Weather that turns on you · Resisting Decay

Until now it was always a sunny afternoon on the test terrain. Not any more.

A dark storm with heavy rain over a lake; a flash lights up the survivor on the bank, the grass, the pines and a rocky slope behind. — Thunderstorm over the lake2026-10-26In-engine · WIPA thunderstorm over the lake on the test terrain. A lightning strike lights up the hills for a moment; its thunder follows seconds later.

Six kinds of weather

The weather changes on its own: clear skies, clouds, fog, rain, storms and thunderstorms, each from mild to severe. Rain runs from drizzle to a downpour, fog from a light haze to a wall you can barely see your own hand through, and a storm brings wind without a drop of rain. Each change takes its time, so you see bad weather coming before it arrives.

Bad weather is meant to feel bad. The light drains out of the world, clouds swallow the sun, colours go grey and cold. The wind picks up with the weather and the grass bends under it.

The survivor stands in a meadow with red poppies; dense blue-grey fog turns the pine trees behind him into faint silhouettes. — Thick fog2026-10-26In-engine · WIPThick fog on the test terrain. A few steps away the forest is only a row of grey silhouettes.

Lightning and thunder

In a thunderstorm lightning strikes around you. You see the flash first and hear the thunder later: a strike a kilometre away takes about three seconds to reach you, sounds duller and rolls longer than one right next to you. It is built for multiplayer from the start: the server decides the weather and every strike, so all players share the same sky, see the same bolt and hear its thunder after the same delay.

A world you can hear

The weather has its own sound now. Wind that grows from a breeze to a howl and roars louder among the trees. Rain that patters, swells and drums. Birds by day and crickets at night, both falling silent when the rain or the wind takes over.

Close view of dark, rippled lake water in heavy rain; streaks of falling rain and many overlapping rings where the drops hit the surface. — Rain on the lake2026-10-26In-engine · WIPHeavy rain on the lake of the test terrain. Every drop leaves a ring on the water; the harder it rains, the more there are.

You see it land, too: every drop leaves a ring on the lake, the river and every puddle, and the harder it rains, the more of them there are.

The survivor walks through a rainy meadow with poppies towards a pine forest; on the right a plain grey hut with an open doorway and a flat roof. — Rain by the hut2026-10-26In-engine · WIP · GreyboxRain on the test terrain, next to the grey-box test hut. Inside, the storm turns into a muffled roar and the rain drums on the roof.

Step inside a building and the world outside fades into a muffled roar while the rain hammers on the roof above you. For now the only building is a grey-box test hut, but every house later will work the same way.

Not yet

Rain does not make you wet yet: footsteps sound the same on soaked ground, puddles do not fill up and you do not get cold. Trees bend less in a storm than they should. All of that builds on what is there now.