Map Overview and thoughts on map gen
Offworld Forums
I’ve been willing to make this post for quite some time now. Originally, all I wanted is to understand what the different map types are and make an overview explaining what their characteristics are. But the main thing that characterzes a map is the resource generation on that map, so that is a problem that I will cover here as well.
The first thing to understand is where the different resource are generated. Each resource has a particular terrain type associated with it. They are, as follows:
Volcanic – iron.
Rocky – aluminium.
Lakebed – water.
Riverbed - water.
Sand – silicon (and water).
Crater – carbon.
Other terrain:
Water Ice and Dry Ice – these work as wild cards, and normally spawn large amounts of random resources.
Normal – also is a bit of a wild card, but doesn’t seem to spawn nearly as much.
Crack – can spawn geothermals, otherwise useless.
Slope – creates craters, ridges and overall elevation of the map.
Canyons – the empty pits of nothingness.
Hills – I call them resource killers. The general rule is: the more hills, the fewer resources.
It is not uncommon to see a resource appear not on normal terrain, but usually you will see the appropriate tile, „from which” the resource cluster spawned, even if it overlaps other terrains. Geothermal vents can spawn anywhere (occasionally, any resource can spawn out of it’s normal terrain completely), with a slight preference to volcanic, also rocky and cracks.
One last note: by elevation here I mean the dominant height of the terrain. There are 4 heights: low, medium, high and very high. All 4 are always represented on the map but in different proportion. Height is largely irrelevant (I think), it only affects the output of solar panels, so there are some maps where solar power is slightly more efficient than on the others.
It’s that simple, so let’s get to the map types. Initially I wanted to just give you a rundown of what is what but I’ve instead taken time to classify the maps, dividing them into 2 groups:
- Resource-specific maps
- Non-resource-specific maps
The first group includes: Volcanic, Lakebeds, Riverbeds, Craters and Basin.
The second group includes: Normal, Chaos, Plains, Plateau and Canyon.
„Random” is obviously just one of the above mentioned ten that is picked at random.
The main characteristic of a resource-specific map is that there is a dominant terrain type (in fact a better name perhaps would be „terrain-specific”) and as such a dominant resources. So here goes:
1. Volcano.
- Dominant terrain: Volcanic
- Main resource: iron (and geothermals)
- Lacking resources: usually water and carbon
- Hill presence: medium
- Overall resource presence: generally high
- Elevaton: mostly medium and high
A fairly easy map to get a good found, more often than not will have enough decent spots for everyone.
2. Basin.
- Dominant terrain: Rocky
- Main resource: aluminium
- Lacking resources: hard to tell
- Hill presence: low
- Overall resource pesence: high
- Elevation: mostly low and medium
Another easy to play map, somewhat more challenging due to the fact that you are not always guaranteed to have iron. However, due to the fact that there is so much of the low-height terrain, these maps often tend to have decent amounts of carbon. Besides, due to the lack of hills, this map is perhaps even a little easier than volcano.
3. Craters.
- Main resource: carbon
- Lacking resources: water
- Hill presence: low-medium
- Overall resource presence: fairly high
- Elevation: hard to tell. There is a lot of slopes, so sometimes you can have maps with mostly high terrain and sometimes with mostly medium or low. The amount of slopes though, guarantees Wind Power effieciency.
Interesting to note that iron seems to be fairly frequent on this map, so as much as this is a „scav map”, do not expect everyone to actually go scavenger. One more thing to note: carbon never „overspawns” in general, you will almost never have maps with too much carbon, which makes it different from all other resources.
4. Riverbeds
- Main resource: water
- Lacking resources: everything, sometimes even water
- Hill presence: high
- Overall resource presence: medium-low
- Elevation: hard to tell; not as ridgy as craters though
Initially I thought that this is one the worst maps out there. However, even though there’s more often than not insufficient good found locations, this map is slightly-slightly better than lakebeds (see below) due to more balance in resource gen. This is probably due to the fact that riverbed terrain, unlike Lakebed terrain does not spawn in massive patches over half the map and, thus, takes up less space. Overall, not a map I can recommend even for 1v1.
5. Lakebeds.
- Main resource: water
- Lacking resources: everything else
- Hill presence: low
- Overall resource presence: high, but it’s mostly water
- Elevation: medium
Difficult map, there just never seems to be enough good founding places for everyone, even in a 1v1 setting it is an issue.
As for the second group. Their main characteristic is the fact that they aren’t concentrated on specific resources (duhh) and normally have every type of terrain on them. The main difference in all of them is in the amount of canyons and hills, which also affects the amount of resources. They generally have all resources represented (as always, though, there’s no real guarantee in what proportion).
1. Plateau.
- Canyons: none-low
- Hills: low
- Amount of resources: high
- Elevation: high
This is the most well-balanced map, that 9 time out of 10 has everything everyone needs. This is what I highly suggest to use in FFA games.
2. Plains.
- Canyons: low- none
- Hills: low-none
- Amount of resources: high
- Elevation: hard to tell
Plains actually seem to be a terrain-specific map, the primary map for sand, at least there’s always large amounts of it, making silicon and water the two primary resources on it. However, due to the fact that it is a very flat map, there’s usually other resources lying around, which is why I don’t want to put it into the first group (besides, I’m just not sure I am correct)
3. Normal.
- Canyons: low
- Hills: medium
- Amount of resources: medium
- Elevation: hard to tell
A pretty straightforward map, a little bit of everything. It’s alright.
4. Canyon.
- Canyons: high; but usually in a single corner or on a single side. The terrain is not that chaotic
- Hills: medium-high
- Amount of resources: medium-low
- Elevation: high
An interesting map. One of the things I have noticed, regarding resource generation, is that for some reason, if there’s a lot of hills/canyons on the map, it tends to spawn individual high sources of a particular resource sometimes, instead of having it in a cluster. This is usually the case on this map (even more so on Chaotic).
5. Chaos.
- Canyons: high
- Hills: very high
- Amount of resources: appalling
- Elevation: very hard to tell as there is often no continuous patch of land. Every map has all 4 types of elevation but this map is a ridge on top of a ridge on top of a ridge. That pretty much sums it up. This also is the only map where the canyon doesn’t sit quietly in the corner but rather creates ridges in the middle of nowhere. You will also sees „pits” in the middle of the landmass.
So, now that you see the list, let’s get to the issue. What is a good found? After seeing all these maps I’m going to say this: a good found is the one where you at least have enough of your primary resource to not get behind in upgrades too much. Forget everything else, you just need something better than low iron/carbon, and usually there will be a good found on the map. The problem is, to have a nice competitive game, everyone needs a decent found. And the maps just don’t often give you that. Now, you could argue that the player who doesn’t get the good iron should try to get creative and make power or whatever and rely on other people overproducing the necessary resources, but when a large map, meant for 6 players only has 3 decent founding locations, you’re out of the game if you don’t get one of those.
Speaking of the map size, I have noticed that almost all the maps offer good resource quantities for 1v1. This is probably because normally, 1v1 is played on a Small map, instead of the Tiny, which is the default size. So, I am going to make an arguement, that perhaps the medium map is just a little too small for 4 players and large is a little too small for 6. There is no map other than Plateau, that consistently creates enough „good founds” for all the players. In 1v1 most maps work though, except perhaps Lakebeds and Riverbeds, just due to resource balance (and Chaotic, which can create good maps, but it’s a 50-50 chance).
Another reason, why we get to blame map gen so much is because everyone uses random map types, and, while I like the idea of having these terrain-specific maps, let’s just face it, the balance is off on those. What’s the point of a map that has 120 sources of water and only 20 sources of aluminium, most of which is low garbage anyway?
I can’t really think of a solution for the problem, at least yet. I can only suggest a couple things.
- People, stop using the random map type all the time. I know there is no info on the maps in-game, but now that I’ve made this overview, I hope people will start picking maps. The problem I fear, is that everyone will just start playing on Plateau/Normal/Volcanic but at least it should eliminate the „map RNG is horrible!” problem. I would say that for 1v1 the other maps work out a lot better, because there should be enough good founds AND there should be some lacking resources, making fighting for resources more fun.
- Information about the maps should make it into the game at some point. It’s probably not the most pressing issue but I’m sure people who don’t read the forums would appreciate that.
- Rebalancing the map sizes should be considered perhaps... What do you think?
- For those who want to stick to the random map, perhaps it should be made possible to choose what map the random should be picked from, as in „I don’t really care but I don’t want to play on Chaotic and Riverbeds”.
- Perhaps maps could be broken into some groups, either the way I did or based on „difficulty level”. Notice I have listed them from easiest to hardest in each group, at least the way I see it.
P.S. I will be giving this topic more thought, I just really wanted to post it cause I’m sick of running tests against the AI for now. Also, I'm curious what others think.
P.P.S. I know there’s a secret cult of Ra-worshippers within the OTC community. Well, after seeing how map gen works, I’m going to start a secret cult of worshippers of the God of Water Ice, the Saviour of Resource Gen. I am currently thinking on the name for our Great God.