Weather System
 |
This article is incomplete. You can help Foxhole Wiki by expanding it.
Reason: "Need a rewrite of info, additional images, and better formatting" |
Reason: "Need a rewrite of info, additional images, and better formatting" }}
This article could contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version (1.58) of the game. It was last updated for 1.56.
Foxhole's weather system has two weather events which vary in intensity depending on their tier: Snow Storms and Rain Storms.
Storms affect a large circular area of the world across multiple regions. The size, duration, and intensity of the storm vary. The center of the storm is always more intense than the outskirts. The location, date, duration, size, and intensity of storms during the war is randomised but can be predicted ahead of time using a Weather Station.
Snow Storm
Visuals
A snow storm is indicated by snowfall and fog as well as wind sound. A fresh layer of snow is visibly accumulating on terrain, structures, and parked vehicles. This shouldn't be confused with the static snow on the ground in the northernmost regions. The severity of the storm affects how much snow appears on the landscape and buildings.
Cold Mechanic
The cold is the main mechanic of the Snow Storm. It can freeze soldiers, vehicles, and even bodies of water.
Soldiers slowly freeze to death when exposed to the cold. The cold does not deal damage over time but instantly kills the soldier once completely frozen, similar to drowning. How close you are to dying is visually represented by the amount of snow on your soldier. Cold warnings will appear with the message "You are getting cold" and the "cold" status effect 
under the stamina bar. When close to death, the status effect will change to "freezing"
and the message "You are freezing to death" will appear. You will shortly thereafter die from the cold. How fast the cold kills you depends on the severity of the snow storm, the strongest storms can kill you in a few minutes. Wearing a Snow Uniform will considerably increase the survival time.
The strongest snow storms will slowly freeze all vehicles if their engine is off. Once the vehicle is completely frozen it can't move, have it's fuel removed or be packaged until it is warmed up. The snow visually accumulating on top of vehicles represents how cold they are. A fully frozen vehicle can be identified by the thick uniform layer of snow on its top. If the vehicle isn't fully frozen you can slowly warm it by keeping the engine on. Otherwise you can always quickly unfreeze and warm up any vehicle using a nearby Fire Pit, or if it is armoured with a Flamethrower, or any vehicle that uses Flame Ammo.
You can also quickly warm up your body by standing next to a Fire Pit, giving you the "Warming" 
status effect.
How cold you are does not affect your speed.
The cold will also freeze Pipeline Networks, reducing their flow rate. This can be prevented by upgrading each pipeline segment to make them insulated (costs one Pipe).
Severe snow storms freeze over bodies of water, excluding ocean areas, over time. This opens new routes for infantry and land vehicles but blocks all but large ship navigation. Segments of ice can take damage and eventually completely crack. Vehicles driving over ice will damage ice, with the damage increasing as the class of vehicle gets heavier. Explosives and flamethrowers can damage ice. Broken or damaged segments of ice will refreeze over time.
Shippable structures are unaffected by the cold.
Visibility
Snow Storms reduce the player's vision range, similar to night time. The visibility reduction scales with the storm's intensity. The weakest storm reduces the range within which you can see infantry, Field Guns, Tripods, and Emplacements to 50 meters. Whereas stronger storms can reduce it to 25 meters.
Unlike night time however, the limit of your vision is not really shown visually.
The strongest storms also apply a thick white fog beyond the player's visual range that makes spotting for artillery nearly impossible even during the day.
Slowdown
Snow Storms also reduce the off-road movement speed of infantry and vehicles. The reduction scales with the storm's intensity. The reduction of infantry off-road speed is 10% for weak storms and up to 50% for the strongest ones. Wearing a Snow Uniform does not remove this slowdown.
The following vehicles are not affected by the Snow Storm's offroad slowdown effect:
Stronger Wind
Snow Storms make the Wind stronger and change direction more often and more erratically.
Tactical Consequences
Rain Storm
Visuals
A rain storm is indicated by rainfall, rain sounds, as well as dirt and mud textures becoming glossy. The severity of the storm affects how much rain appears on screen and how glossy the terrain becomes.
A small amount of water can visually appear in the bottom deck of Large Ships, but this doesn't have any effect on them.
Mud Mechanic
The mud is the main mechanic of the Rain Storm. Unpaved roads (tier 2 only), tier 1 trenches, artillery craters, and grass can have puddles of water, which (if you move through them) add mud to your soldier. Puddles can be removed with a Shovel or Water Bucket.
Soldiers moving in puddles accumulate additional mud on them 
which increases their weight. Up to 50% weight can be added. Mud can be instantly removed by swimming in water. It can also be slowly removed by moving on anything without a puddle. Wearing a Rain Uniform (colonial faction only) significantly slows down the mud accumulation speed.
Reduced Intel Range
The range of all Intel gathering structures (Watch Towers, Observation Towers, etc...) is reduced by the storm. The reduction scales with the storm's intensity, from 25% up to 50% range reduction for the strongest storms. Vehicles and items that gather intel are not affected.
Stronger Wind
Rain Storms make the Wind stronger and change direction more often and more erratically.