the water is under the world... so no dice... build higher ....

No. It factors in height and distance from large open waters. If you are next to a small "river" you'll have smaller surges then next to the ocean, but the base water level is universal and always surges some during storms.

I love building next to the ocean on poles, elevated at least a full poll length above the water.

As an aside, calculating obstacles to water is a pretty big deal - it's why you almost never see it done, and it results in huge slowdowns due to CPU load if they do. It's a tradeoff between realism and playability. I'm not 100% happy about it, but I think it's necessary until someone figures out a way to do it more effectively. In almost all other respects, valheim chooses the 'heavy' approach - it's why the graphics are a tad low detail. But it means you have boats you can actually walk around on while they move - you don't see that often. Or buildings that behave much more like buildings in the materials they are built from, etc - and you still can modify the landscape, too.

Can anyone think of a survival game where sea water actually is modeled to be affected by player made structures? It would be pretty cool - let you build water mills and so on - but I don't think I've seen one.

Originally posted by Flytrap:

it only takes height into consideration. No amount of walls will stop it. If its too low, water will appear no matter what

Exactly. You can't imagine how many storm surges have gone through my Atlantis build.

Not that I have seen

Not that I have seen

the tide just bypasses all, build above tideline like Vikings of yore

it only takes height into consideration. No amount of walls will stop it. If its too low, water will appear no matter what