Do prefer a big map or a small map?

ElCabong

ElCabong

Survivor
I've making lot's of maps of various size trying to find the smallest map that minimizes my travel time and maximise development time.

The bigger maps have more cities, the smaller has fewer. Bigger seems to be better progression because you have more resources that you need but can't mine, such as books and mags. At the expense of more travel time.
 
I tend to make 8k maps, but I'm usually trying to understand what happens with RWG and POI placement on what I think is the most common map size (since it is the default).

If I were to think more deeply about, I'd be torn between 6k and 8k maps. I might enjoy a more intimate map, but I also like travel and exploration. If I went with a 4k map I'd start to worry the POI selection started to cut out Commercial and Industrial POIs as I think they're the most likely to get squeezed.
 
i am almost addicted to 2k maps, 1 and 3 are both really nice too but the 2k feels good and isnt taxing on my computer so i can play without it sounding like i am trying to fly a plane. frankly if the game didnt need to have so much space between towns i would give a full pass on the 3k as well XD
 
I always make 8k maps. Smaller just feels too small to me, and larger maps require too much running around.
 
I play mostly 4k.

Small maps run better.

Larger maps have a lot more dead space between population centers. It serves no purpose.

With several thousand hours and hundreds of maps over the years, I have never once run out of loot or resources in SP.

My most recent 4k map has almost 2800 lines in the prefabs.xml, with at least one of each trader. Sometimes maps below 4k will fail to include every trader.

I believe that folks claiming issues with small maps running out of stuff are generally expressing concerns rather than reporting actual experience.

I would be interested to hear from someone who feels that they have truly depleted any SP map in the recent past, with the current RWG.
 
ElCabong said:
I've making lot's of maps of various size trying to find the smallest map that minimizes my travel time and maximise development time.

The bigger maps have more cities, the smaller has fewer. Bigger seems to be better progression because you have more resources that you need but can't mine, such as books and mags. At the expense of more travel time.
Click to expand...

When I tested vanilla map creation, POI density did not scale lineally with map size. The bigger maps do have more POIs overall but they are also less dense and there is vastly more empty space that affects travel distance. I settled around 6k being the best size for a solo run.

If not done already I would encourage trying the non centric (line or wave ?) map style. I have one on the go and its a great change of pace.
 
I pretty much only play 10k maps, so like usual, I appear to be the odd one out.

Bigger map = more likely I'll find somewhere aesthetically pleasing in which to build my base, in my experience.
 
I prefer 8k or 10k maps.

I want the long distances between locations, the open expanses of nothin' between towns and cities. I'd like the towns and cities to be bigger as well, but that's outside of what I can configure in RWG.
 
4k feels to small I like the feeling of needing to discover where the biomes are. anything smaller and I can see them all from a high hill

6-8k is my sweet spot for solo play

10k is just too spread out for me. if the forest cities were a bit bigger, I would probably go 10k but currently they are too small and spread out on a 10k for my liking.
 
I tend to go for the big map just by default. With a bigger map you have more opportunity to find an interesting place to build, whereas you'll exhaust a smaller map more quickly. I think there's an opening here for unique custom maps that someone has actually designed; the Navezgane map is very deliberately laid out meaning the community can do different things with it and inspire each other. Custom maps can include unique challenges, such as single biomes or certain biomes missing, single town maps surrounded by wasteland, valley town maps, flooded maps...
 
NoMan said:
I play mostly 4k.

Small maps run better.

Larger maps have a lot more dead space between population centers. It serves no purpose.

With several thousand hours and hundreds of maps over the years, I have never once run out of loot or resources in SP.

My most recent 4k map has almost 2800 lines in the prefabs.xml, with at least one of each trader. Sometimes maps below 4k will fail to include every trader.

I believe that folks claiming issues with small maps running out of stuff are generally expressing concerns rather than reporting actual experience.

I would be interested to hear from someone who feels that they have truly depleted any SP map in the recent past, with the current RWG.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure anyone really feels like they run out of resources. At least not unless they have loot respawn off and low loot percentage and are playing with multiple people. For me, it isn't the loot at all. It just feels too small and cramped. I'm always running into the edge on a smaller map.

I'll point out that I don't okay RWG maps, so that also plays a part. With Maria I make with Teragon, I can have far more interesting landscape between towns and a mix of large and small towns in all biomes, with many wilderness POI. So it usually doesn't feel very empty on an 8k map between towns. Once you start having cliffs and non-POI craters and crevices and real rivers and lakes and stuff, it really makes a difference.
 
8_Hussars said:
When I tested vanilla map creation, POI density did not scale lineally with map size. The bigger maps do have more POIs overall but they are also less dense and there is vastly more empty space that affects travel distance.
Click to expand...

I would certainly agree with that. The Wilderness has been less dense and that seemed reasonable to me. With 2.0 coming and TFP talking about RWG placing more Wilderness POIs, I'll be curious how that changes things.
 
I hate that I can't edit posts after such a short time... My previous post should say that I don't "play" RWG maps, and with "maps" I make with Teragon. Oh well. It is probably understandable.
 
Vaeliorin said:
I pretty much only play 10k maps, so like usual, I appear to be the odd one out.

Bigger map = more likely I'll find somewhere aesthetically pleasing in which to build my base, in my experience.
Click to expand...
Nope, I exclusively play 10k. Bigger worlds in any games always make it feel more worldly for me vs feeling walled in or fishbowled.
 
I assume it depends on number of players. I play offline solo. I also download a jpg of the map I'm starting on. I like to have all five biomes, and I use either forest center or wasteland center. I find that 4K and 5K gives me traders and cities in each biome. e.g.:

I would like the roads to be better but they have improved.
1749677362658.png
 
zztong said:
I'm usually trying to understand what happens with RWG and POI placement (y)
Click to expand...
Ah my second favorite thing. Customized 10k, because I like to travel and get lost, I intentionally don't
go after motorized vehicles. Plus at that size I can replay and spawn at an alternate location a few times
and it is a different experience. I play slow and concentrate on beginning and middle game more than
end game. Beginning and Middle are more exploration, end is more conclusion. Kind of like mmorpg i
played. Ultima Online.

NoMan said:
Larger maps have a lot more dead space between population centers.
Click to expand...
Not mine, I don't follow the now format, mine is more situational grouping, with plenty of curiosities
along the way.
 
Last edited:
Playing with compopack and a few POI packs and single POIs that aren´t in compopack, it´s big all the way to get as many different POIs on the map as possible.

Once you have to travel far you should have the gyro with super charger mod anyways.
 
I usually like big, because I think it is easier to get all the POIs and to find interesting places, and I do not mind traveling. I usually stay in an area for several days doing missions and/or looting, usually make a small outpost, and the travel back to the "main base" with the stuff I find useful.
I play very often with no blood moon, but instead bigger totally random wandering hordes, so there is not much point for me to stay in an area every 7 days for my scheduled appointment with the zombies.

But small maps can be also quite fun if they are "hand-made", I think the small maps randomly generated are not very good, or that has been my personal experience with that, maybe just bad luck or possibly also not being very good at setting the parameters for RNG. But I have played a couple small hand-made maps that were absolutely wonderful and playing there was very fun.

So I guess a little bit of both? 😅
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top