Changelog

2.9.0 - Always Rough Water / No Giga

This release removes giga wave spawning from the public experience and makes the ocean itself the main threat.

• Natural giga wave spawning is removed. This build also ignores older multiplayer payloads that try to send giga waves.
• Giga-related public config entries are no longer created on fresh configs.
• Rough Ocean mode is now stronger by default: higher native waveFactor, stronger storm scaling, higher wind floors, and more boat pressure.
• Thunderstorms are much more serious: higher ocean thunderstorm weather weight, higher storm wind chaos, faster storm surge timing, and denser storm wave sets.
• Rough water visuals now apply while the local player is near major water, so shore bases can watch nasty water instead of only seeing calm-looking water with invisible physics.
• Added RoughOceanShoreViewMultiplier so server owners can tune how much of the rough-ocean spectacle appears when watching from shore.
• Boat difficulty still stays focused on deep/open-ocean travel. Dry land, ankle-deep water, buildings, and shoreline props remain protected.

2.8.2 - Thunderstore Repack

• No gameplay changes from the Rough Ocean Overhaul.
• Repacked as 2.8.2 because Thunderstore already had a 2.8.1 package version for this namespace/name.
• This was only a repack for the 2.8 line.

2.8.0 - Rough Ocean Overhaul

This is a major gameplay overhaul. GuakRogueWaves is no longer focused on spawning one huge fake-looking wave. The mod now makes the open ocean itself hostile, choppy, slow, and stressful to travel through.

Big changes:

• Added RoughOceanMode, enabled by default.
• Open-ocean sailing now has persistent rough water instead of only occasional rogue-wave events.
• Added native Valheim ocean waveFactor boost through RoughOceanWaveFactorMultiplier.
• Added storm scaling through RoughOceanStormExtraMultiplier.
• Added open-ocean wind floors with RoughOceanMinWindIntensity and RoughOceanStormMinWindIntensity, so the sea stays nasty even when the game would normally calm down.
• Added persistent boat challenge through RoughOceanBoatDifficulty: speed loss, cross-current shove, yaw/broach pressure, and pitch chop while sailing in open ocean.
• Normal rogue waves are smaller again and now act as extra weather spikes on top of an already dangerous ocean.
• Giga waves remain rare storm/open-ocean events, not constant spam.

Safety and polish:

• No fake blue wall visuals.
• Rough ocean effects stay focused on real open-ocean travel.
• Shore, dry land, ankle-deep water, beached ships, and player-built structures remain protected.
• README now includes chill/default/spicy/mostly-vanilla tuning presets for server owners.

2.7.2

• Stronger test tune after 2.7.1 felt weaker than vanilla storms.
• Normal native surge spike increased, surge radius widened, and open-ocean chop raised.
• Normal wave height/overdrive defaults bumped so foam/spray and boat-pressure cues read stronger.
• Native-surge mode now applies the boat wave-ride force pass too, so ships get slowed, shoved, pitched, and yawed while still using Valheim's real ocean as the visible water.
• Anti-flip stabilization remains active, but the default damping is less smothering so normal waves feel like a fight again.

2.7.1

• Natural giga waves are now HARD-GATED to open ocean during thunderstorms. The old GigaRequiresThunderstorm / GigaRequiresOcean toggles no longer weaken this (they remain in the config file for compatibility only). Debug/DebugForceGigaNow stays the single testing-only exception.
• Added NormalPostPassFadeSeconds and GigaPostPassFadeSeconds.
• Normal waves now fade shortly after their crest reaches the target instead of staying alive long enough to carry boats far past the scary moment.
• Shore waves use the same post-pass limiter, so they can roll in for spectacle and then die off instead of becoming a long invisible shove.
• Giga waves keep a longer aftermath than normal waves, but are also capped so they do not drag forever.

2.7.0 - Public stability pass

Safety:

• The land-safety water mask now FAILS CLOSED: if world data is missing or a depth query throws, the answer is "no wave effect" instead of full effect.
• Both CalcWave hooks now also honor Valheim's own live depth argument, so player-terraformed land (raised causeways etc.) is protected even where the world generator reports deep water. Essentially-no-water means no surge and no added height, ever.
• Beached and near-beached ships are now fully out of reach for giga waves: no forces and no damage without real water under the hull. Giga damage is additionally gated by the same per-position water mask as everything else.
• Structures, docks, portals, and crops remain untouchable by design: the only damage call in the mod targets the ship's own hull component, giga-only.

Multiplayer:

• Surge magnitude (waveFactor spike and surge radius) now syncs from the event spawner to all modded clients (RPC v4 tail; older mod versions safely ignore the extra bytes). Wave timing, shape, AND magnitude are now all spawner-authoritative.

Public defaults (conservative pass):

• WaveHeightOverdrive 1.38 -> 1.0 (configured heights are now literal).
• Normal wave heights 18-55 ft -> 15-45 ft.
• Wave pacing restored to design spec: calm 120-300 s, rain/wind 90-210 s, thunderstorm 45-120 s; storm/open-ocean/shore frequency multipliers eased back.
• Giga chance 35% -> 10% per attempt, attempts every 120-300 s. Giga is rare again.
• Open-ocean chop multiplier 2.15 -> 1.5; route prediction and head/cross-sea chances softened.

Testing:

• New Debug/DebugForceGigaNow config: flip to true in-game (ConfigurationManager) to force a giga wave set instantly - bypasses weather/ocean/chance gates, still requires water, still broadcasts so multiplayer sync is exercised too. Resets itself to false.
• Giga spawns are now logged to the BepInEx console.
• test_roguewaves.ps1 extended with real assertions and a failure exit code: land-mask zero on land/ankle-deep water, giga damage clamps + crest-only gating, wire-clamp symmetry, and surge envelope bounds.
• All Harmony patches are exception-contained (the additive height postfix was the last one missing a guard), and the native/legacy mode flags are now exclusive instead of stacking.

2.6.1

• Restored the "OH SHIT" visual read by adding NativeSurgeFoamCueEnabled.
• Native surge mode now shows a safe non-physics foam/spray line by default, even when legacy visual helpers are disabled.
• The dangerous translucent crest surface is now blocked in native mode unless AllowExperimentalSurfaceInNativeMode = true.
• Old configs with VisualWavesEnabled = false or VisualParticleSprayEnabled = false still get the native foam cue unless the new cue is disabled.
• Kept the actual water/boat behavior on Valheim's native ocean surge system instead of reintroducing fake wave walls.

2.6.0

• Reworked the default behavior into NativeOceanSurgeMode.
• Rogue events now temporarily boost Valheim's own WaterVolume.CalcWave waveFactor instead of adding a separate custom water-height wall.
• Disabled the old additive long-swell height profile by default with new LegacyAdditiveHeightProfile = false.
• Disabled client-side crest visuals by default so public users get native Valheim water first, not spawned helper meshes.
• Normal boats now rely mostly on native buoyancy during surge events; the boat patch only adds anti-flip damping in default mode.
• Added config for NormalWaveFactorSpike, GigaWaveFactorSpike, and SurgeRadiusMultiplier.
• Screen shake now follows the native surge envelope instead of the old additive height profile.

2.5.5

• Emergency visual fix: disabled the experimental crest surface by default after it could render as a giant blue sheet.
• Kept the 2.5.4 shoreline safety fix so waves become harmless on dry land / ankle-deep shore.
• Slightly increased crest spray defaults so shore waves still have visible foam/spray without the broken surface mesh.
• VisualCrestSurfaceEnabled is now opt-in only and VisualSurfaceAlpha defaults to 0.

2.5.4

• Added a shoreline water-height mask so rogue waves no longer lift players standing on land or in ankle-deep water.
• Once a wave crosses into dry/shallow shore terrain, it becomes mostly visual spectacle instead of interactive water physics.
• Boat force gating from 2.5.3 remains active, so beached/near-beached boats are also protected from invisible shore-wave force.

2.5.3

• Fixed the "wave hits but I can't see it" shoreline problem by adding a thin client-only crest surface that follows the synced wave height.
• Added shallow-water boat force gating so normal waves stop launching beached or ankle-deep boats when Valheim's shoreline water render is visually flat.
• The crest surface tries to clone Valheim's water material first, then falls back to a muted transparent ocean color.
• Added VisualCrestSurfaceEnabled and VisualSurfaceAlpha config options.

2.5.2

• Anchored crest spray to the same rogue-wave height used by Valheim's native water deformation, so visual cues sit on the visible wave instead of flat sea level.
• Added surface-coupled boat ride forces so normal waves stop acting like invisible launch pads when the hull is already above the visible water.
• Increased shore/base spectacle defaults: taller shore waves, closer offshore search, lower deep-water requirement, brighter spray, and more frequent shore events.
• Tuned normal-wave heave down slightly while keeping pitch, dip, climb, and off-course shove active.

2.5.1

• Reworked boat wave-riding around five hull samples: center, bow, stern, starboard, and port.
• Boats now follow a clearer dip -> climb -> crest -> drop -> recover arc instead of being lifted flat.
• Added class-aware climb drag and breakthrough behavior: longships shoulder through, karves wallow more, rafts lose the most headway.
• Added small downslope glide on the backside of normal waves so crossing a swell feels more like riding through it.
• Kept normal-wave crest shove speed-capped so regular waves do not become conveyor belts.
• Added configurable side-slope roll and yaw shove with WaveRideRollForce and WaveRideYawForce.

2.5.0

• Removed the experimental procedural water and foam mesh systems entirely. Rogue wave bodies are now only native Valheim water deformation plus safe crest spray particles.
• Added boat-class detection and cached boat factors for raft, karve, longship, and modded-boat health fallbacks.
• Added wave sets for storms and giga events: lead swell, main wave, and aftermath swell.
• Added shore crash mode so players near shore bases can see waves roll in from offshore without damaging placed structures.
• Added longer native-water profiles with configurable SwellLengthMultiplier, PreTroughDepthScale, and TrailingChopScale.
• Upgraded wave RPC data to include shape settings while keeping older tail fields safely ignorable.
• Fixed wave-list eviction, shore-wave lifetime, RPC validation, relog rebroadcast acceptance, send-side clamps, and crest-closeness damage scaling.

2.4.8

• Leaned harder into native Valheim water deformation instead of fake visual geometry.
• Increased WaveHeightOverdrive to make WaterVolume.CalcWave form the visible wave body.
• Reworked the normal wave profile with a stronger pre-trough, bigger rounded crest, longer back swell, and trailing chop.
• Increased ShoreBreakHeightBoost so shore/base waves read more clearly in shallow water.
• Increased OpenOceanChopMultiplier so storms use more of Valheim's own ocean motion.
• Mesh water and mesh foam remain off by default; particle spray remains the only added visual layer.

2.4.7

• Restored the original shore/base spectacle goal without bringing back broken water meshes.
• Increased shore spectacle range to 220 ft and added ShoreWaveFrequencyMultiplier.
• Waves spawned while standing on/near shore now target nearby offshore water instead of the player's land position.
• Re-enabled visuals as lightweight spray/foam particles with VisualParticleSprayEnabled = true.
• Kept both experimental mesh systems off by default: VisualSurfaceMeshEnabled = false and VisualFoamMeshEnabled = false.
• Added VisualSprayRate for tuning particle amount.

2.4.6

• Added route prediction so newly spawned waves aim at where your boat is going, not only where you were.
• Added weighted wave angle variety: head seas, cross seas, following seas, and random chaos.
• Made storm/open-ocean wave sets more frequent without turning calm sailing into constant punishment.
• Increased normal wave size range to 18-55 ft before overdrive.
• Made giga waves much more likely to actually appear during valid thunderstorm/open-ocean trips.
• Reduced the old active-wave blocker distance so a distant past crest does not suppress the next storm set for too long.

2.4.5

• Retuned normal waves to feel bigger and more challenging without going back to instant-flip behavior.
• Increased normal physical wave height overdrive from 1.0 to 1.25.
• Lowered normal-wave stabilizer from 0.92 to 0.82 and loosened roll/yaw damping so boats feel less glued down.
• Enabled near-vertical bow pitch again for bigger climbs.
• Increased pitch/surge ride force and added WaveRideHeaveForce for stronger rises and drops as the wave moves under the hull.
• Made open-ocean rogue wave events a bit more frequent.
• Giga waves now cap the shared overdrive more tightly so this normal-wave challenge tune does not make giga waves absurdly impossible.

2.4.4

• Disabled all procedural rogue-wave visual meshes by default with VisualWavesEnabled = false.
• Fixes the remaining long blue strips/polygon artifacts from the foam mesh.
• Keeps wave physics, boat handling, storm chop, multiplayer sync, and native Valheim ocean behavior active.
• Procedural visuals are now opt-in only for testing; leave them off for clean gameplay.

2.4.3

• Fixed flat blue polygon chunks appearing on/under the ocean during rogue wave visuals.
• Disabled the experimental cloned-water surface mesh by default with new VisualSurfaceMeshEnabled = false.
• Kept Valheim's native ocean as the real visible water surface; rogue-wave visuals now rely on smaller foam accents only.
• Tightened foam rendering so it appears as broken crest streaks instead of large mesh plates.
• Set VisualWaterAlpha default to 0 because the water surface mesh is now opt-in.

2.4.2

• Hotfixed regular-wave boat flipping: normal waves are now tuned to be rideable instead of boat-killers.
• Restored physical wave height scaling to the stated config ranges by default; visuals/chop sell the size instead of oversized physics.
• Removed normal-wave side-roll shove and reduced added pitch/surge force.
• Strengthened normal-wave roll damping, angular speed limiting, and self-righting.
• Added light giga-wave roll assistance so a healthy longship can survive when handled well.
• Smoothed the normal-wave face so boats climb over the swell instead of getting slapped by a near-vertical wall.

2.4.1

• Reduced the custom water mesh from a giant ramp into a smaller crest/foam accent so it blends into Valheim's ocean better.
• Lowered rogue crest opacity and visual height defaults to avoid the obvious separate-water-sheet look.
• Increased open-ocean native chop and open-ocean wave frequency.
• Added side-to-side wave sampling for ships so boats roll with uneven water instead of only pitching/lifting.
• Loosened normal-wave stabilizer defaults slightly so the longship rides the swell more naturally while still avoiding instant flips.

2.4.0

• Shifted further toward Valheim-native ocean behavior instead of fake overlay water.
• Cloned the native water material and forced transparent blending for the subtle rogue crest mesh.
• Added OpenOceanChopMultiplier to boost Valheim's real wind/wave intensity in open ocean.
• Added OpenOceanWaveFrequencyMultiplier so rogue waves happen more often away from shore.
• Added WaveRideSurgeForce and WaveRidePitchForce so boats pitch/surge with the wave face instead of being lifted flat.
• Tightened the custom visual mesh to mostly crest/foam detail so it connects with normal water better.

2.3.0

• Changed rogue wave visual surface to use Valheim's native WaterVolume material when available.
• Removed the fake blue rogue-wave tint so the surface matches regular ocean water color/lighting much better.
• Kept the custom material only as a fallback if no active WaterVolume material can be found.
• Reduced foam opacity and made foam a subtle accent instead of the main visual.

2.2.1

• Tuned the procedural visual wave after testing: removed the giant flat cyan sheet look.
• Rendered only the raised crest/face cells instead of drawing a full ocean-covering rectangle.
• Reduced visual mesh opacity and width so it blends with Valheim's ocean better.
• Broke the foam crest into lighter streaks instead of a solid white band.

2.2.0

• Added procedural visual rogue waves: translucent water wall/surface meshes tied to the synced wave event.
• Added white foam crest ribbons so the wave reads from a distance instead of feeling like an invisible ramp.
• Added visual-only config for wave mesh enable/disable, visual height, water alpha, foam alpha, and render distance.
• Visuals are client-side only and do not damage structures or change boat physics.

2.1.0

• Removed center-screen rogue wave warning messages.
• Added WaveHeightOverdrive, default 1.75, so waves look much larger even for existing config files.
• Made the wave profile steeper with a stronger leading face and crest lip.
• Reworked shallow/coastal water scaling into a shore-break boost instead of shrinking waves near shore.
• Increased normal wave spawn frequency across calm, bad weather, and thunderstorms.
• Increased giga wave attempt frequency and chance.
• Tightened the active-wave spawn blocker so old distant waves no longer suppress new sets for too long.

2.0.1

• Added shore spectacle gating: waves stop far inland but still work near shore bases and large water.
• Keeps placed structures untouched; giga damage only applies to boats.

2.0.0

• Rebuilt the mod around randomized 15-45 ft normal waves and 50-80 ft giga waves.
• Added weather-based wave pacing.
• Added normal-wave boat stabilization with near-vertical pitch allowed.
• Added thunderstorm/open-ocean gated giga waves.
• Added giga boat damage based on crest hit, boat class, and bow/broadside alignment.
• Added storm wind chaos and configurable ocean thunderstorm weighting.
• Added screen shake and safer multiplayer RPC validation/rebroadcasting.

1.3.1

• Added offshore-only wave gating so rogue waves stop on land and near shore.
• Added MinDistanceFromShoreFeet, defaulting to 100 ft.
• Documented that the mod does not damage placed buildings, lights, or other player-built pieces.

1.3.0

• Reworked normal waves into very long cinematic swells.
• Added regular-wave boat stabilization so normal waves should not be the boat-killer.
• Added rare GIGA ROGUE WAVE events gated behind Ocean biome and thunderstorm conditions.
• Added config for giga chance, giga size, giga timing, giga ocean check radius, and regular-wave boat stability.

1.2.0

• Waves now spawn near the local player instead of only while controlling a ship.
• Reworked the wave shape into a wider, slower rolling swell so it looks bigger and hits boats less sharply.
• Added SpawnDistanceMeters.

1.1.1

• Repacked for public Thunderstore upload after initial version conflict.

1.1.0

• Added multiplayer wave sync using Valheim routed RPC.
• Added SyncWaves config.
• Packaged as an r2modman/Thunderstore-style local mod zip.

1.0.0

• Initial rogue wave water-height patch.