Why Early Access?

“Modern Naval Warfare is an ambitious simulation. There is no two ways about it: we want to build the most accurate and realistic submarine simulator ever made.

After completing our first round of beta testing and receiving such valuable insights, we decided to give the game the Early Access treatment. We believe that to reach the level of realism and "crunch" the naval sim community expects, we need to involve our players directly and remain open to all forms of feedback.

This journey isn't just about the technical specificities of submarine systems; it’s about the features that require extensive input from a wider community—refining tutorials, perfecting the onboarding process, and honing the overall user experience. Early Access allows us to balance these complex systems and prioritize the features that matter most to the commanders in the field.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We do not anticipate a long Early Access period and are targeting a window of approximately 12 months.

This timeline provides the necessary room to process community feedback, refine complex systems, and deliver a set of roadmapped milestones that will bring the simulation to its 1.0 state. While we have a clear path to release, we are committed to staying in Early Access until the simulation meets our internal standards for quality, stability, and depth.
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How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The full version of Modern Naval Warfare is designed to be a complete ecosystem for naval enthusiasts. While Early Access focuses on the core simulation of the submarine and its systems, the transition to the full version will focus on four key pillars:

Multiplayer Expansion: We aim to move beyond solo operations, introducing robust multiplayer environments where players can cooperate or compete in high-stakes tactical engagements.

Comprehensive Tutorials: To bridge the gap between 'novice' and 'commander,' the full version will include a deep suite of interactive tutorials covering everything from basic navigation to advanced acoustic analysis.

Streamlined Onboarding: We are committed to making the simulation accessible without sacrificing depth. The final release will feature a refined onboarding process to ensure new players can find their sea legs quickly.

Stability and Performance: Throughout Early Access, we will be optimizing the engine and networking code to ensure that the final release provides a rock-solid, high-performance experience, even during complex, large-scale fleet encounters.

Localization: During the process, we will implement a large number of translations for the major countries where the game is played.

Expanded documentation: The game launches with a wide variety of documents to support onboarding and learning, but the goal is to improve the documentation as we go and as we expand the game in all its aspects.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The early access version of Modern Naval Warfare is not complete because: the game is currently in a state where a large portion of the core experience is playable, though it’s still being actively developed.

Major core features that are missing are:

Multiplayer: Multiplayer will be introduced during Early Access as part of ongoing development.

Tutorial: Parts of the tutorial are still incomplete, but we’ll be finishing and improving the onboarding experience throughout Early Access

Documentation: We have multiple in depth manuals already, but will be finishing the core game manual during EA.

Enemy AI: We will be releasing into EA without full enemy combat AI. Current build has defensive countermeasures and evasive maneuvers only.

We are launching with the following core:

Completed Systems: Every station on the Virginia-class submarine is fully modeled and functional, providing a deep, high-fidelity simulation of modern undersea combat.

The Campaign: The full campaign is included and playable from day one, allowing players to experience the high-stakes tactical narrative we’ve built. The final balance of the campaign will require players’ feedback, but all the missions are playable.

World & Environment: Our expansive world map, realistic ocean physics, and AI-driven maritime traffic are all fully implemented.

Our focus during Early Access is now on correcting the balance, optimizing performance across a wider range of hardware, and refining the user interface, onboarding and adding additional feature based on player feedback to ensure the 1.0 release is as polished as possible.
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Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“No. We have no plans to change the price when moving from Early Access to full release.

Our goal for Early Access isn't to chase a mass audience or utilize a fluctuating price point to drive speculative sales. We are strictly focused on our core simulation community. We believe the value of the experience we’ve built is already established; our time in Early Access is dedicated entirely to perfecting the depth, stability, and 'crunch' that our dedicated players expect.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“While Modern Naval Warfare features striking visuals and the inherent thrill of submarine combat, this is a deep-tech simulation first and foremost. It is designed specifically for dedicated fans of the genre and those with the patience to master complex, realistic systems.

We intend to involve our community by:

Targeting Feedback: We will be running focus groups and inviting feedback via our official game discord with the community

Refining the Learning Curve: For those who aren't experts yet but have the drive to learn, we will be using community input to ensure our documentation and onboarding are rigorous enough to turn a dedicated beginner into a proficient submariner.

Active Technical Discourse: We will engage through our official channels to discuss the 'why' behind our simulation choices. We aren't looking for broad mass-market appeal; we are looking for the players who care as much about the accuracy of a waterfall display as we do.”