About 7 minutes
Map creation parameters
Every creation option changes the same generated world from a different angle: its scale, coastline, relief, vegetation, settlements, administrative divisions or city traffic conventions.
Applies to game version 0.1.13Parameters at a glance
Defines the repeatable starting pattern, physical scale and broad relationship with the sea.
Shapes the main landmass and the amount of water surrounding or dividing it.
Controls the amount, structure and physical character of the terrain.
Changes how many people and settlements are generated and where places prefer to form.
Defines the country’s internal regions and the foreign territory shown around it.
Fixes which side vehicles use in the detailed city map.
Basic setup
| Parameter | Allowed values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | Any finite number accepted by the form | Selects the repeatable random pattern used by world generation. Reusing the same valid parameter set reproduces the same current-version world. |
| Total Area | 30,000–3,000,000 km² Presets: 100k · 500k · 2m | Sets the country’s real-world scale. It affects cell scale, journey distances, construction distances and the scale of generated population and settlements. |
| Terrain Type | Coastal · Island · Inland | Chooses the broad land–sea profile and sets the legal water range. It also changes whether islands and neighbours are available. |
Terrain Type and water limits
- Water
- 20–60%
- Neighbours
- 0–6
A mainland country with access to the sea. Island density remains available.
- Water
- 40–80%
- Neighbours
- Always 0
A country surrounded by water. The map automatically disables foreign neighbours.
- Water
- 10–30%
- Neighbours
- 0–6
A landlocked country. Island density is hidden and treated as None.
Terrain Type is a profile rather than a single colour preset. It changes the continental shelf used to form the land, while Water Coverage determines where the sea level cuts through that generated height field.
Land and water
| Parameter | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Land Elongation | 0–100 | Changes the main landform from rounder and more compact toward longer and narrower. The result still follows the chosen Terrain Type and seed. |
| Island Density | None · Few · Moderate · Many | Controls additional islands in water areas and how aggressively small islands are retained. Available for Coastal and Island profiles; Inland always uses None. |
| Water Coverage | 10–80% overall Profile-specific limits apply | Sets the target fraction of the generated map occupied by sea or lakes. More water can divide the land and reduce continuous buildable territory. |
What shape controls change
Water Coverage describes the whole generated map frame, not a promise that the same percentage of your national territory will be navigable water. Ownership, coastline shape, islands and inland water geometry are resolved together.
Mountains and nature
| Parameter | Range | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Mountainousness | 0–100 | Changes how much of the country becomes high or difficult terrain. Higher values also reduce the share of land considered naturally suitable for dense settlement. |
| Mountain Ranges | 1–5 | Controls the number and complexity of independent ridge influences used to structure the relief. |
| Mountain Layout | Mixed · Ranges · Scattered · Plateau | Changes the spatial pattern of the added mountain relief. |
| Max Elevation | 10–8,000 m | Sets the real-world height represented by the top of the normalized terrain. It affects displayed elevations and the engineering difficulty derived from height changes. |
| Vegetation Lushness | 0–100 | Applies a country-wide moisture bias: lower values make the terrain drier; higher values make it wetter and support greener vegetation and wetland conditions. |
| River Density | 0–100 | Adjusts how much accumulated drainage is required before a river appears. Higher values produce a denser visible river network. |
Mountain Layout options
Combines several mountain forms instead of emphasizing one pattern.
Favours longer, connected mountain systems.
Distributes high ground into more separate groups.
Favours a broader elevated interior.
Population and settlements
Population Density
Population Density scales both the population ranges and the number of settlements the generator attempts to place. Area and habitable terrain still matter, so the multiplier is not a guarantee of an exact national population.
Settlement Distribution
Uses a broad terrain-aware distribution without strongly favouring one geographic feature.
Makes locations near the open coast more attractive.
Favours locations farther from the coast.
Favours access to rivers and inland water as well as suitable land.
Distribution is a preference, not a command to place every city in one zone. The generator still respects water, terrain suitability, spacing and the available national land.
Administration and traffic
| Parameter | Allowed values | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Administrative Divisions | 2–30 | Sets the requested number of province-level regions. Their final shapes follow terrain and settlement seeds rather than equal geometric slices. |
| Province-level Unit | Province · State · Prefecture · Region · County · Territory | Selects one country-wide naming convention for these divisions. It changes generated administrative names, not the simulation rules. |
| Neighbours | 0–6 Island: fixed at 0 | Controls the foreign regions displayed around the player nation. Neighbours are visual geography and do not operate their own economies or transport networks. |
| Traffic Side | Right · Left | Controls lane and marking orientation in the detailed city map. It is fixed when the map is created and does not change demand or macroeconomic simulation. |
Parameter dependencies
- Terrain Type → Water Coverage
- Each profile has its own allowed minimum and maximum.
- Island → Neighbours
- Island maps always use zero neighbours; the field is disabled.
- Inland → Island Density
- Inland maps always use None, even if an imported editable state previously contained another value.
- Area → Map scale
- Area determines grid dimensions and kilometres per cell, influencing distances throughout the game.
- Terrain → Settlements
- Mountainousness, slopes, water and distribution preferences constrain where settlements can appear.
- Seed + every parameter → Result
- The complete parameter set is the generation recipe; changing any structural input may change downstream geography.
Importing and exporting parameters
Export Parameters saves the editable creation recipe as a versioned JSON file. Import Parameters validates that file and restores the controls before a map is generated.
The file stores player-facing values such as Terrain Type, area, water, mountains, settlement distribution and traffic side. Derived values—including grid dimensions, coastline strength and the active world-generation version—are rebuilt by the current game rather than trusted from the file.
A neutral starting point
These defaults produce a varied medium-sized country rather than representing an easier or harder difficulty setting. Map parameters shape the problem you will solve; they do not assign a difficulty label.