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New map
Part of Map Making Tools
New map is the first tool on the rail, in the Shape stage. Use it to choose the engine that builds a new map's base terrain, set the map's seed, size, latitudes and area factor, and create the map. On a Guided map you also draw the land masks here, and on any map that allows it you cut a regional map from the open one.
The panel's header shows the tool's place in the order of work and the open map's engine, for example "Shape · 1 of 4 · Standard".
New map on a Standard map, with the Generation section open.
The badge says creates the map: Create new map replaces the open map with a new one.
- Update map to latest engine(s): shown at the top of the section only when the open map was made with older terrain rules. See Updating older maps.
- Generation engine: the engine that builds the base terrain (see Choosing an engine). The info icon beside it describes the engine chosen. Choosing a different engine creates a new map with that engine straight away (if the open map has unsaved changes, you are asked to save or discard them first).
- Map seed: the seed the terrain is generated from. The same seed, engine and settings always give the same terrain. Leave it blank for a random seed, or click the shuffle button (Generate random seed). Not shown for Flat map canvas, which has no random terrain.
- Size: the map's width and height in pixels, from 500 to 4,000 each.
- Textured ground: shown only while the open map is a Flat map. Tick it before you click Create new map to start with a fine, natural texture instead of perfectly flat ground (the same texture the Roughen brush gives, see Terrain). Smooth removes it and Roughen puts it back.
- Latitude: the latitudes of the map's top and bottom edges (Top to Bottom, from 90 to -90). They shape the climate, and so the biomes, and set how far the map spans from top to bottom. Changing them reworks the open map's climate and biomes straight away, and Create new map keeps them for the new map.
- Area factor: how much smaller the world is than its latitudes alone would make it. The map's latitudes set its height; the area factor divides the world's area by this number, so a continent spanning most of the map has the size of a believable medieval realm rather than a whole Earth. It sets what a pixel measures for the distances the module works out from the map's scale (how far apart settlements and routes are when they are generated, for example) and changes nothing that is drawn, so the map does not change when you set it (except a scale bar set to Match world scale in Cartography). Create new map keeps it for the new map. 15 is the default, 1 is a true-to-latitude world and 40 the smallest world allowed. It is saved with each map, and a regional map keeps its parent's.
- Map unit: the name every distance on the map is shown in: the scale bar, a layer's Territorial waters in Regions, and the line below. The module measures distances in kilometres and shows the number with this name, so the figures are true kilometres whatever you call the unit. It starts as km; change it to give the unit your world's own name. Emptied, it goes back to km. Create new map keeps it, and a regional map keeps its parent's.
- Below them, a line gives what one pixel measures ("1 pixel is about 3.2 km"), and follows the latitudes, area factor and unit as you change them.
- Create new map: builds a new map from the settings above. If the open map has unsaved changes, you are asked to save or discard them first. On a Guided map, the open map's land masks are kept for the new map, so trying another seed or size on the same outlines takes one click; to start from open sea, click Delete all land masks (see Land masks).
Creating a new map generates the terrain, moisture and temperature for the world and works out its biomes. Then work through the tools in turn: Next at the foot of the panel goes to Terrain ("New map sets where land is; Terrain sets how it looks."). See Getting Started for a suggested order.
Note: the grid is no longer set here. It is in Cartography.
The engine only builds the base terrain. Once the map exists, every other tool (terrain brushes, biomes, rivers and faults, regions, routes and pins, labels) works the same whatever the engine.
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Standard generation: endless, classic procedural terrain made from noise.
- When to use: rapid prototyping, exploring the endless terrain with the Noise window (see Terrain) until you find a landmass you like, and maps you intend to cut high-resolution regional maps from.
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Advanced (tectonics) v2: simulates tectonic plates, which decide where the continents lie. Each plate is either buoyant continental crust or sinking ocean floor. Where plates collide they raise mountain ranges on land and trenches at sea; where they pull apart they open rift valleys on land and mid-ocean ridges at sea. Coastlines are shaped as on Guided maps, with inlets, bays and small islands.
- When to use: realistic, world-scale maps with natural geological formations when you don't have a particular shape in mind. Change the seed or the number of plates until you find continents you like. It has no Noise window.
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Guided v2: you draw land masks (see Land masks) and the engine generates terrain inside them, with organic, domain-warped coastlines. Mid-ocean ridges rise between your continents. If you would rather not start from a blank map, the module can draw random shapes, or a whole random map, for you to edit.
- When to use: when you have a specific world shape in mind (recreating an existing campaign map, or drawing a particular archipelago) but want the engine to handle the texture and the coast. It has no Noise window. Choosing Guided creates a new map and starts drawing land masks at once; land masks already on the open map are kept and centred on the new map.
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Flat map canvas: a blank canvas just above sea level.
- When to use: when you want to hand-paint the whole world with the terrain brushes.
The Guided and tectonic engines show a version number in the Generation engine list, for example Guided v2 or Advanced (tectonics) v2. New maps always use the latest version. When you open a map made with an earlier version, the list shows the version that map was made with, and the map keeps generating exactly as it always has until you choose to update it (see Updating older maps).
- Advanced (tectonics) v2 is a new engine. Advanced (tectonics) v1 builds different terrain from the same seed and settings.
- Guided v2 places land where your land masks are, as Guided v1 does, but shapes the coast and the ocean differently: deeper oceans, a band of shallow sea and a band of coastal plains along the coast, separate scales for land and sea, and mid-ocean ridges. Its coastline settings are measured against a 1,000 pixel map and scaled to your map's size, so the same settings give the same world at any resolution. See Terrain for the settings.
Shown only on a Guided map. The badge says rebuilds the whole map: land masks are one of the things the base terrain is built from, so the whole map's terrain is generated again after each change to one (see the FAQ for what does and does not regenerate the whole map).
The list shows every land mask, with a swatch for its type (Land or Ocean). Click a row to open the mask in the inspector. Each row has Focus view (zooms the map to the mask) and Delete. An empty list says what to do: choose Land or Ocean on the bar, then draw on the map.
Delete all land masks, below the list, deletes every land mask on the map so you can start over. Create new map keeps the land masks, so delete them first when the new map should not have the open map's land.
The badge says creates a new map. The section starts closed.
A regional map is a new, higher-resolution map cut from part of the open one. See Regional maps.
- New resolution: the width of the new map in pixels (Target width). Its height (Calculated height) follows from the shape of the crop and cannot be typed.
- New latitude range: the latitudes of the new map's top and bottom edges, worked out from where the crop sits.
- Fill in villages and market towns: fills in the regional map the first time you open it, as if you had chosen Fill in in Generate (see Fill in). It can be ticked once the open map has a run (its own, or a regional map's copy of its parent's) and the crop is small enough for the new map to show its world closely. Otherwise it is greyed out; it follows the crop as you change it.
- Generate map: creates the regional map from the crop.
If the open map was made with Advanced (tectonics) v1 or Guided v1, the section says the map must be updated first (see Updating older maps).
What the bar holds depends on the map.
On a Guided map, the Mask modes are:
- Select: click a land mask to open it in the inspector. Nothing is drawn or moved. Escape closes the inspector.
- Land: draws a land mask, an area the engine fills with land.
- Ocean: draws an ocean mask, which cuts a hole out of the guided terrain: inland seas, lakes, or a bay or strait carved out of a land shape you have already drawn.
- Crop: marks the area of a regional map (see Regional maps). It is greyed out on a map that must be updated first.
Outside Crop, the bar also has:
- Random mask: adds one random shape of the type chosen on the bar (an ocean shape when Ocean is chosen, otherwise a land shape). Some shapes run off the edge of the map. An ocean shape is always placed over existing land, so there must be some land on the map first.
- Random map: adds a whole map of land and sea: landmasses as land masks, with ocean masks for the lakes and inland seas inside them. Usually more of the map is land than sea.
- The pause toggle (Pause regeneration) and Apply changes (see Pausing regeneration).
Both random buttons add to the masks already on the map rather than replacing them, and each click can be undone in one step. The new shapes are ordinary land masks: you can move their points, delete them, or draw your own alongside them. A single random mask opens in the inspector as it is added.
On a Standard, Flat or Advanced (tectonics) v2 map, the bar has one mode, Crop. An Advanced (tectonics) v1 map has none.
Choosing Land, Ocean or Crop starts editing; the panel's state block then shows Stop drawing or Stop cropping. Choosing Select, or clicking the stop button, ends it.
Drawing land masks on the tutorial's Guided map: Land chosen on the bar, the masks' points on the map, and the Land masks list.
- Choose Land or Ocean on the bar.
- Click on the map to place points and build up the shape. Right-click to finish it, or choose Land or Ocean again (either one finishes the shape you are drawing before starting the next). A shape needs at least three points: if you stop before then, it is discarded. A new mask opens in the inspector as soon as you place its first point.
- Repeat for as many land and ocean shapes as you need. Overlapping shapes are fine: an ocean shape cuts into whatever land shapes are underneath it.
While drawing:
- Drag a point to move it.
- Shift+Drag a point to move the whole land mask. Release to drop it.
- Shift+Click a mask's outline to add a point.
- Ctrl+Click a point to delete it.
- Double-click a point to open the land mask in the inspector.
When you stop drawing, the engine generates terrain inside your land shapes and treats ocean shapes as ocean or lake.
Tip: your land masks set where the land is, not what it looks like. To change how broken up the coastline is, how wide the coastal plains and shallow seas are, or how high the land rises, use the next tool, Terrain.
On a large map, regenerating the terrain after each change to a land mask can take a few seconds. To place or drag several points without waiting after each one, click the pause toggle on the bar. Your changes are then collected, and applied when you click Apply changes or turn the toggle back on. Automatic generation is always turned back on when you stop drawing or change tool, and any changes collected are applied then. Rivers and faults has the same toggle.
Opened by clicking a mask in Select mode, clicking its row in the Land masks list, double-clicking one of its points while drawing, or drawing a new one. Its header reads "land mask" with its type.
- Name: the mask's name, as the list shows it.
- Type: Land or Ocean. Changing it shapes the land again.
- Focus view: zooms the map to the mask.
- Delete: deletes the mask.
Changes apply at once, and each is one undo step.
You can create a new, higher-resolution map from a cropped area of the open map. All terrain edits and drawn features are kept, and the new map is listed under its parent in the Maps tool. The regional map adds finer detail to the coastlines, terrain and biome borders, while keeping the overall shape of the world. It also keeps a copy of the parent's terrain just beyond its left and right edges, so rain shadows along those edges fall as they do on the parent: a regional map whose edge cuts through a mountain range still has the range's rain shadow, even though the range itself is outside the map.
Note: once created, the regional map and the original map are completely independent of each other. Changes to one do not affect the other.
Regional maps can be created from Standard, Flat, Guided v2 and Advanced (tectonics) v2 maps. A map made with Advanced (tectonics) v1 or Guided v1 must be updated first (see Updating older maps).
Crop mode: the crop round the Red Hills, and the Regional map section with its size, zoom and latitudes.
- Choose Crop on the bar (on a Guided map, Crop is the last of the Mask modes).
- Drag on the map to draw the crop area. Drag inside it to move it, and drag a corner to resize it.
- In the panel's Regional map section, set the new map's width under New resolution. The height, the Zoom (how much closer the new map shows the land, such as ×4) and the New latitude range follow the crop as you change it.
- When you let go of the crop area it is fitted to the map's grid (unless the map is gridless), so the new map's grid lines up exactly with the original's. The new map keeps the original's grid size in pixels, and each of its cells covers less ground: at ×4, every cell of the original becomes 4 × 4 cells. For that, the zoom is a whole number (the width you asked for over the crop's, rounded), and the crop grows or shrinks a little round what you drew to fit it. Its top-left corner then moves to the nearest grid corner (on a hex grid, the nearest point where the hex pattern repeats, every two rows or columns). On a gridless map the crop keeps the zoom it gives.
- Click Generate map. If the map has never been saved, or has unsaved changes, you are first asked to save it: a regional map is listed under the saved map it was created from, and is created from the map as you see it, so the saved map must match. You are then asked for the regional map's name (the parent's name followed by "(region)" to begin with). The map is created and saved, and you can open it from the Maps tool, where it appears under the original map.
- Check the pins and labels. They are placed at the same positions as on the original map, but because their size is now smaller relative to the map they can look slightly offset.
What a regional map keeps:
- Land masks (Guided maps): all of the parent's land masks are copied, including any outside the crop, so land that extends beyond the crop still generates as it does on the parent.
- Regions: a region that crosses the crop edge is kept. Custom region fills are copied.
- Routes: a route is cut at the crop edge, into one route for each stretch inside the crop. A regional map traces its rivers afresh at its own detail, so the first time it opens, the river trade routes it inherited are laid again over its own rivers, between the same towns. A river trade route whose river the regional map doesn't draw is removed, and routes you have edited or locked are kept as they are.
- Rivers: a regional map has the same river sources as its parent within its area, and rivers flowing in from outside enter at its edge as wide as they were on the parent. The rivers flowing in are worked out when the regional map is created; if you later change the parent's rivers, create the regional map again to bring them up to date.
- Tectonic features: they are widened to match the zoom, so they look as they do on the parent (the same width in the world, the same texture and the same volcanoes). See Rivers and faults.
- Area factor and Map unit: the regional map keeps its parent's.
- Generated content: the parent's realms, places, routes and names, as content the regional map inherited, with a copy of the parent's run over the regional map's area. Its thematic layers and the Travel tool's farmland read the copy, and Fill in adds villages and market towns from it.
- Places just beyond the crop: pins a little way past the crop's edge are kept, in the margin the canvas shows round the map, so roads that leave the map lead somewhere. They are never exported, and their names stay off the map.
- Scale bar: it stays over the same land, with ticks the same length on the map (a tick's distance changes to match), and is brought wholly onto the new map.
Version 3.0.0 of the module introduced new terrain engines (see Engine versions), replaced fault lines with tectonic features (see Rivers and faults), changed how rivers are worked out, and fixed how rain shadows are placed on regional maps. Maps made before then are never changed without asking: they keep generating exactly as they did until you choose to update them.
When you open a map that an update would change, the Terrain update available dialogue lists exactly what would change for that map:
- Advanced (tectonics) v1 maps: the map is rebuilt with Advanced (tectonics) v2, which is a new engine. The continents, coastlines, mountain ranges and oceans are built afresh from the same seed and settings, and nothing of the current layout is kept (land may become sea and sea may become land). Everything placed on the map (pins, routes, regions, labels, rivers and terrain brush strokes) stays exactly where it is, so it may no longer fit the new land. Only update a tectonic map you are happy to rework.
- Guided v1 maps: your land masks stay the same, but the coast and ocean are shaped by Guided v2. Oceans become deeper, Continental shelf becomes the width of a band of shallow sea, a new Coastal plains setting adds a band of low land along the coast, and mid-ocean ridges rise between continents. The new Ocean scale setting starts at your current Continent scale. If the map is not 1,000 pixels across, its coastline settings are also scaled to its size, and Coastal fracture is lowered (the dialogue shows the old and new values) to keep your coastline close to its current shape.
- Regional maps: the map is brought into line with its parent. Rain shadows were placed too far downwind on older regional maps, so some forests, grasslands and deserts move to match the parent. Standard regional maps may also gain finer terrain detail, such as more intricate coastlines, without changing the overall shape of the land. Fault lines and hotspot chains are widened to their width on the parent and drawn at its scale. A regional map is only offered the update if it would actually change. Regional maps made before version 3.0.0 have no copy of the parent's terrain beyond their edges, and updating cannot add one; to get it, create the regional map again from its parent.
- Maps with fault lines: the fault lines become tectonic features: convergent faults become mountain ranges, divergent faults become rifts, and hotspots become hotspot chains running from their oldest volcano to their youngest. Slip faults are removed, since there is no equivalent tectonic feature. The converted features look different from the originals, so check them after updating and adjust their settings. A Standard or Flat map with fault lines is offered the update for its fault lines alone.
- Rivers: rivers follow the lie of the land more closely, a river that runs beside another joins it, and a lake that fills up breaks out through its lowest shore so its river flows on. River sources are placed afresh from the land and climate (the ones you added yourself are kept), so many rivers take a different course, and some lakes move, grow or shrink. Custom rivers run exactly along the line you drew and the ground around them is lowered into a gentle valley, in place of the old channel. See Rivers and faults.
Choose Update map to apply the update, or Keep original to leave the map as it is.
Important: the update is not saved automatically. After updating, check the map: if you are happy with it, save it to keep the update; if not, reload the map without saving and it returns to exactly how it was.
If you keep the original, the map goes on working exactly as before, with its original engine and settings. You can edit, save and export it as normal. The only thing you cannot do is create a regional map from an Advanced (tectonics) v1 or Guided v1 map, since a new regional map always uses the latest engines and would not match it. On these maps the Regional map section says so, and on a Guided v1 map the Crop mode is greyed out with a tooltip explaining why.
The dialogue opens each time you open the map. To stop it, tick Don't ask again for this map before closing the dialogue. This choice is saved to the map straight away, even if you don't save your other changes.
If a map can be updated, Update map to latest engine(s) appears at the top of the Generation section. It applies the same update as the dialogue, whether or not you chose Don't ask again for this map, and, as with the dialogue, you must save the map to keep it.
Maps that an update would not change (for example, Standard and Flat maps that are not regional maps and have no fault lines) are never offered one.
- On a Guided map, try several seeds on the same land masks: change Map seed and click Create new map. The outlines stay and only the terrain inside them changes, so you can pick the seed whose hills and valleys suit you. Tutorial 12 Further tips does this with a traced sketch.
- See the FAQ for tips on working at higher resolutions.
- Press ? to see every shortcut for land masks and the regional map crop.
Next: Terrain
Related: Maps, Cartography, Rivers and faults, Getting Started