The water which is a key ingredient to any naval simulation also has some realism to it, and although there weren't even serious white caps on the waves I was able to experience much more than just a flat blue field to represent the ocean.
Weather is supposed to be much more impressive in the final game but that has yet to be seen.
It would be quite stirring to see full-blown storms and rough seas, especially as they could help to influence the outcome of close or not so close battles. But the real detail is with the ships, and the damage model in the early build that I had a chance to play was impressive. Sails will start to look tattered during long exchanges of cannon fire, the smoke following a broadside masked the location of ships and then slowly dissipated, and vessels that come under fire actually appear to take damage and can even catch fire. Most poignant of all is how you can actually see the men move about on the ships when zoomed in although the effect is sort of like early versions of SimCity where you saw colored dots representing people. The detail is about the same here, with sailors appearing as small dots, but you do get the sense of movement rather than seeing just an empty model.