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Digital Gaming => Computer Gaming => Topic started by: jomni on April 24, 2018, 09:34:21 AM

Title: Hell Let Loose
Post by: jomni on April 24, 2018, 09:34:21 AM
Don't get too excited about Post Scriptum.  This (He'll Let Loose) is another game to consider.



Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: IronX on April 24, 2018, 10:58:59 AM
I have it but am more excited about PS. It's got a long way to go to get where PS is.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: JasonPratt on April 25, 2018, 08:48:45 AM
Quote from: jomni on April 24, 2018, 09:34:21 AM
This (He'll Let Loose) is another game to consider.

...more pre-loading jokes in 3...2...
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: IronX on April 25, 2018, 04:49:34 PM
Running out of digital copies is a serious issue. #preloadnow
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Gusington on April 26, 2018, 07:53:49 AM
I preload daily.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: mirth on April 26, 2018, 08:04:08 AM
Quote from: Gusington on April 26, 2018, 07:53:49 AM
I preload unload daily.

ftfy
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Gusington on April 26, 2018, 08:04:49 AM
Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: mirth on April 26, 2018, 08:07:37 AM
Quote from: Gusington on April 26, 2018, 08:04:49 AM
Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son.

sounds quoteable
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Gusington on April 26, 2018, 08:34:29 AM
Here's another quotable however I cannot claim ownership:

'I don't want none unless you got buns, hon.'

- Sir Mix-a-Lot

I suppose I could lie and say I did write that but you guys would not believe me until I changed my name to Sir Mix-a-Little.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: SirAndrewD on April 27, 2018, 02:19:12 PM
The game's title reminds me of what happens after I eat Mexican food.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Sir Slash on April 27, 2018, 10:08:50 PM
I knew somebody was going to go there, just not SirAndrewD.  :clap:
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: SirAndrewD on April 27, 2018, 10:14:55 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on April 27, 2018, 10:08:50 PM
I knew somebody was going to go there, just not SirAndrewD.  :clap:

I always go there. 
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Destraex on April 30, 2018, 05:43:47 AM
Jomni I thought hell let loose was much more arcade like than post scriptum which takes the "simulation" approach.
Why should I be interested in Hell Let Loose?
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on April 30, 2018, 04:45:55 PM
Quote from: Destraex on April 30, 2018, 05:43:47 AM
Jomni I thought hell let loose was much more arcade like than post scriptum which takes the "simulation" approach.
Why should I be interested in Hell Let Loose?

Well having played a bit of Squad and watched the first vid of HLL that Jomni posted I'd guess that none of the three games are "arcade".  Me, I'm more interested in HLL just because of the setting, but I'll buy PS because of what IronX said.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: jomni on April 30, 2018, 05:12:01 PM
Quote from: Father Ted on April 30, 2018, 04:45:55 PM
Quote from: Destraex on April 30, 2018, 05:43:47 AM
Jomni I thought hell let loose was much more arcade like than post scriptum which takes the "simulation" approach.
Why should I be interested in Hell Let Loose?

Well having played a bit of Squad and watched the first vid of HLL that Jomni posted I'd guess that none of the three games are "arcade".  Me, I'm more interested in HLL just because of the setting, but I'll buy PS because of what IronX said.

Yeah.  From the vids I posted, walking around for a long time with no contact and not seeing the enemy when contact actually happens is pretty realistic enough for me.  Hehe.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Destraex on April 30, 2018, 05:53:29 PM
So hell let loose is as simulation as Post Scriptum?
I also like the Arnhem setting of PS and am hoping that is the better option.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: jomni on April 30, 2018, 05:59:11 PM
Quote from: Destraex on April 30, 2018, 05:53:29 PM
So hell let loose is as simulation as Post Scriptum?
Depends on how you define it.  No tanks though.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Destraex on April 30, 2018, 06:07:07 PM
Yeah post scriptum for me then. Combined arms is very important for me. Post Scriptum look like doing that part very well. It has AT guns and everything.
The armour models for the tanks are supposed to be fairly realistic. But we will see about that.

Post Scriptum also has supply truck base setup kind of weapons depots which hopefully will make gameplay a little more active. I have never played squad so am very interested in how all this sort of thing works. I don't like the way the post scriptum troop animations and models look atm though.

Does hell let loose have all of this?

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/864/41812566631_05f301cfe2.jpg)

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/948/41812565721_0a8f8e17b9.jpg)

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/974/41812565141_c05fb55174.jpg)
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: IronX on April 30, 2018, 09:14:42 PM
Not even close. But it's much earlier in the development process so it's not really a fair comparison. The good news is that we have two realistic shooters covering different campaigns in development that are both playable. Although I have HLL, I can't wait for PS, in part because of the kit above, but mainly because of the theatre.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on May 01, 2018, 05:03:44 PM
Quote from: jomni on April 30, 2018, 05:12:01 PM
Yeah.  From the vids I posted, walking around for a long time with no contact and not seeing the enemy when contact actually happens is pretty realistic enough for me.  Hehe.

I actually like that about Squad and potentially HLL/PS.  They're  "approach to contact" games.  The other semi-realistic war shooters we have (RO2 franchise, Insurgency\DoI) are more "charge to contact".  They're essentially about fighting as Iron Age warriors with twentieth century weapons.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 01, 2020, 09:49:55 AM
Quote from: Father Ted on May 01, 2018, 05:03:44 PM
Quote from: jomni on April 30, 2018, 05:12:01 PM
Yeah.  From the vids I posted, walking around for a long time with no contact and not seeing the enemy when contact actually happens is pretty realistic enough for me.  Hehe.

I actually like that about Squad and potentially HLL/PS.  They're  "approach to contact" games.  The other semi-realistic war shooters we have (RO2 franchise, Insurgency\DoI) are more "charge to contact".  They're essentially about fighting as Iron Age warriors with twentieth century weapons.
--

  Taking a look at Hell Let Loose.  Here are the marshes beyond Utah Beach -- early morning, June 6, 1944 --

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on January 01, 2020, 09:30:29 PM
I bounced off of Post Scriptum fairly quickly and refunded it. HLL on the other hand I quickly racked up 70+ hours in.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 01, 2020, 10:28:32 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on January 01, 2020, 09:30:29 PM
I bounced off of Post Scriptum fairly quickly and refunded it. HLL on the other hand I quickly racked up 70+ hours in.

  Yes, HLL is pretty cool.  I'm kinda sad because I was able to hit enemy troops and kill them without too much trouble in Post Scriptum.  I've yet to actually hit anyone in HLL as far as I know.  On the other hand, Ive been missed a lot in HLL so maybe its all for the best.  Here's St. Marie du Mont:

 
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 03, 2020, 10:59:35 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 01, 2020, 10:28:32 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on January 01, 2020, 09:30:29 PM
I bounced off of Post Scriptum fairly quickly and refunded it. HLL on the other hand I quickly racked up 70+ hours in.

  Yes, HLL is pretty cool.  I'm kinda sad because I was able to hit enemy troops and kill them without too much trouble in Post Scriptum.  I've yet to actually hit anyone in HLL as far as I know.  On the other hand, Ive been missed a lot in HLL so maybe its all for the best.  Here's St. Marie du Mont:



  I'm now killing a fair number of the enemy, so that bit of nostalgia for Post Scriptum is gone.  It's true that I've mostly shot them (or grenaded them) at pretty close range...but I guess I'll just have to miss the simple satisfaction of hitting somebody with a rifle bullet at over 50 meters.  On the other hand the gore and the graphics can make even close range results very puzzling.  I guess these two bodies were a sniper/recon unit, but I may have injured them with a grenade or two before I used two clips of .45 caliber SMG bullets on them.  I'm pretty sure there's two in this pile.  I can see a head on the left and the rest seems to be somebody else:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Con on January 04, 2020, 06:19:09 PM
This is a really stupid question but what are the pic controls in hell let loose. I was not able to find anything online on it. I understand WASD and mouse left and right buttons but what about leaning crawling climbing over fences camera views etc.

Thanks for any help
Con
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 04, 2020, 08:52:22 PM
Quote from: Con on January 04, 2020, 06:19:09 PM
This is a really stupid question but what are the pic controls in hell let loose. I was not able to find anything online on it. I understand WASD and mouse left and right buttons but what about leaning crawling climbing over fences camera views etc.

Thanks for any help
Con

  I just use the screenshot button.  For other controls, usually the steam questions as found via Google can show you a lot -- for example the AT gun is  pretty iffy to deploy and is likely to be wiped out by tank fire and mg fire before it does much of its rather expensive (30 supply to set up and 5 supply per shot) shooting.  I'm trying to think of other things that had me stumped -- just as with Post scriptum before the training range was set up...it is very hard to learn how to do most things in the game without being in a "unit" in a battle.  I've accidently ventured into tank repair and sniper hunting while trying to do other things that I still can't do (like AT guns).  Fortunately, the "unit" leader (sort of a corporal in charge of 1-5 people) has a Thompson, a .45, grenades, smoke, binoculars for a bargin price of 2 manpower points and if you are reasonably sneaky the Thompson will trump anything  except a tank in spades and you can set outposts and regenerate yourself whereever you want.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on January 04, 2020, 08:57:52 PM
Not exactly sure what the defaults are but Q and E should be lean. Space gets you over obstacles. I think CTRL or L SHIFT are your run, the other is crouch. F is use item. Z is prone?
I don't know about camera controls because it is first person only unless you are spectating.

I set em up to be as close to my ARMA settings as I could, but very few games are as flexible as ARMA when it comes to key binding.
For instance I use ALT for sprint, F for crouch and C for prone, V for weapon mode, CTRL, Z and X for the various comms, a mouse button for use item, and another for map.

A couple things I recommend:

Bind one of your "extra" mouse buttons (if you have more than 3) to the Map. You will be using the map a LOT.

If you already have Voice Attack, make a HLL profile and set it up to toggle holding down your run key, either on voice command or using another key as there is no "auto-run" setting in HLL but you will wish there was. If you don't already have Voice Attack, I would think about getting it. It's cheap and works with most games and I find it handy for any number of things. There are free programs that do more or less the same thing, and I tried several of them before finally deciding to go ahead and buy Voice Attack because it just works.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on January 04, 2020, 09:05:10 PM
Re: training range and the lack thereof, I found it immensely useful to join an empty server and try out the various roles and vehicles and arty to gain some familiarity with them before trying them under fire. I have yet to crew a tank, I enjoy the infantry game enough and there is almost always a need for a support guy or engineer or even rifleman (who can drop ammo). As usual, everyone goes for the glamour roles (except squad leader, cause that is work) and there are often not enough support or riflemen running around.

The other thing I would add is use your mic and talk. If your squad isn't talking find another. Communication is important and when I join a side that has a bunch of leaderless, half strength squads running around and no one communicating I know the battle is most likely lost. Very often if you start communicating others will join in.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 05, 2020, 11:14:12 AM
Quote from: Bardolph on January 04, 2020, 09:05:10 PM

The other thing I would add is use your mic and talk. If your squad isn't talking find another. Communication is important and when I join a side that has a bunch of leaderless, half strength squads running around and no one communicating I know the battle is most likely lost. Very often if you start communicating others will join in.

  Some other points -- support and rifle cost only 1 manpower point to field so I play those until I have a grip on what's happening plus the M1 is a reasonable weapon (though not the ultimate killer that it is in some other games == PS or maybe it is...I did the knock out MG with a M1 thing a couple of times last night ).
  For coms (v local, X command level, C "unit")  -- somewhat paradoxically, a couple of nights ago we had a "Unit" leader (more or less a corporal in charge of 5 men) who did nothing and didn't communicate.  This worked okay...we just used the "Garrison" spawns -- which were absolutely brilliant -- and three of us in the "unit" formed a unit of our own and chewed through the enemy.  This would not have worked in a game with poor commander and other unit leaders -- luckily the commander and some of the other unit leaders were really good and we three just went blasting along for the ride.
  On the other hand, when you are in a side that has a lot of poor leaders and/or an enemy force that is a lot better, I think it is a good time to try out new things.  I had a unit (I think unit command isn't so bad -- you are armed to the teeth and have binoculars and great communications and you only cost 2 manpower points -- its really the best bargin in the game) and I tried specializing in tank repair, during a horribly lost game.  Some of the unit quit (my best rifleman for example), but the others hauled their supplies and repaired tanks for a while.  So one of the attractions of the game is that the battles vary a lot and even the losing ones have lots of fun things to do.  Like tank repair even!
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 11, 2020, 11:57:29 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 05, 2020, 11:14:12 AM


  Inland from Utah beach:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Destraex on January 11, 2020, 05:56:10 PM
Meng. I tried Hell Let Loose a while back in some free period. I simply have too much on my plate with Post Scriptum. So I try to stay away from HLL because it will just be another FPS which I rarely play. I played Post Scriptum last night, had a good commander and really enjoyed it. There are a ridiculous amount of full servers in post scriptum atm (pages). So that's good.
However I just read some of your HLL posts and am curious as to exactly what the differences are.

I'd like to know that I chose the most realistic new ww2 shooter. Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm 2 were my previous go tos. Now I try to stick to post Scriptum, which still has another chapter to release on the devs timeline.

Can you advise exactly what it is that HLL does better? It does seem to be more popular than Post Scriptum when their is not a free weekend for PS as there is now.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 11, 2020, 06:28:23 PM
Quote from: Destraex on January 11, 2020, 05:56:10 PM
Meng. I tried Hell Let Loose a while back in some free period. I simply have too much on my plate with Post Scriptum. So I try to stay away from HLL because it will just be another FPS which I rarely play. I played Post Scriptum last night, had a good commander and really enjoyed it. There are a ridiculous amount of full servers in post scriptum atm (pages). So that's good.
However I just read some of your HLL posts and am curious as to exactly what the differences are.

I'd like to know that I chose the most realistic new ww2 shooter. Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm 2 were my previous go tos. Now I try to stick to post Scriptum, which still has another chapter to release on the devs timeline.

Can you advise exactly what it is that HLL does better? It does seem to be more popular than Post Scriptum when their is not a free weekend for PS as there is now.

  I think basically Post Scriptum is a better simulation -- for example, the full ballistics of rifle bullets are done in PS and not in HLL.  PS has mortars and HLL does not.  This even extends into the visual field where in Ps you can see a long, long way, but in HLL you can't.  PS has trucks and HLL does not...the better simulation side of PS is pretty clear no matter how you look at it.  So HLL is definitely in the Arcade direction -- eg, well -- no mortars or trucks.  So what's good about HLL?  It's more atmospheric -- even literally, the air is thick and you can't see far without binoculars or sights.  Which i guess leads one to ask again -- so what's good about HLL?  I think what's good is that it is aimed at a point midway between simulation and arcade.  Maybe a little closer to the simulation end in many superficial ways, but way down deep its has the good things about an arcade approach (relatively fast action. some customization, some "advancement") without most of the bad things about arcade games ( lots of scoring verbiage on the screen, weapons that glow, terrain that makes no sense, scales that are absurd etc. etc.).  HLL is shamelessly gamey in some good ways -- the US is getting the Easy 8 Sherman "for extra fuel points" -- I guess if those turn up in Normandy scenarios that will be pretty shameless. 
Ultimately of course, I just like HLL for a pile of irrational "reasons" -- smaller maps full of tasteful bits of wreckage -- horrible dead bodies -- absurd bombing runs, the good old Thompson SMG which I have liked since battlefield 1942, the M1 (even with hit scan is a convincing weapon), the grenades work better for me etc. etc. -- oh -- tiny "units"  the SL is really a corporal called an "officer" and so on...

So, again, on the face of it, HLL has little to recommend it -- especially versus PS -- as a simulation and even more strangely, HLL is defined more by what it isn't (not PS, not exactly an arcade WWII shooter, slightly blood-thirsty rather than slightly sentimental) but also by what seem to be its gamey ancestors:  Battlefield 42 and Red Orchestra (particularly the Darkest Hour mod).  It might be defined as an attempt to approach the simulation space from a gamey side rather than an attempt to approach a game from the simulation side ( PS).

I guess I should try again to just list the things I like:
1) its got US troops in Normandy
2) Its trying to expand and go on modifying itself (adding maps and map aids and vehicles and loadouts for example)
3) the landscaping is interesting
4) the maps are around half the size of PS maps
5) the graphics are more atmospheric
6) the "squads" (called units) are 6-man fire teams
7) so the SL ("officer" = corporal) role is pretty good
8) there is some attempt at some kind of atmospheric realism (location, weapons etc.)

And I guess that's it!
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 13, 2020, 10:15:05 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 11, 2020, 11:57:29 AM


  Another atmospheric shot -- somewhere near Saint-Mere Eglese, a Sherman tank drives past me.  I should say, usually the US tanks are handled well and do a lot toward winning battles.  I see one or two Tigers or Panthers per battle,but they cost a lot of fuel and tend to end up isolated:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 18, 2020, 11:35:57 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 13, 2020, 10:15:05 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 11, 2020, 11:57:29 AM


  Another atmospheric shot -- somewhere near Saint-Mere Eglese, a Sherman tank drives past me.  I should say, usually the US tanks are handled well and do a lot toward winning battles.  I see one or two Tigers or Panthers per battle,but they cost a lot of fuel and tend to end up isolated:

  Here I am trying to be a medic looking west from just north of Sainte-Mere-Eglise (the smoke shows a big battle I never got to...got shot trying to rescue somebody at a small cross-roads tank battle a minute or two later):

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 19, 2020, 01:41:03 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 18, 2020, 11:35:57 PM

  Here I am trying to be a medic looking west from just north of Sainte-Mere-Eglise (the smoke shows a big battle I never got to...got shot trying to rescue somebody at a small cross-roads tank battle a minute or two later):

  Hell warmed over again ("Hell warmed over" is an "expression" -- at least in Texas 50 years ago -- as in "I feel pretty bad."  "Well, you look like Hell Warmed over" as in worse than Hell)

   Anyway, I was reflecting on last night's gaming session in HLL and one thing that is kind of good about the game is the extreme (though generally constructive) variation in the impact of "leadership" positions.  Good leadership helps a team a lot, but what actually works out -- especially for the officer (ie corporal in charge of six men) role can be interesting and unexpected.  Twice now I've been in "units" (the six-man fire teams commanded by an "officer") where the player in charge was not much use...more of an administrative assistant, setting up outposts, reporting on what HQ wants, warning of generalized objectives and dangers -- yet this worked very well and 3 or 4 members of the "unit" formed a tight killer force and knocked out  3 Tiger tanks, one light tank and one of our tanks that needed to be blown up (cuz stuck tanks can't respawn and HLL has no unsticking functions unlike PS -- in PS you can eventually get any vehicle out of any kind of a sticky situation -- not so in HLL where a sunken lane can trap any tank and then it has to be blown up to respawn  -- so if you find a stuck enemy tank you need to defend it like one of your own since it deprives the enemy of an endless stream of respawns)....anyway, I never quite joined the killer team, but it was a lot of fun anyway.

But this brings up another thing about tanks -- the US never saw any Tigers of any kind in Normandy -- but of course they are extremely common in HLL.  I think the Panthers or the light tanks would be a lot more cost effective, but the Tiger has that iconic thing and so it gets spawned to the limit and drives down the main roads until it gets worried and then it slows down and looks around and gets blown up right away most of the time.  Oddly enough the Tigers don't even last long enough for me to see them burning as I often did in PS.  I'm a lot more worried when I stumble across an unreported light tank or Panther then I have to:
A: avoid getting shot
B: report the tank
C: look out for enemy infantry (since they do try to cover tanks occasionally)
D: try to do something useful like shooting infantry or reviving our people or throwing smoke on the tank
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 20, 2020, 09:07:43 AM
  Last night I was on a really good squad.  I had the bazooka.  I tried hard to keep up with the cutting edge, but stalking tanks can be time consuming and I was trying to wait for medics every time I got "killed" (since I wanted to stay near the action with a bazooka).  At one point I was close to releasing a rocket on a Panther, but the local chatter seemed to suggest that Panther was going out of the battle area so letting it wander was better than shooting it and letting it start over.  I checked with my unit commander and he said, "If its going south leave it alone."  It was going south so I left it alone.

  Weirdly enough, I caught up with my unit and a light tank in the last 30 seconds of the battle.  I just had time to say "Where's that tank?" and then see it firing everything it had at a vacant field I'd just left when the big ole victory screen came up for our side.  No photos about this stuff...things tend to happen too fast for good screenshots in HLL.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 23, 2020, 10:50:05 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 18, 2020, 11:35:57 PM


  Here's my first tank kill.  It's hard to tell, but that is a German Light tank that has just been lit up by 2 37mm AP rounds from my Stuart:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: W8taminute on January 24, 2020, 12:30:21 PM
Nice!

I haven't played HLL in a while and when I was playing there were only Shermans and Panthers in the game.  Nice to see they've added light tanks as well now.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 24, 2020, 12:47:54 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on January 24, 2020, 12:30:21 PM
Nice!

I haven't played HLL in a while and when I was playing there were only Shermans and Panthers in the game.  Nice to see they've added light tanks as well now.

  There's a lot to like about the light tanks.  They are fast and can go some places that bigger tanks can't.  I got off Omaha Beach up a very marginal trail in the Stuart.  In HLL any tank can get stuck in a trench or ditch or sunken lane, but the light tanks seem to do significantly better with some of the narrow cart trails. 
  In other news -- as of update 5 they will have the following tanks:

Panther, Tiger I, PzkwII (with 20mm) for the Germans -- and for the Americans -- standard Sherman 75mm, Stuart, Up-armored Sherman 75, And the up Armored Sherman with a 76mm (Easy-8 -- still used in the Korean war I think).

Of course on the US front in Normandy there were no Tigers, no up-armored Shermans and not even very many (if any) 76mm Shermans.  I suspect that getting up-armored, more resource-using tanks for the Americans will actually make the US tanks as dysfunctional as the German tanks seem to be since to survive in a Sherman and knock out some Tigers you have to be pretty in-touch with the dynamics of the battle and if (as it seems the Panthers and Tigers do) you think your superiority will let you wander around -- then so much the worse for the Americans with their now-more-sorta okay tanks.

This reminds me of the words of wisdom I got in High School from the father of a friend.  The father had been in the 4th Armored through Normandy and on -- I said "How did you defeat those superior German tanks?"
He said, "we always knew where they were and we always had gas."  Do so in HLL that's also how the tank war seems to have worked up til now.  Better tanks for the US might change all that.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 24, 2020, 10:49:53 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 24, 2020, 12:47:54 PM


  There's a lot to like about the light tanks.  They are fast and can go some places that bigger tanks can't.  I got off Omaha Beach up a very marginal trail in the Stuart.  In HLL any tank can get stuck in a trench or ditch or sunken lane, but the light tanks seem to do significantly better with some of the narrow cart trails. 


  But even light tanks can get stuck.  Here's a PZKWII stuck on a wall in Normandy:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Rekim on January 27, 2020, 10:57:00 PM
I enlisted over the weekend. 5 hours into HLL I must have died almost 100 times  :o

The 4-5 kills I notched up were rewarding...and have hope that this ratio will improve.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 28, 2020, 07:42:03 AM
Quote from: Rekim on January 27, 2020, 10:57:00 PM
I enlisted over the weekend. 5 hours into HLL I must have died almost 100 times  :o

The 4-5 kills I notched up were rewarding...and have hope that this ratio will improve.

  Kills are pretty nice in this game.  Sometimes when I suspect an enemy was just wounded, I hang around to finish him off after he stops the minor bleeding himself.  This is because -- if say you nick somebody with a Thompson at 30 meters, you can't finish him off (the rule rewards people who aim better and also gives a better reward for cohesive units where people can recover).  Well maybe you can with a pistol, but I haven't tried that.  I don't aim well in this game for some reason (no real ballistics for basic weapons like the M1) so I've adapted by using grenades more and sometimes waiting for the enemy to recover so I can shoot him better next time.  Of course, if you don't want to waste a grenade and you are tired of nicking the same MG42 person at that nice notch under that tree in the hedegerow, you can just wait until he seems to be feeling better and then empty a clip into him from three feet away.   

   On the other hand, if you are feeling less Zesty (or testy), you can go find a place to put an op for your squad and whilst doing that innocent pastime you often come across enemy spawn points and clean those up -- much better for the team really than looking for enemies to shoot.

   Oh, so one can definitely get killed a lot in HLL.  I guess one learns to adapt.  I'm often a squad leader named Lloyd on the American side, so if you see my squad (really the six-man units of course) you can join me and tell me you'd like to survive and get some kills and I can help you with that to some degree.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Rekim on January 29, 2020, 01:26:16 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 28, 2020, 07:42:03 AM
Oh, so one can definitely get killed a lot in HLL.  I guess one learns to adapt.  I'm often a squad leader named Lloyd on the American side, so if you see my squad (really the six-man units of course) you can join me and tell me you'd like to survive and get some kills and I can help you with that to some degree.

I'll keep my eyes open for you Meng. I go by the same handle on HLL.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 29, 2020, 08:47:24 AM
Quote from: Rekim on January 29, 2020, 01:26:16 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 28, 2020, 07:42:03 AM
Oh, so one can definitely get killed a lot in HLL.  I guess one learns to adapt.  I'm often a squad leader named Lloyd on the American side, so if you see my squad (really the six-man units of course) you can join me and tell me you'd like to survive and get some kills and I can help you with that to some degree.

I'll keep my eyes open for you Meng. I go by the same handle on HLL.

  I'm cutting back a little on game time...I might be there roughly every other night from about 10-11 EST.  I'm going to try setting my friendly tags for 500 meters and toggling the interface (t key) when I think I might have a shot at the enemy...or a screenshot or both.  I don't know what loadouts you might like -- I've mostly been an "officer" or a rifleman or a medic...I've tried the BAR, the Bazooka and the MG once and I haven't tried being a German for more than 15 minutes 2 weeks ago, but that might be more of an option for you if you like their tanks or something.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Rekim on January 29, 2020, 09:59:03 PM
I work every night this week except for Thursday. Expect I'll be up for a round or two Thursday evening though. Next week my schedule is much better. I have two gaming nights scheduled but because I am in night shift mode I can come home from gaming and still spend some quality time with HLL  O0

So far I have only tried the rifleman role. Next up I'll probably have a go at being a medic. I want to get a better handle on the basics before taking on trickier roles like assault/recon/engineer/armor etc.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Destraex on January 30, 2020, 03:17:55 AM
A good write up of the differences between the two games currently:
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 30, 2020, 08:39:14 AM
Quote from: Rekim on January 29, 2020, 09:59:03 PM
I work every night this week except for Thursday. Expect I'll be up for a round or two Thursday evening though. Next week my schedule is much better. I have two gaming nights scheduled but because I am in night shift mode I can come home from gaming and still spend some quality time with HLL  O0

So far I have only tried the rifleman role. Next up I'll probably have a go at being a medic. I want to get a better handle on the basics before taking on trickier roles like assault/recon/engineer/armor etc.

  I did the same thing.  I still take a rifleman unless there's some specific task (such as supply...which I forgot about...or tank hunting, which is fun)
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 30, 2020, 09:00:43 AM
Quote from: Destraex on January 30, 2020, 03:17:55 AM
A good write up of the differences between the two games currently:


  I agree with the basic assessment: Post Scriptum is the better simulator and probably always will be.  The only positive plugs I would put in for HLL are mostly personal:
1) US in Normandy
2) More going on (the review doesn't mention advancement and customization, but that might become more interesting in HLL)
3) Smaller maps (a good thing, I think)
4) more mass engagements
5) smaller "squads"
6) easier to command a squad
7) HLL is at an earlier stage developmentally and might change in a better direction soon
8) for me visually better and the movement is fine

I am finding the nonballistics of HLL somewhat painful since I have to be pretty close to the enemy to kill them, but that might improve soon
Plus supposedly HLL is going to get more vehicles and some "logistics" changes some time or other
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Trooperc7 on January 30, 2020, 09:10:36 AM
I like both games, but after playing both for many hours, I think i prefer Post Scripitum. To me, i feel it plays better and certainly gives me more of a feeling of actual warfare than HLL. Once HLL adds some transport i think it will be a better game.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 31, 2020, 11:24:35 PM
Quote from: Trooperc7 on January 30, 2020, 09:10:36 AM
I like both games, but after playing both for many hours, I think i prefer Post Scripitum. To me, i feel it plays better and certainly gives me more of a feeling of actual warfare than HLL. Once HLL adds some transport i think it will be a better game.

  I was thinking of getting back to PS since I wasn't getting kills with the M1, but I just got 9 kills in a losing battle at Foy.  Some might have been grenade-kills, but I think it was mostly the M1 in the woods.  Foy was a nice battle for me back in the RO Mod Darkest Hour and okay...I guess I like Foy okay in HLL too.  And of course, I always get more kills in losing battles for some reason.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: AchillesLastStand on February 01, 2020, 03:08:30 PM
Played a bit of PS and it is surely more of a realistic simulation as compared to the more arcade-ish HLL.

With the little bit of playtime I had in PS I spent seemingly the vast majority of my time getting killed, mostly by someone whom I never seen. Wasn't very fun so I eventually refunded, played a bit on the free weekend and was more of the same.

Having way more fun in HLL, in one session I managed 3 tanks kills as an AT guy, a Tiger, and Panther and a Luchs were all victims. Having your markers set to the maximum 500 will help your game as well as prevent team kills.
The new map they are working on in HLL looks wonderful.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 01, 2020, 08:19:38 PM
Quote from: AchillesLastStand on February 01, 2020, 03:08:30 PM
Played a bit of PS and it is surely more of a realistic simulation as compared to the more arcade-ish HLL.

With the little bit of playtime I had in PS I spent seemingly the vast majority of my time getting killed, mostly by someone whom I never seen. Wasn't very fun so I eventually refunded, played a bit on the free weekend and was more of the same.

Having way more fun in HLL, in one session I managed 3 tanks kills as an AT guy, a Tiger, and Panther and a Luchs were all victims. Having your markers set to the maximum 500 will help your game as well as prevent team kills.
The new map they are working on in HLL looks wonderful.

   Now that I have some confidence in the M1 in HLL -- which since RO's Darkest Hour has been my favorite weapon -- I'm worried that when and if better ballistics come to HLL, they might give me some trouble for a while.  It took me 20 hours of HLL to get the hang of a non-ballistic rifle (basically a question of how far away your moving target has to be to risk a shot -- in PS I could hit moving targets with an Enfield or an M1 at around 150 meters with reasonable probability, in HLL much less -- extreme range for me with the M1 is about 80 meters for moving targets).  Who knows how long it will take me to get ballistic again?  I do miss a lot of things about PS (well, the Bren gun mostly at the moment), but I'm definitely happier with a slightly arcade-ish tilt  -- not sure why -- its a difficult to define set of atmospheric things -- but basically, smaller maps and smaller "squads" -- I also think things will get more interesting in HLL with the improved map marking -- a more democratic version of the pick-a thing wheel in PS. 

   As for 500 meters for one's own side being visible -- I started with that and I might go back to it if I use MGs or tanks, but I'm pretty sure anyone 100 meters from me is safe  from me so I've reset to 100 meter visibility just to keep my visual field uncluttered.

   Ah,yes...the maps in HLL, well they are wonderful and the new one looks like the best so far.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Grim.Reaper on February 02, 2020, 06:55:00 AM
this is going to sound stupid since in know it's a multiplayer game but will ask anyway.  let's just say i am pretty much an individual without any squads or friends who place this game, is it easy fir me to find a server and just play?  what kind of team communications happen?  i am not a big fan of using head sets and such, pretty much prefer just following along.  if you don't use headsets, how else would general strategy be shown?

how serious are the players?  no doubt i would suck and the last thing i need is people yelling at me:)
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on February 02, 2020, 08:46:07 AM
Spent a couple of hours with HLL last night, almost all of the time dying in seemingly random ways.  In a weird way I quite like that in a FPS: the confusion and lack of situational awareness seem to me to be quite realistic.  I do find that usually that begins to clear up as one learns the maps, what the enemy looks like and the game mechanisms.  I logged many hours in DH and RO2 and thus got relatively proficient as a grunt in those games - whether or not I have the stamina to get there in HLL (or PS, or Squad - I've got them all) remains to be seen.

To answer Grim's question, I'd say you could play these games without comms, but it would be tricky.  People do tag onto a squad without uttering a word (there is text chat), but a half-decent squad leader will talk to you and may expect a response. The"over-serious player" question is difficult because you won't know until you join the squad.  There may be some clues in the server description, but I guess you just have to put in the hours finding a server that has the sort of crowd you're looking for.  The short answer is that you don't have to use voice comms, and that your experience of the game will depend on the people in your squad

For me, I miss the simplicity of RO/DH, when you could just pick a side, pick a role and get on with it and team-play or lone-wolf depending on how you felt.  I understand that these Project Reality descendants are all about making game-play more realistic and less run-and-gun, but I resent being forced into it.

I was lucky last night in that I joined a squad with my son (I say "lucky" - must have done some good parenting!) and some of his mates, so it was a "safe" environment in which to learn stuff (your squad's comms are isolated from the rest of the server and you can block people from joining it).  That's the best way to experience these games - with people you already know

In the end, though, these MP games are a social thing (I got to virtually know quite a few people through DH and to know actual real people through MP flightsimming) and to get the best out of them, IMHO, you have to bite the bullet and join in that side of it.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 02, 2020, 11:55:02 AM
Quote from: Father Ted on February 02, 2020, 08:46:07 AM


I was lucky last night in that I joined a squad with my son (I say "lucky" - must have done some good parenting!) and some of his mates, so it was a "safe" environment in which to learn stuff (your squad's comms are isolated from the rest of the server and you can block people from joining it).  That's the best way to experience these games - with people you already know

In the end, though, these MP games are a social thing (I got to virtually know quite a few people through DH and to know actual real people through MP flightsimming) and to get the best out of them, IMHO, you have to bite the bullet and join in that side of it.

   Yep, you sorta have to roll with the social ambiance.  I was with a pretty cool group last night.  Me and a speechless Chinese guy turned back some infiltrators whilst standing on a searchlight above a trench.  Our squad-mates backed us up and our medic had a religious experience of a wonderfully comic nature.  Later we tried to rush a couple of objectives and barely lost the game -- but a good time was had by all. 

   So two lessons -- if you want to be speechless learn how to look Chinese (a few mysterious idiograms in your name tag should do)

2) if you are me (Lloyd)...set your own side tags to 250 meters because you can hit people at over 100 meters.

Okay and a third thing -- don't wear your white "Foy" helmet on non-winter maps

Okay and number 4) if you are suppressing an MG42 with rifle fire, you may be right in the line of fire from your own side (got Team killed twice doing that last night)
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 02, 2020, 12:02:38 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on February 02, 2020, 06:55:00 AM
this is going to sound stupid since in know it's a multiplayer game but will ask anyway.  let's just say i am pretty much an individual without any squads or friends who place this game, is it easy fir me to find a server and just play?  what kind of team communications happen?  i am not a big fan of using head sets and such, pretty much prefer just following along.  if you don't use headsets, how else would general strategy be shown?

how serious are the players?  no doubt i would suck and the last thing i need is people yelling at me:)

  One thing I like about HLL is that things are often (not always) less serious.  If you don't want to talk, just get a Chinese ideogram in front of your name tag.  No body is going to kick the Chinese off their server or even out of the squad.  Really, being a silent Chinese is far less annoying than the average player can be.

   However...don't be a squad leader if you aren't going to talk.  At the "command" level there's a lot of chatter.

BUT (and here's a hopeful but)...there's going to be a game mechanism that allows anyone to report things (targets or enemies) at least to the squad level ....of course some people say "so no communication"....well you know in a real battle a lot of communication is non-verbal so we can suppose when you mark the map for your squad...you are pointing and screaming or something.

You might want to wait for that map marking update.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Grim.Reaper on February 02, 2020, 03:20:22 PM
thanks guys, that is what i suspected....
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 02, 2020, 08:38:36 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on February 02, 2020, 03:20:22 PM
thanks guys, that is what i suspected....

  Here's the non-verbal things coming soon:


   https://steamcommunity.com/games/686810/announcements/detail/1708488968124292072


Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 03, 2020, 11:00:36 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 02, 2020, 08:38:36 PM

  Here's the non-verbal things coming soon:



   I'm pointing at this back way into town:

   
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: JasonPratt on February 03, 2020, 05:05:50 PM
I've been watching Post Scriptum recently, and it has improved enough that I'm thinking about getting into it at last... (too bad we don't have a good 'pondering' smiley.)
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: JasonPratt on February 03, 2020, 05:29:42 PM
Of course it still has SOME problems...

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 18, 2020, 02:47:30 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 03, 2020, 11:00:36 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 02, 2020, 08:38:36 PM

  Here's the non-verbal things coming soon:



   Big update.  Here's a screenshot from Purple Heart Lane:

 

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: W8taminute on February 18, 2020, 03:17:00 PM
Non verbal marking and comms?  Imagine being a squad leader trying to sift through the multiple and many chatter that will come from your squad mates.  It must really be challenging in real life to make sense of a situation and report the results up to the chain of command.  Puts a new perspective on leadership I had not thought about before for me.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 18, 2020, 05:19:06 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on February 18, 2020, 03:17:00 PM
Non verbal marking and comms?  Imagine being a squad leader trying to sift through the multiple and many chatter that will come from your squad mates.  It must really be challenging in real life to make sense of a situation and report the results up to the chain of command.  Puts a new perspective on leadership I had not thought about before for me.

  Well in HLL, the "units" are pretty small (6 men including the Officer/Corporal).  Actually the markings may cut down a little on the chatter since you won't have people trying to explain "on the other side of that hedge west or north of the little house with the blue roof".  It may be also that a flow of relatively reliable information will help the overall commander a bit.  As for coms in WWII in real life, the number of amazing blunders reported in the official US Army history is pretty horrifying and a lot probably either was glossed over or simply assumed to be the way things go in war.  I was just reading Martin Blumenson's Breakout and Pursuit and he uses such things as telephone logs to try to figure out what actually happened sometimes.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 12:20:16 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 18, 2020, 02:47:30 PM

   Big update.  Here's a screenshot from Purple Heart Lane (Easy8 Sherman with better armor and a 76mm gun):


Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on February 19, 2020, 05:48:32 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 12:20:16 PM

Easy8 Sherman with better armor and a 76mm gun


Was that a historical thing?  The Brits had the upgunned (17pdr = 76mm?) Sherman they called a Firefly, but did that (or the US version) have better armour?
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 05:57:52 PM
Quote from: Father Ted on February 19, 2020, 05:48:32 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 12:20:16 PM

Easy8 Sherman with better armor and a 76mm gun


Was that a historical thing?  The Brits had the upgunned (17pdr = 76mm?) Sherman they called a Firefly, but did that (or the US version) have better armour?

  The 17 pdr is a very different gun (much higher velocity) than the US 76mm.  The US 76mm Sherman began to arrive at the front after Normandy so neither it nor the Tiger I historically were in the US sector in Normandy.  The US 76mm tank was pretty effective BUT the Easy 8 was the final version of the tank so again...not historical.  Still, even the garden-variety 76mm sherman was statistically 3 times more effective than the Panther so it was not a bad tank at all.  Still I guess the game needs some tanky excitement and anyway historically WWII was not much fun so why not?

  On the front of the British 2nd army, the 17 pdr could be found on the Achilles (an M10 with a 17pdr), the archer, as a towed gun and in the Firefly.
Fortunately for the German players, the game is featuring the US Army at the moment rather than the British Army.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 21, 2020, 07:06:29 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 05:57:52 PM

  On the front of the British 2nd army, the 17 pdr could be found on the Achilles (an M10 with a 17pdr), the archer, as a towed gun and in the Firefly.
Fortunately for the German players, the game is featuring the US Army at the moment rather than the British Army.

  For a change of pace, here is the up-armored 75mm Sherman -- the classic "Jumbo" -- This one would have been more common slightly earlier than the up-armored 76mm or the ultimate Easy-eight that is also in the game:

 
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Rayfer on February 21, 2020, 08:10:49 AM
MJ...is that guy about to shoot the tank with a pistol?  A fatal mistake?
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Pete Dero on February 21, 2020, 08:33:55 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 05:57:52 PM
Still, even the garden-variety 76mm sherman was statistically 3 times more effective than the Panther so it was not a bad tank at all.

Are you sure ?

Some quotes from soldiers of the Second Armored Division :

"I have engaged the German Mark V tank with our M4 Medium. The Mark V tank is superior to our M4. Its wide tracks give it greater flotation although the German steel tracks do not have as great a mileage as our steel tracks. They are more heavily armored but still have greater mobility. The Mark V gun is far superior to our 75mm gun with much more penetrating power. The sight for the low machine gun is also a valuable feature of the tank."

"I have seen our 75mm and 76mm AP bounce off German Mark V and Mark VI tanks. I haven't seen a German tank knocked out, that was hit in the front; you always have to hit them in the side or rear compartment."

"I've been told that the M4A3 tank (with 76mm gun) is the equal if not a better tank than the German Mark V 'Panther'. That's not so! The only reason that we've gone as far as we have is summed up in 'Quantity and the Cooperation of Arms.' Until such times as the Army puts out a tank that can knock out a "Panther" from the front at 1,500 yars, or adds enough armor to stop a shell from the same distance, we'll continue to lose a heavy toll of tanks, men and equipment."

"In comparing the German tank with our own medium tank, there is one thing that I would like to bring out; that is, the armor plate on each tank. The Mark V has about four and a half inches on the front. The Mark VI has a little over six inches. When placing tank against tank, you must consider the armor of each. In past engagements with the enemy, we have placed tank against tank very often. In one tank battle, our M4 was in the front by an AP shell from a Mark VI. It went in the front and came out the rear. I have also seen our 75mm AP shells bounce off the front of the Mark V and Mark VI tanks."

"Our tank guns, both 75mm and 76mm, haven't the penetrating power that the German tanks have. At Elbeuff, during August 1944, our AP shells bounced off a Mark VI at point-blank range while we were on a road block."
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 21, 2020, 09:02:46 AM
Quote from: Pete Dero on February 21, 2020, 08:33:55 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 05:57:52 PM
Still, even the garden-variety 76mm sherman was statistically 3 times more effective than the Panther so it was not a bad tank at all.

Are you sure ?

Some quotes from soldiers of the Second Armored Division :

"I have engaged the German Mark V tank with our M4 Medium. The Mark V tank is superior to our M4. Its wide tracks give it greater flotation although the German steel tracks do not have as great a mileage as our steel tracks. They are more heavily armored but still have greater mobility. The Mark V gun is far superior to our 75mm gun with much more penetrating power. The sight for the low machine gun is also a valuable feature of the tank."

"I have seen our 75mm and 76mm AP bounce off German Mark V and Mark VI tanks. I haven't seen a German tank knocked out, that was hit in the front; you always have to hit them in the side or rear compartment."

"I've been told that the M4A3 tank (with 76mm gun) is the equal if not a better tank than the German Mark V 'Panther'. That's not so! The only reason that we've gone as far as we have is summed up in 'Quantity and the Cooperation of Arms.' Until such times as the Army puts out a tank that can knock out a "Panther" from the front at 1,500 yars, or adds enough armor to stop a shell from the same distance, we'll continue to lose a heavy toll of tanks, men and equipment."

"In comparing the German tank with our own medium tank, there is one thing that I would like to bring out; that is, the armor plate on each tank. The Mark V has about four and a half inches on the front. The Mark VI has a little over six inches. When placing tank against tank, you must consider the armor of each. In past engagements with the enemy, we have placed tank against tank very often. In one tank battle, our M4 was in the front by an AP shell from a Mark VI. It went in the front and came out the rear. I have also seen our 75mm AP shells bounce off the front of the Mark V and Mark VI tanks."

"Our tank guns, both 75mm and 76mm, haven't the penetrating power that the German tanks have. At Elbeuff, during August 1944, our AP shells bounced off a Mark VI at point-blank range while we were on a road block."



   The Sherman 76mm even without extra armor had a lot of advantages over the Panther in December 1944 apparently:

   A greater proportion of better-trained, more experinced crews
   Better recon support
   Better maintence and plenty of gas and lubricants
   Better situational tracking periscopes and sights
   Much, much higher reliabilty

   Which meant that it took 3 times as many Panthers to get the same battlefield results as say X number of Sherman 76mm tanks.  What tended to happen with the more heavily armored German tanks in the Ardenne in 1944 very much resembles what happened with heavy French tanks in 1940:
a very high proportion broke down or ran out of gas, ie were ineffective.  Statistically, it doesn't matter why a tank fails to get in or out of battle and presumably even if Panthers won most of their head-to-head fights, if most of them ran out of gas or broke down, they aren't as effective as tanks that get to the fighting.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 21, 2020, 09:14:20 AM
Quote from: Rayfer on February 21, 2020, 08:10:49 AM
MJ...is that guy about to shoot the tank with a pistol?  A fatal mistake?

  That's my tank.  I got out to take a photo and was shot...I think by a straffing plane!  Yes, a 109...which is appropriate for Purple Heart Lane since two Stukas seriously messed up a US Airborne company on this road historically.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 22, 2020, 11:46:42 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 19, 2020, 12:20:16 PM

Purple Heart Lane


  Wet view from a canal boat.  There are several canals and a number of canal boats on this map.  also it is raining and lots of things are flooded.  If you fall into a canal you die more or less instantly.  This seems reasonable to me.  Falling into water over your head while carrying a lot of weapons and ammo could kill you and why not in 4 seconds...do you really want to have your drowning simulated in great detail?  However, apparently this is going to be patched -- you can fall in and maybe climb back out.  As far as I know, the canals are the only place where you can drown and they are marked in RED on the map...so (after drowning a few times)...I learned to be careful.  By the way...on this map, having all your visuals turned up all the way can definitely help you see better ways across flooded areas since the details of the plants can show you where to go to stop sloshing along.

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on February 22, 2020, 01:40:43 PM
Quote from: Rayfer on February 21, 2020, 08:10:49 AM
MJ...is that guy about to shoot the tank with a pistol?  A fatal mistake?

In one of the Armas you could make a tank move by shooting it with a sidearm
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on February 22, 2020, 01:45:50 PM
Quote from: Father Ted on February 22, 2020, 01:40:43 PM
Quote from: Rayfer on February 21, 2020, 08:10:49 AM
MJ...is that guy about to shoot the tank with a pistol?  A fatal mistake?

In one of the Armas you could make a tank move by shooting it with a sidearm

  I once blew an STGIII out to sea with a gammon bomb in an early ARMA.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 02, 2020, 10:13:07 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 22, 2020, 11:46:42 AM


Purple Heart Lane



  Patches 9 and 10 arrived.  I spent more time exploring canals.  You can cross even the red line canals at diagonal boats such as this one near the main road on the main bridge:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on March 03, 2020, 01:32:17 AM
New map is pretty cool. Still got hit with the flippin vox bug twice tonight. Had the good fortune to get in a couple good squads.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 03, 2020, 08:58:27 AM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 03, 2020, 01:32:17 AM
New map is pretty cool. Still got hit with the flippin vox bug twice tonight. Had the good fortune to get in a couple good squads.

  The Vox bug means you can't be heard or something?
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on March 03, 2020, 02:05:52 PM
Yah, every so often your voice comms will just stop working. Been happening as long as I've owned the game. Couple other guys got hit with it last evening.

I did read a short post from one of the devs that recommended going into the Advanced tab of your microphone properties in the Recording tab of the Sound Control Panel (if that makes any sense) and un-checking "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". I tried that and it didn't seem to help initially, but when I changed squads my voice comms came back. Curious if it will happen again now.

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 03, 2020, 02:28:44 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 03, 2020, 02:05:52 PM
Yah, every so often your voice comms will just stop working. Been happening as long as I've owned the game. Couple other guys got hit with it last evening.

I did read a short post from one of the devs that recommended going into the Advanced tab of your microphone properties in the Recording tab of the Sound Control Panel (if that makes any sense) and un-checking "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". I tried that and it didn't seem to help initially, but when I changed squads my voice comms came back. Curious if it will happen again now.

   Strange.  It seems to happen pretty often, though I haven't seen it.  And I agree the new map is pretty interesting and picturesque
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on March 04, 2020, 04:45:18 AM
Yeah, it's hard to tell if folks just aren't talking or they are hit by the bug lol.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 04, 2020, 11:26:04 AM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 04, 2020, 04:45:18 AM
Yeah, it's hard to tell if folks just aren't talking or they are hit by the bug lol.

The bug can sense the strain in your voice.  I'm always stressed so it can't detect any stress signal from my mic.

Which reminds me.  I was tagging along with the sl and we were doing okay, though we seemed to be surrounded by Germans -- we'd gone way too far on one of those maps with a big hill covered with burning wreckage (not Omaha) -- and in a moment of terror the SL says "Lloyd, drop the box here!"  It was going to be our last stand -- but at least we'd have some grenades from the ammo box to liven things up.  Gibbering with terror, I cried, "I left the box back in the first trench!"
I sounded so upset that the SL said, "It's okay!  It's okay!" we died laughing as the Germans closed in on our little trench without any ammo.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on March 04, 2020, 12:13:30 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 04, 2020, 11:26:04 AM

Which reminds me.  I was tagging along with the sl and we were doing okay, though we seemed to be surrounded by Germans -- we'd gone way too far on one of those maps with a big hill covered with burning wreckage (not Omaha) -- and in a moment of terror the SL says "Lloyd, drop the box here!"  It was going to be our last stand -- but at least we'd have some grenades from the ammo box to liven things up.  Gibbering with terror, I cried, "I left the box back in the first trench!"
I sounded so upset that the SL said, "It's okay!  It's okay!" we died laughing as the Germans closed in on our little trench without any ammo.

It's amazing how much fear can be generated by these sorts of games, when all that'll happen to you is you have to respawn.  Last time I played our squad got pinned down in a trench by a Panther and we all remarked how scary it was.  Also the role-playing is quite fun - I got tended by a medic from another squad who said, "There, there, you'll be ok soon" as he bandaged me.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 04, 2020, 03:07:10 PM
Quote from: Father Ted on March 04, 2020, 12:13:30 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 04, 2020, 11:26:04 AM

Which reminds me.  I was tagging along with the sl and we were doing okay, though we seemed to be surrounded by Germans -- we'd gone way too far on one of those maps with a big hill covered with burning wreckage (not Omaha) -- and in a moment of terror the SL says "Lloyd, drop the box here!"  It was going to be our last stand -- but at least we'd have some grenades from the ammo box to liven things up.  Gibbering with terror, I cried, "I left the box back in the first trench!"
I sounded so upset that the SL said, "It's okay!  It's okay!" we died laughing as the Germans closed in on our little trench without any ammo.

It's amazing how much fear can be generated by these sorts of games, when all that'll happen to you is you have to respawn.  Last time I played our squad got pinned down in a trench by a Panther and we all remarked how scary it was.  Also the role-playing is quite fun - I got tended by a medic from another squad who said, "There, there, you'll be ok soon" as he bandaged me.

   It's interesting how these games tap into something primitive about humanoid groups.  I say humanoid because some of it seems really really primitive as in Homo Erectus goes after big game -- there he is about half our brains and nothing but spears and fire to go after mammoths or elephants or something -- no doubt with a lot of screaming and shouting and so on.  I noticed this when hunting tanks in WWII Online.  The spontaneously cooperative hunting behavior was surprising in some ways -- but figuring people in some form or other had been specializing in that kind of cooperative hunting for 2-3 million years -- not so strange.

   The fear thing is really odd -- it seems to move into laughing really hard pretty easily -- which suggests the "fear" is some kind of social thing (ie you exhibit it partly to help some kind of group response -- a modulated fight or flight or some other behavior change.)...of course your heart-rate and other relexes are all running and you are even more engaged than in say watching a horror movie -- which brain-scans reveal use huge areas of the brain.

   Anyway...the fun definitely involves evoking some primitive responses.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 12, 2020, 08:14:33 AM
Quote from: Father Ted on March 04, 2020, 12:13:30 PM



  Easy 8 on Foy where it is more historical:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 19, 2020, 06:49:54 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 02, 2020, 10:13:07 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on February 22, 2020, 11:46:42 AM


Purple Heart Lane



  Patches 9 and 10 arrived.  I spent more time exploring canals.  You can cross even the red line canals at diagonal boats such as this one near the main road on the main bridge:

And this is a safe crossing, but you need your vegetation turned up all the way to see it that way:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on March 19, 2020, 11:31:40 PM
I managed to drown myself a couple times the first night I played on the new map but haven't had much trouble since then. It did happen a couple nights ago when a medic was healing me and in the process pushed me into the water and I drowned. I've also experienced being pushed under the map a couple times lately while being healed. Just another reason to stay away from the medics lol!

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 20, 2020, 07:11:26 AM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 19, 2020, 11:31:40 PM
I managed to drown myself a couple times the first night I played on the new map but haven't had much trouble since then. It did happen a couple nights ago when a medic was healing me and in the process pushed me into the water and I drowned. I've also experienced being pushed under the map a couple times lately while being healed. Just another reason to stay away from the medics lol!

  There used to be a wonderful bug in Post Scriptum where you were instantly cured and re-supplied when you became section leader by default.  I guess even becomeing section leader by default is sort of buggy -- but that was the world of early PS --  My favorite time with that bug was when I was out of ammo with a Bren gun and the Germans were closing in at a cross-roads.  I suddenly became SL with a full load of ammo and no injuries or fatigue and HQ said "Take your section and clear the road to the objective" and (miraculously), I did.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on March 20, 2020, 05:39:44 PM
Forgot to mention that if you get hit with the vox bug just leave your squad and jump back in, seems to fix it..
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 20, 2020, 07:09:28 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 20, 2020, 05:39:44 PM
Forgot to mention that if you get hit with the vox bug just leave your squad and jump back in, seems to fix it..

Good to know!
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 01, 2020, 12:55:51 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 20, 2020, 07:09:28 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 20, 2020, 05:39:44 PM
Forgot to mention that if you get hit with the vox bug just leave your squad and jump back in, seems to fix it..

Good to know!

  And mysterious.  The current blurb from the developers says they are going to build the Rat, which is a German APC carrying a battlecruiser turrent with
4 280mm guns off the Gneiseinau.  it is 11 meters tall and 39 meters long. It can carry 40 men and also has 4 AA guns AND it has the advantage that it can hide on one map and wipe out all allied teams on all six other maps.

  HLL has been pretty funny lately and this is nicely surreal.  Last night one US guy was going on about how he still had some stress syndrome from his time in Belleau Wood.  Also a bit surreal. 
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Sir Slash on April 01, 2020, 01:53:10 PM
The Rat would give me stress.  :hide:
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Jarhead0331 on April 01, 2020, 01:57:32 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 01, 2020, 12:55:51 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 20, 2020, 07:09:28 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 20, 2020, 05:39:44 PM
Forgot to mention that if you get hit with the vox bug just leave your squad and jump back in, seems to fix it..

Good to know!

  And mysterious.  The current blurb from the developers says they are going to build the Rat, which is a German APC carrying a battlecruiser turrent with
4 280mm guns off the Gneiseinau.  it is 11 meters tall and 39 meters long. It can carry 40 men and also has 4 AA guns AND it has the advantage that it can hide on one map and wipe out all allied teams on all six other maps.

  HLL has been pretty funny lately and this is nicely surreal.  Last night one US guy was going on about how he still had some stress syndrome from his time in Belleau Wood.  Also a bit surreal.

I'm assuming this is an April Fool's joke.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 01, 2020, 02:39:59 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 01, 2020, 01:57:32 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 01, 2020, 12:55:51 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 20, 2020, 07:09:28 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 20, 2020, 05:39:44 PM
Forgot to mention that if you get hit with the vox bug just leave your squad and jump back in, seems to fix it..

Good to know!

  And mysterious.  The current blurb from the developers says they are going to build the Rat, which is a German APC carrying a battlecruiser turrent with
4 280mm guns off the Gneiseinau.  it is 11 meters tall and 39 meters long. It can carry 40 men and also has 4 AA guns AND it has the advantage that it can hide on one map and wipe out all allied teams on all six other maps.

  HLL has been pretty funny lately and this is nicely surreal.  Last night one US guy was going on about how he still had some stress syndrome from his time in Belleau Wood.  Also a bit surreal.

I'm assuming this is an April Fool's joke.

  Hope so.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Pete Dero on April 02, 2020, 02:56:30 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 01, 2020, 02:39:59 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 01, 2020, 01:57:32 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 01, 2020, 12:55:51 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 20, 2020, 07:09:28 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 20, 2020, 05:39:44 PM
Forgot to mention that if you get hit with the vox bug just leave your squad and jump back in, seems to fix it..

Good to know!

  And mysterious.  The current blurb from the developers says they are going to build the Rat, which is a German APC carrying a battlecruiser turrent with
4 280mm guns off the Gneiseinau.  it is 11 meters tall and 39 meters long. It can carry 40 men and also has 4 AA guns AND it has the advantage that it can hide on one map and wipe out all allied teams on all six other maps.

  HLL has been pretty funny lately and this is nicely surreal.  Last night one US guy was going on about how he still had some stress syndrome from his time in Belleau Wood.  Also a bit surreal.

I'm assuming this is an April Fool's joke.

  Hope so.

The genius with this ship is that it sinks itself when you shoot the guns through the recoil   :crazy2:  .
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 02, 2020, 06:28:05 AM
Quote from: Pete Dero on April 02, 2020, 02:56:30 AM


The genius with this ship is that it sinks itself when you shoot the guns through the recoil   :crazy2:  .

And yet the images on the update make it look workable and strangely convincing.  Maybe I spend too much time looking at developer's updates.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 06, 2020, 04:39:12 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 02, 2020, 06:28:05 AM


  Maybe I spend too much time looking at developer's updates.

  A ditch with 3-4 dead Germans in it.  US tanks were extra-ordinarily effective in this battle and they were the basic 75mm Shermans.  I got wounded by fire from a PZKW II but survived and there was some kind of melee around a Tiger in which US Tank fire destroyed the Tiger and a mix of infantry of both sides:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 11, 2020, 11:53:57 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 06, 2020, 04:39:12 PM



  Maybe I spend too much time looking at developer's updates.

   I led very green squad last night on the Easy Company Server.  I think the whole US team was overall pretty inexperienced.   I have some experience, but I'm remarkably bad at FPS in general as a rule and its kind of interesting when I have to stop and explain things to everybody up and down the chain of command.  So the Germans beat us pretty quickly (our Commander read off the names of the fearsomely experienced Germans we were facing.
  It was all news to me and they were definitely good players.  You can tell a good German team when their tanks stay close to their infantry.  Our tanks were -- as usual -- very good, but they were not enough to save us.  On the other hand, a lot of people talked a lot and we stayed coherent with 50 players clear to the bitter end.  There was one experinced guy on my squad and he was pretty supportive so that was good and I gave him a commendation at the end of the battle.  On the very slight downside, inexperienced teams tend to have more accidental team-killing and I went down twice to my own fire and teamkilled a guy who ran infront of me while I was shooting a german at pointblank range.  I'm not sure how he fitted in, but I got the notice that I'd killed my own guy.  A little later, somebody shot me and I had four or five people saying they were sorry and how did the medic thing work.  I got patched up and got up in time to tell my squad to stop bunching up so much.  In sum -- we lost but it was pretty fun.
 
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on April 11, 2020, 04:17:09 PM
I've had more than a few rounds where a good squad made up for getting rolled pretty hard by the other side. Even though we lost, we played well together, even if the rest of our side was wandering around the map like lost sheep and losing objectives one after another lol.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 11, 2020, 07:07:23 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on April 11, 2020, 04:17:09 PM
I've had more than a few rounds where a good squad made up for getting rolled pretty hard by the other side. Even though we lost, we played well together, even if the rest of our side was wandering around the map like lost sheep and losing objectives one after another lol.

  It's funny but our whole team was communicating very well for the whole battle.  We just lost every single big firefight cuz the Germans coordinated everything just a little better (or something). So, sure, communication is important but it's also important:
1) not to accidently shoot each other
2) hit things (like tanks with your bazookas) that you need to
3) set up nodes for supplies that don't get overrun
4) don't bunch up
5) use suppressive fire
6) win your flanking fire fights occasionally
6.5) win your big central fire fights occasionally
7) don't try to kill the enemy with artillery
8) but do push him around and take his garrisons and nodes and outposts
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 12, 2020, 07:31:01 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 11, 2020, 07:07:23 PM


Sunny day at Douve Bridge:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on April 12, 2020, 09:34:13 AM
My brother talked me into playing a little Iron Front ARMA 3 night before last, and the thing that struck me the most was being able to see further than 150 meters lol!
Was nice to have variable stances again instead of just standing, crouching, prone. But there was little effort at teamwork (was a KoTH server), and I found myself wishing I was playing HLL even though I have spent many hours happily in ARMA.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 12, 2020, 11:10:46 AM
Quote from: Bardolph on April 12, 2020, 09:34:13 AM
My brother talked me into playing a little Iron Front ARMA 3 night before last, and the thing that struck me the most was being able to see further than 150 meters lol!
Was nice to have variable stances again instead of just standing, crouching, prone. But there was little effort at teamwork (was a KoTH server), and I found myself wishing I was playing HLL even though I have spent many hours happily in ARMA.

   I've always liked ARMA a lot but some of the attractions of HLL are that its easier to set up (the servers are out there more or less without much effort) AND it is ever-changing (but I don't have to change it).  It's odd that people find HLL has "optimization" problems.  I'm not sure if that is a real thing or if it's just one of those things you have to mention to sound like you know what you are talking about.  I have a crappy computer and it works fine for me most of the time.  Apparently "optimization" sort of means -- runs like an AAA game -- but are those "optimized" or just reduced to such a weird scale and lots of verbiage about your points on the screen so that you'd never know anyway?
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on April 12, 2020, 05:16:22 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 12, 2020, 11:10:46 AM
Quote from: Bardolph on April 12, 2020, 09:34:13 AM
My brother talked me into playing a little Iron Front ARMA 3 night before last, and the thing that struck me the most was being able to see further than 150 meters lol!
Was nice to have variable stances again instead of just standing, crouching, prone. But there was little effort at teamwork (was a KoTH server), and I found myself wishing I was playing HLL even though I have spent many hours happily in ARMA.

   I've always liked ARMA a lot but some of the attractions of HLL are that its easier to set up (the servers are out there more or less without much effort) AND it is ever-changing (but I don't have to change it).  It's odd that people find HLL has "optimization" problems.  I'm not sure if that is a real thing or if it's just one of those things you have to mention to sound like you know what you are talking about.  I have a crappy computer and it works fine for me most of the time.  Apparently "optimization" sort of means -- runs like an AAA game -- but are those "optimized" or just reduced to such a weird scale and lots of verbiage about your points on the screen so that you'd never know anyway?

Ha! So I played a fair amount of ARMA KotH and always found it very janky - is that the same as unoptimized?  Basically the symptoms were that other players "rubber-banded" about the place and it was hard to tell if you were shooting at the right place or had hit anyone.  Don't have the same problem in HLL - just my own slowing reactions...
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on April 12, 2020, 09:25:32 PM
Rubber banding is usually net problem, not your computer. But "ARMA physics" is a thing, and sometimes weird stuff happens in ARMA. The Iron Front mod has come a ways since I last tried it. Only played two maps, the first was the snow one, and it is still pretty awful, but the next map we played was summer and was full of custom buildings and whatnot and was actually pretty nice.
I spent a fair deal of time fumbling with controls, my ARMA setup is pretty complicated and I hadn't played in a long time, but the shooty bits felt good. ARMA's sight pictures are generally far superior to HLL, though HLL is better than Post-Scriptum in that regard.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 30, 2020, 05:38:20 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 12, 2020, 07:31:01 AM


  I looked around in the latest update:

  More wind and water and light and clouds on Utah Beach.  The commander can spawn a recon vehicle AND he or infantry can ride in it but not drive it.

   It's also much easier to drive than a tank.  Here's the greyhound on hill 400:

   


Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on May 17, 2020, 09:37:51 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 30, 2020, 05:38:20 PM


  Train Wreck on Hill 400:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Sir Slash on May 17, 2020, 09:41:38 PM
Did you cause all that mess Meng? Cause if so..... then WELL DONE!  :clap:
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on May 18, 2020, 06:09:41 AM
Quote from: Sir Slash on May 17, 2020, 09:41:38 PM
Did you cause all that mess Meng? Cause if so..... then WELL DONE!  :clap:


  Nope.  I was driving the greyhound around on an empty server sight-seeing and taking photos.  These days the biggest messes I make are with the occasional grenade thrown into over a distant hedge.  Sometimes I think I hear a howl or two of pain and I guess it is the howls of the enemy since none of my side's markers are in that direction.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 15, 2020, 07:52:10 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on May 18, 2020, 06:09:41 AM
Quote from: Sir Slash on May 17, 2020, 09:41:38 PM
Did you cause all that mess Meng? Cause if so..... then WELL DONE!  :clap:


  Nope.  I was driving the greyhound around on an empty server sight-seeing and taking photos.  These days the biggest messes I make are with the occasional grenade thrown into over a distant hedge.  Sometimes I think I hear a howl or two of pain and I guess it is the howls of the enemy since none of my side's markers are in that direction.

  Industrial Archaeology:  the Carentan Map:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Sir Slash on July 15, 2020, 10:01:07 AM
I can dig that.  :2funny:
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 18, 2020, 07:07:27 AM
Quote from: Sir Slash on July 15, 2020, 10:01:07 AM
I can dig that.  :2funny:

  Easy eight on the revised Foy (and there's a free weekend for HLL til the 20th):

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Sir Slash on July 18, 2020, 09:50:52 AM
WHOA!  :wow:   That's a big gun.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Geezer on July 18, 2020, 10:33:42 AM
I bet you say that to all the boys...
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 18, 2020, 04:18:12 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on July 18, 2020, 09:50:52 AM
WHOA!  :wow:   That's a big gun.

   That's just the usual US 76mm for Shermans (US Shermans got the 75, the 76 and the 105).  The screenshot exaggerates its length.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 18, 2020, 04:20:50 PM
Quote from: Geezer on July 18, 2020, 10:33:42 AM
I bet you say that to all the boys...

   You should get in and play this week-end!  There's a bazillaion noobs on for the free weekend!  If you do some supply work you will seem 1000 times more adept than the average!
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 20, 2020, 06:53:29 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on May 18, 2020, 06:09:41 AM
Quote from: Sir Slash on May 17, 2020, 09:41:38 PM
Did you cause all that mess Meng? Cause if so..... then WELL DONE!  :clap:


  Nope.  I was driving the greyhound around on an empty server sight-seeing and taking photos.  These days the biggest messes I make are with the occasional grenade thrown into over a distant hedge.  Sometimes I think I hear a howl or two of pain and I guess it is the howls of the enemy since none of my side's markers are in that direction.

  Purple Heart Lane -- and this bloody line of dead Elitetruppen is indeed in the ditch right next to the main road.  The screenshot is from a few weeks ago but Purple Heart Lane hasn't been changed and I was fighting on it last night and I even managed to hit a few of the enemy with shots from my trusty M1 rifle:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: W8taminute on July 20, 2020, 07:50:53 AM
Nice screenshots!  I really should fire this game up again.  Haven't played since it came out last year.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 20, 2020, 09:12:49 AM
Quote from: W8taminute on July 20, 2020, 07:50:53 AM
Nice screenshots!  I really should fire this game up again.  Haven't played since it came out last year.

  Yep, it is a fine continuation of the Red Orchestra -- Darkest Hour -- Post Scriptum Series.  If you've played the earlier versions of this particular line of WWII FPS games, it is definitely an incremental improvement and it is itself getting more interesting (if not necessarily more satisfying).  I think Purple Heart Lane is still my favorite map -- the grim atmosphere is pretty satisfying in itself.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Sir Slash on July 20, 2020, 11:44:02 AM
Can't play it. Once I start.... I will NEVER be able to stop, too OCD foe these things.  :idiot2:
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 20, 2020, 12:58:10 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on July 20, 2020, 11:44:02 AM
Can't play it. Once I start.... I will NEVER be able to stop, too OCD foe these things.  :idiot2:

  This might be the cure for that; get hit by artillery, run over by tanks, mangled by machine gun bursts, sniped, bombed, strafed, chewed up by grenades, shot by your own men...you might be able to stop.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: W8taminute on July 20, 2020, 07:51:07 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on July 20, 2020, 12:58:10 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on July 20, 2020, 11:44:02 AM
Can't play it. Once I start.... I will NEVER be able to stop, too OCD foe these things.  :idiot2:

  This might be the cure for that; get hit by artillery, run over by tanks, mangled by machine gun bursts, sniped, bombed, strafed, chewed up by grenades, shot by your own men...you might be able to stop.

So true!  Unless you're a sadist, then you keep coming back for more.   ;D
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 21, 2020, 05:47:01 AM
Quote from: W8taminute on July 20, 2020, 07:51:07 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on July 20, 2020, 12:58:10 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on July 20, 2020, 11:44:02 AM
Can't play it. Once I start.... I will NEVER be able to stop, too OCD foe these things.  :idiot2:

  This might be the cure for that; get hit by artillery, run over by tanks, mangled by machine gun bursts, sniped, bombed, strafed, chewed up by grenades, shot by your own men...you might be able to stop.

So true!  Unless you're a sadist, then you keep coming back for more.   ;D

   I'm sure there are some common mental predispositions involved, but this game has satisfactorily knocked most of them out of me.  I just play until my side wins or loses or I've had enough or have otherwise slaked my thirst for mayhem.  So a few nights ago (on Purple Heart Lane) I thought I was at the start of a good run.  I wasnt' a SL.  I had my M1 and I'd set out my ammo box and thrown all my grenades.  I was on the flank of the last German position and the EliteTruppen were definitely trying to come around my way.  I was about to get up to the top of a small embankment and do some satisfying shootin' when (right on schedule) a German appeared at the top of the bank...maybe thirty feet away.  we saw each other at about the same time...I might have been a few miliseconds ahead since he was high up against the sky and I was climbing the bank.  We fired at almost exactly the same time.  I got off 4 or five wild shots and saw an amazing arc of blood rocketing out of his head as he went down out of sight.  He had fired some sort of automatic weapon and nicked me. 
    That looked like a kill to me, but I've learned to go elsewhere under such circumstances since nothing quite annoys the Elitetruppen like shooting the point man.  So I ducked off and patched my nick.  I was contemplating looking for more trouble when an artillery barrage clobbered me.  So...having had a nice shooting scene and been blown to bits, I was in a satisfactory state of postmortum bliss and I quit.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Geezer on July 21, 2020, 07:12:01 AM
The game looks interesting, but the days of me playing first person twitch shooters are long gone.  I recently reminded myself of that trying to go back to Planetside 2.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Sir Slash on July 21, 2020, 10:03:10 AM
I agree. I loved the Medal of Honor/Brother In Arms shooters on my old PS 2 back in the day but my reactions are too slow now and.... they make me nervous as hell. Plus I can't stand losing.  :pullhair:
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 24, 2020, 09:06:29 PM


  A more common event: Carentan today, SL sets up an outpost:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on July 31, 2020, 08:58:46 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on July 24, 2020, 09:06:29 PM


   And here's my new carbine.  There's a "point man" load out once you get somewhat into the game.  I'm using it partly because the rifleman gets
4 grenades right away with it and for the SL -- the carbine is a lot better than the Thompson in most situations....Plus I get to use the same gun in the
two roles I usually play (SL and rifleman).  Now if I could just quit getting killed all the time and/or learn to keep my mic audiable and learn to signal on the map when I spot something...well I'd be doing real good.  I did get 5 kills this time...though with all the grenades I threw, maybe not with the carbine...I'm not sure.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on August 26, 2020, 08:01:36 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on July 31, 2020, 08:58:46 PM

    There's a "point man" load out once you get somewhat into the game.  I'm using it partly because the rifleman gets
4 grenades right away with it and for the SL -- the carbine is a lot better than the Thompson in most situations....Plus I get to use the same gun in the
two roles I usually play (SL and rifleman).  Now if I could just quit getting killed all the time and/or learn to keep my mic audiable and learn to signal on the map when I spot something...well I'd be doing real good.  I did get 5 kills this time...though with all the grenades I threw, maybe not with the carbine...I'm not sure.

   Thinking about setting up an outpost.  They are going to change the grass in update 8 and add some "penetration" differences to the ballistics so get a good look at this grass and I have no idea what the penetration thing will do (PS -- this is the old grass):

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on November 28, 2020, 04:13:30 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on August 26, 2020, 08:01:36 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on July 31, 2020, 08:58:46 PM

    There's a "point man" load out once you get somewhat into the game.  I'm using it partly because the rifleman gets
4 grenades right away with it and for the SL -- the carbine is a lot better than the Thompson in most situations....Plus I get to use the same gun in the
two roles I usually play (SL and rifleman).  Now if I could just quit getting killed all the time and/or learn to keep my mic audiable and learn to signal on the map when I spot something...well I'd be doing real good.  I did get 5 kills this time...though with all the grenades I threw, maybe not with the carbine...I'm not sure.

   Thinking about setting up an outpost.  They are going to change the grass in update 8 and add some "penetration" differences to the ballistics so get a good look at this grass and I have no idea what the penetration thing will do (PS -- this is the old grass):

   Gosh!  I haven't posted about HLL in months.  There's a big update coming with all sorts of changes so I'm wandering back into empty servers occasionally to try to get my reflexes back in order.  I'll even dig up an old screenshot!

Yep, this is from a few weeks ago when I was just driving around:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on December 03, 2020, 08:15:31 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 28, 2020, 04:13:30 PM



   Gosh!  I haven't posted about HLL in months.  There's a big update coming with all sorts of changes so I'm wandering back into empty servers occasionally to try to get my reflexes back in order. 

  Yep.  Update 8 is out.  Lots of changes.  Even trucks!

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Trooperc7 on December 03, 2020, 01:18:08 PM
So many changes its almost like a new game!
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Jarhead0331 on December 03, 2020, 01:33:34 PM
What are the changes?
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Pete Dero on December 03, 2020, 01:45:51 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 03, 2020, 01:33:34 PM
What are the changes?

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/686810/view/2921111055710072255

I would copy it here but it is a lot of changes.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on December 04, 2020, 04:52:30 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 03, 2020, 08:15:31 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 28, 2020, 04:13:30 PM



   Gosh!  I haven't posted about HLL in months.  There's a big update coming with all sorts of changes so I'm wandering back into empty servers occasionally to try to get my reflexes back in order. 

  Yep.  Update 8 is out.  Lots of changes.  Even trucks!

  Here is a German truck...however, filled with nube-like wonder, I failed to attack it.  Now looking at the screenshots I realize I had 3 or 4 German trucks I could have attacked...but for some reason I assumed they where US trucks even though the two types of truck are pretty different...Oh well:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on December 08, 2020, 06:57:10 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 04, 2020, 04:52:30 PM


Here we are on Purple Heart Lane taking our first objective:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on December 17, 2020, 09:37:08 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 08, 2020, 06:57:10 AM


  Patch 14 (for Update 8) is out.  I guess I have to see what the M1 is like these days.  Apparently it was OP and then it was sort of nerfed (excessive recoil?) and now its sort of back with less recoil.  I've been using the carbine and lots of grenades often with some positive effects.  Here's driving a supply truck on Purple Heart Lane:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on December 19, 2020, 04:21:20 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 17, 2020, 09:37:08 PM


  Tiger blowing up on Carentan:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on December 20, 2020, 09:44:59 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 17, 2020, 09:37:08 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 08, 2020, 06:57:10 AM


  Patch 14 (for Update 8) is out.  I guess I have to see what the M1 is like these days.  Apparently it was OP and then it was sort of nerfed (excessive recoil?) and now its sort of back with less recoil. 

  And yeah, the M1 seems to work well these days.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on January 18, 2021, 09:21:51 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 20, 2020, 09:44:59 AM

  And yeah, the M1 seems to work well these days.

   M1 and tank:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 22, 2021, 08:01:40 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 18, 2021, 09:21:51 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 20, 2020, 09:44:59 AM

  And yeah, the M1 seems to work well these days.

   M1 and tank:

   Well...the last night of Update 8...tomorrow is update 9 (the most useful improvement will be that server admins can spectate and so theoretically catch and remove cheaters) BUT tanks and guns and barbed wire will all be improved supposedly.  Anyway, here's my last look at update 8:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 24, 2021, 06:33:22 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 22, 2021, 08:01:40 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on January 18, 2021, 09:21:51 AM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 20, 2020, 09:44:59 AM

  And yeah, the M1 seems to work well these days.

   M1 and tank:

   Well...the last night of Update 8...tomorrow is update 9 (the most useful improvement will be that server admins can spectate and so theoretically catch and remove cheaters) BUT tanks and guns and barbed wire will all be improved supposedly.  Anyway, here's my last look at update 8:

   Update 9:  I was a German.  You get a shovel for a melee weapon.  The Americans get knives.  People say the game runs better.  I've never had any trouble running the game so, well, it still runs fine.  The Americans sliced right through us like people with knives.  Blew up all our tanks.  Killed everybody and won the game.  I noticed: less artillery use, fewer tanks and our Commander dropped our one breif chance for glory (an "Air Head"...just a place where you can spawn behind enemy lines) right on a mass of Americans just as they started slaughtering us.  It was a nightmare.  What can I say.  It was a nightmare.  Okay.  It was a nightmare.  But I guess it looked okay:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on March 25, 2021, 12:46:24 AM
Hurtgen looks miles better. They fixed the weird LoD stuff that was happening when I played about a month or two ago.
Other than the new vehicles and whatnot the gameplay remains very similar. Lots of uncannily accurate destruction of garrisons and OPs, lots of back-capping. My team (its always my team) never defends the previous objective leading to the inevitable domino effect that you get when the other team back-caps and have pulled down all your rear area garrisons as well leading to spawning at HQ lol. One change I noticed is it seems you can't drop off extra supply caches anymore. You are only allowed to have one apparently. I was trying to set up supply caches for defensive garrisons and noticed that when I dropped a second one the first one disappeared. They also disappear when you change class from support to something else. That with the new supply timer makes defending a lot harder in a game where it was already hard.

The support class wasn't a whole lot of fun to play before, what with the constant suiciding to get more supply. The timer puts a stop to the suicides, but now it takes forever to get enough supply to do much with. Timer doesn't reset even if you are killed by normal means, so you drop supply and then wait around till the timer runs out. Yeehaw. FWIW Support is my second highest class after Squad Leader. Both roles a lot of folks don't seem to want to play.

It is still one of my current favorite shooters, it can be a lot of fun when you get a good squad on a semi-competent team. But it can also be a lot of walking, dying and losing when your team is clueless.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 25, 2021, 12:38:37 PM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 25, 2021, 12:46:24 AM


The support class wasn't a whole lot of fun to play before, what with the constant suiciding to get more supply. The timer puts a stop to the suicides, but now it takes forever to get enough supply to do much with. Timer doesn't reset even if you are killed by normal means, so you drop supply and then wait around till the timer runs out. Yeehaw. FWIW Support is my second highest class after Squad Leader. Both roles a lot of folks don't seem to want to play.

It is still one of my current favorite shooters, it can be a lot of fun when you get a good squad on a semi-competent team. But it can also be a lot of walking, dying and losing when your team is clueless.

They need to work on the meta...maybe just let the Squad leader summon supplies more or less magically in odd/variable increments.  I used to be a squad leader a lot -- not sure why.  Now I usually take my "point man" rifleman with a carbine and 4 grenades and such and go look for trouble unless the SL wants me to do something else such as get a bazooka.
Last night was pretty wild at times, but here's a screenshot from the top of the hill above Carentan as the Americans are about to win:





Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Bardolph on March 25, 2021, 10:16:53 PM
Yeah, most of my time as SL was under the "well, somebody's got to do it" rule. And somehow that translated into it being my highest ranking class lol. And with a good squad it can be fun.

I think, much like in Squad (the game) that folks, especially newer folks, are afraid to grab the slot. While I prefer my SL to at least know how to drop an OP or Garrison, the only way to really learn is to jump in and do it.
Thanks for all the screenshots you post here, it can be a very pretty game at times, but I never think to take pics.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 26, 2021, 09:39:55 AM
Quote from: Bardolph on March 25, 2021, 10:16:53 PM
Yeah, most of my time as SL was under the "well, somebody's got to do it" rule. And somehow that translated into it being my highest ranking class lol. And with a good squad it can be fun.

I think, much like in Squad (the game) that folks, especially newer folks, are afraid to grab the slot. While I prefer my SL to at least know how to drop an OP or Garrison, the only way to really learn is to jump in and do it.
Thanks for all the screenshots you post here, it can be a very pretty game at times, but I never think to take pics.

  I've been playing off and on for 15 months now.  Things seem to change constantly -- which is fine with me.  I can hit a reasonable number of the enemy pretty fast with the carbine -- much better than my early days missing all over the place with the M1.  Last night was a pretty routine battle but very satisfying.  I just ran around with the carbine and all went well.  I tried to take pictures but you really never know what's going to work as an image.
  I'm pretty happy to have been able to avoid being a SL lately -- it's gotta be the hardest job in the game since you have everybody on the command channel and your whole squad wondering what's going on.  Maybe the best thing about being SL is that you can report targets to the commander and avoid being hit by your own side's bombing runs.  I've been right on the edge of a lot of bombing runs lately -- I doubt they are enemy runs since I'm usually out ahead of my side and who would waste a bombing run on one guy?  So I suspect I'm just well -- lucky in that I'm getting up to the objective just as the first bombs hit it which I guess is nice -- though it seems kind of disturbing when it is happening and/or when you're patching yourself up afterward.
  Oh and this weekend is a free week-end and a sale so things will be even more chaotic than usual.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on March 26, 2021, 04:42:15 PM
Game's 25% off atm for those who want to give it a go
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 27, 2021, 01:50:24 PM
Quote from: Father Ted on March 26, 2021, 04:42:15 PM
Game's 25% off atm for those who want to give it a go

   I guess the free weekend is a success so far.  There's a Latina community now and lots of people are reporting blurred vision, passing out and vomiting, but I can't tell if that is their in-game avatars or their human stay-at-home selves.

   Maybe I'll wear my glasses and try to play tonight despite the fact that the "game is an eyesore" and "you can't see anything but vomit" and other problems with extremely high-end systems just before they explode and/or say "You are trying to cheat with those shut-off-the-vegetation settings."
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on March 27, 2021, 08:54:26 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 27, 2021, 01:50:24 PM
Quote from: Father Ted on March 26, 2021, 04:42:15 PM
Game's 25% off atm for those who want to give it a go

   I guess the free weekend is a success so far.  There's a Latina community now and lots of people are reporting blurred vision, passing out and vomiting, but I can't tell if that is their in-game avatars or their human stay-at-home selves.

   Maybe I'll wear my glasses and try to play tonight despite the fact that the "game is an eyesore" and "you can't see anything but vomit" and other problems with extremely high-end systems just before they explode and/or say "You are trying to cheat with those shut-off-the-vegetation settings."

  The game looked fine to me tonight.  I didn't get any good pictures -- I blame Hurtegen Forest which is kind of cluttered -- but here's a screenshot from a good game two nights ago:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 02, 2021, 07:14:06 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on March 27, 2021, 08:54:26 PM


  Just a Truck and a note that "leaders" are going to be coming out in Update 10.  One of the possibilities does make sense -- Teddy Roosevelt  since his son was in command of the 4th Infantry Division that landed at Utah Beach.  How son-of-Teddy (or von Paulus -- another possible leader) are going to work in the game is...well...puzzling.  Will he kind of lend some atmosphere?  Increase demolitions?  Bring some big airstrikes?  Extra supplies?  Hard to imagine anyway here is a supply truck:

Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Father Ted on April 02, 2021, 07:41:57 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 02, 2021, 07:14:06 PM

...a note that "leaders" are going to be coming out in Update 10.  One of the possibilities does make sense -- Teddy Roosevelt  since his son was in command of the 4th Infantry Division that landed at Utah Beach.  How son-of-Teddy (or von Paulus -- another possible leader) are going to work in the game is...well...puzzling.  Will he kind of lend some atmosphere?  Increase demolitions?  Bring some big airstrikes?  Extra supplies?

You may be over-thinking this bro
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: MengJiao on April 02, 2021, 08:47:18 PM
Quote from: Father Ted on April 02, 2021, 07:41:57 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on April 02, 2021, 07:14:06 PM

...a note that "leaders" are going to be coming out in Update 10.  One of the possibilities does make sense -- Teddy Roosevelt  since his son was in command of the 4th Infantry Division that landed at Utah Beach.  How son-of-Teddy (or von Paulus -- another possible leader) are going to work in the game is...well...puzzling.  Will he kind of lend some atmosphere?  Increase demolitions?  Bring some big airstrikes?  Extra supplies?

You may be over-thinking this bro

  Well it was April 1st...but still I was hoping for Teddy Jr.
Title: Re: Hell Let Loose
Post by: Wolpe on January 24, 2022, 07:18:55 AM
I'm too old for these kinds of videos and streams, but I've been watching those since the YT community emerged and this is when my love for guns and arms started. I'm proud to say now that I collect guns. Moreover, I'm in the process of deciding on the next item in my collection, and I'm thinking of this model REDACTED. I'm sure there are still people here on the forum that are as passionate about guns as I am. I sometimes watch some of these streams to feel the vibe of childhood and get some nostalgic feelings.