It is cold and dark here in Bergen this time of year, which is perfect for developing a game like Naval War: Arctic Circle. The weather in Naval War is not simply for showing off shaders and particle effects with rain, snow and rough seas, it has a clear impact on gameplay.

Naval War: Arctic Circle is going to be a true stealth strategy game. And the stealth aspect doesn’t only refer to submarines and modern stealth fighter jets; even a surface task force is truly only visible to a ship within a couple of kilometres at the best of conditions.

Add to this our weather and environmental factors: Rain and snow reduce not only eyesight visibility, radar signals are also notable degraded. Since a radar in many situations gives away much more to the enemy than it reveals, a lot of modern naval and aerial warfare is still down to the eyes of seamen and pilots. Thus, cloud cover is important. At night, it matters whether the moon is up and what phase it is in.

Yes, Naval War tracks the sun and moon (some heavy math involved for the latter, still not finetuned to perfection) and contains a full, dynamic weather simulator.  And these factors matter a lot.

In addition to visibility, weather affects what you can do. In severe weather, your aircraft are effectively grounded. With bad luck you can send up helicopters just to experience worsening weather which can lead to crashes when they land again. Your primary weapons, surface skimming cruise missiles, cannot be fired in very rough seas.

Ironically, with all the modern technology at your fleets’ disposal, an engagement in the arctic could come down to gathering intelligence only through visual aids, and being force to engage each other with naval guns!

Don’t worry, though. There will be ample opportunity for clear, cold days in the arctic where all the most fancy hardware and technology is at your disposal.