Map Making Tools

Once a map exists (see Creating and Managing Maps), these are the tools used to sculpt and populate it: Terrain, Biomes, Terrain Features, Infrastructure, Regions, Labels and Cartography.

Each tool has its own page linked below, but they share a common editing pattern — read this page first.

General notes on edit mode

Many of the tools below offer an edit mode. This mode has certain common features:

If you click the "Toggle Edit [Tool]" button in the sidebar a new toolbar will appear above the map containing edit tools.
Either click the "Toggle Edit [Tool]" button again to exit edit mode, or switch to a different map tool.

In edit mode, some layers allow features to be added, moved or removed with mouse actions. Only the features relating to the specific selected tool can be edited. Not every action is available for every tool.

Interactable features include: infrastructure pins, nodes (custom rivers, tectonic faults, routes and region layers), labels and cartographic decorations.

Move: Interactable features can be moved by holding Left-click and dragging.
Add: New nodes can be added by using SHIFT + left-click anywhere on the line or region.
Remove: Interactable features can be removed by using CTRL (or CMD) + left-click.
Edit Properties: Interactable features can be edited using Double Left-Click to open their properties dialogue.
Rotate: Labels and cartographic decorations can be rotated by using the Scroll Wheel while holding Left-click.
Re-size: Cartographic decorations can be re-sized using SHIFT + Scroll Wheel while holding Left-click.
End Line/Region: Using Right-click without dragging will end any active line or region being edited.

These shortcuts are the same across every tool below — each tool's own page only calls out where it differs.

The tools

Terrain — the base topography generated by your chosen engine, freely sculpted afterwards with raise/lower/smooth/slope/level brushes.
Biomes — climate and moisture settings that determine biome placement automatically, with a brush tool to hand-paint biomes (including your own custom ones).
Terrain Features — procedural and custom rivers, lakes, and tectonic fault lines/hotspot chains.
Infrastructure — points of interest and routes, each with their own icon/colour/style options.
Regions — custom polygons for political, economic or other areas, organised into layers.
Labels — the labels automatically generated by other tools, plus fully custom labels.
Cartography — decorations: scale bar, map border, and any other image-based decoration (windrose, cartouche, etc).

Example Toolbar: Terrain

Terrain Toolbar

See also: Getting Started for a suggested order to work through these tools in, and Mass Edit Visual Properties for batch-editing several features at once.