation selection. [*]Server host reserved slots. [*]Continued wide-spread optimisations. [/list] [h1]Currently working on (non-exhaustive list, we just want to give you some idea)[/h1] [list] [*]Continuing HUD and UI updates. [*]Implementing mocap and making large changes to our TPP animation systems. These will result in a much more natural look and feel. [*]Our FPP experience - with a focus on gunplay - is being overhauled in a separate branch. [*]This is to both match our new TPP look, but also to greatly increase the fluidity of the FPP experience. [*]Diving (performed by proning while sprinting). This is wrapped up with our FPP overhaul currently. [*]Bullet penetration. [*]Map balancing (addition of cover and other features in locations that are either boring or creating a tedious gameplay experience). [*]Wheeled vehicles. [*]Three new maps are currently at different stages of development. [*]Updating all audio and SFX. We’ve been testing reflections and different reverb volumes alongside all new weapon fire and reload sounds. [/list] [h1]One more thing…[/h1] We’ve read the subreddit, Discord and forum feedback and are making the Garand sight picture easier to use! You can expect to see this in U4. Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts and feedback on all elements of Hell Let Loose with us, it does make a difference. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34012997/d8179e13df92f28caa84a94ab7de251a1cdaa9ce.jpg[/img] If you’re enjoying Hell Let Loose, you can help us by leaving us a review on Steam. See you on the frontline!