Experiences with World Builder

[Abaxial]

So I decided to try and make a complete map with World Builder, including choosing players and start positions, and what CS went where.

First attempt: map loaded into the game with no problem, but the chosen start positions were all ignored.

Second to fourth attempts: tried various things like not specifying CS locations. All crashed the game within a minute or two of the loading screen.

Fifth attempt: It loaded! Everything was in the right place! Magic! I start playing. And then ...

... I discovered there are no Great People. Bringing up the GP screen shows a message "All individuals of this type have already been earned" for every type of GP. Looking at the "previously earned" screen shows a blank. It clearly affects everyone, as an AI player built Stonehenge and couldn't found a religion. I really cannot understand how playing a WB map should eliminate all GP from the game, or think of how to even try fixing it.

Has anyone managed to play a fully-functioning game on a WB map including all Civs and CS chosen and start positions selected?

 

[_ViKinG_]

My experience with world builder is: Wait for firaxis to make it complete or you will get frustrated.

 

[bbbt]

With starting positions? No I think that's in "heavy beta". I've only gotten flat map to work.

 

[kryat]

I’m having a great time with there basic world builder, but I’m completely ignoring the advanced mode to make sure my maps are as compatible as possible.

 

[Victoria]

Don’t build maps but great for testing things.
Has its own little bugs, my experience is most things it says it will do, you can do but often I have done things in the wrong way and it does not work, so yeah, lots of pain but as with anything, the more experience you get, the closer to satisfaction you get
I would go with @viking on this

 

[Salamis]

I’ve persisted with Worldbuilder despite many frustrations. The issue of no GP has happened to me when I’ve been building a map using a custom map size (e.g. I have ynamp enabled and select Giant when generating the map in Worldbuilder). My guess is that if the game doesn’t recognise the size it doesn’t know how many Great Prophets to include and so doesn’t include any GPeople at all.

So to avoid that particular issue, disable all mods that might affect map conditions before generating a new map on Worldbuilder.

On a fully functioning map with Civ and CS starting positions chosen: Yes. I’ve just finished building a huge map that works - rivers are flooding, volcanoes erupting etc. In advanced mode, in the Player Editor, add the Civ you want to be as ‘Add player’. It’ll appear as ‘Human - [civ you selected]’. Add all of the other civs and CS’s you want using ‘Add AI player’. Then click on each and ensure that each ‘Level’ is correct (I.e. each civ is ‘Civilization’ and each CS is ‘City-State’). Then select plots to add each starting position. Always choose ‘Player’ irrespective of whether it’s you, an AI civ or CS. Make sure that there are starting positions for each of civ/CS you have chosen. If one is missing the map won’t load.

 

[Abaxial]

I'm reassured that someone else has experienced the same problem! In my case the map was a standard size, but it was seeded using Perfect World 6, so that may be the problem. I will try again.

 

[Abaxial]

Working now. One thing that needs improving: it's very hard to check that starting positions are OK. They are marked with a little city symbol, but sometimes this does not show when you add one, and you can't tell by inspection who is starting where.

 

[Salamis]

Working now. One thing that needs improving: it's very hard to check that starting positions are OK. They are marked with a little city symbol, but sometimes this does not show when you add one, and you can't tell by inspection who is starting where.

Totally agree. You probably already know this but when adding components to the map, it needs to be in the order of Geographic features >Tribal villages>Resources>Starting locations

If you remove or add a tribal village after scattering resources, the resources will disappear. Doing anything to the map after adding starting locations will make the starting locations disappear. Accidentally adding a grassland tile in the middle of the ocean after the map is perfected and ready to go will make me bang my head against a brick wall.

 

[Rajendran_P]

Totally agree. You probably already know this but when adding components to the map, it needs to be in the order of Geographic features >Tribal villages>Resources>Starting locations

If you remove or add a tribal village after scattering resources, the resources will disappear. Doing anything to the map after adding starting locations will make the starting locations disappear. Accidentally adding a grassland tile in the middle of the ocean after the map is perfected and ready to go will make me bang my head against a brick wall.

Salamis,
Your guidance has helped a lot. The WorldBuilder - Start Location works well. I create a world map (150 x 80) under "Huge" map setting and placed all the civilizations (total 25 civs and 20 City-states) start location and the map worked well. Now into 260+ turns and all looks well till now.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

I try to substitude all landmass with snow, and remove all resources and features. (So you only have snow and ocean) I believe such a map gives fun.

However I succeed in generating and saving the map, but when I start a game an error message occurs then I fail.

 

[Salamis]

Salamis,
Your guidance has helped a lot. The WorldBuilder - Start Location works well. I create a world map (150 x 80) under "Huge" map setting and placed all the civilizations (total 25 civs and 20 City-states) start location and the map worked well. Now into 260+ turns and all looks well till now.

150x80 and stable for 260 turns, wow! I haven’t managed to build a stable map of that size. May I ask, what mod did you use to get that custom size?

I try to substitude all landmass with snow, and remove all resources and features. (So you only have snow and ocean) I believe such a map gives fun.

However I succeed in generating and saving the map, but when I start a game an error message occurs then I fail.

I haven’t tried to make a map with such extreme terrain but I think that a CS and/or Civ can only be placed on a plot with enough food to be able to grow. Perhaps that’s why the map fails to load? It might be worth making everything tundra and seeing if that works.

 

[Rajendran_P]

150x80 and stable for 260 turns, wow! I haven’t managed to build a stable map of that size. May I ask, what mod did you use to get that custom size?



I haven’t tried to make a map with such extreme terrain but I think that a CS and/or Civ can only be placed on a plot with enough food to be able to grow. Perhaps that’s why the map fails to load? It might be worth making everything tundra and seeing if that works.

Salamis, slight correction to number of civilization. Total number of civilization is 20 civs + 20 City-States on the 150 x 80 size earth map.

I created an exact replica of the Gaint Map (180x94) using the WorldBuilder and play the game up to 462 turns before the game crashed continuously. Thereafter, I re-created using 150 x 80 setting. However due to reduced size, I created all continents (Europe, Asia, Middle East, African Continent )except American Continent (same grid size as Gaint Map).

How did I create the Map
1. Firstly, go to the maps.xml file ( mine is > C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\Gameplay\Data\maps.xml). Under the Huge Map setting line, change the GRID size to 150 x 80 or whatever size you wish to create. Below is the liner from Map.xml

<Row MapSizeType="MAPSIZE_HUGE" Name="LOC_MAPSIZE_HUGE_NAME" Description="LOC_MAPSIZE_HUGE_DESCRIPTION" DefaultPlayers="22" GridWidth="150" GridHeight="80" NumNaturalWonders="5" PlateValue="5" Continents="6"/>

Do you know what does "PlateValue" means?

I indicated "DefaultPlayers" as 22. I can create 30 civilizations and 22 City-States in the Worldbuilders. But when staring a new game, I can't create more than 20 Civilizations. Maximum allowed is 20.

I am trying different map sizes to check the largest map playable in the game. Previously, I tried 130 x 74 and the game was successful. Thus now am trying a slightly bigger GRID. Will update the status.

If you have any other guidance or information pertaining to map creation, do share.

Last but not least, when creating a new map in worldbuilder, do ensure only the game DLCs are selected and remove all external MODs from the "C:\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Mods" to another folder.

 

[Rajendran_P]

Salamis, slight correction to number of civilization. Total number of civilization is 20 civs + 20 City-States on the 150 x 80 size earth map.

I created an exact replica of the Gaint Map (180x94) using the WorldBuilder and play the game up to 462 turns before the game crashed continuously. Thereafter, I re-created using 150 x 80 setting. However due to reduced size, I created all continents (Europe, Asia, Middle East, African Continent )except American Continent (same grid size as Gaint Map).

How did I create the Map
1. Firstly, go to the maps.xml file ( mine is > C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\Gameplay\Data\maps.xml). Under the Huge Map setting line, change the GRID size to 150 x 80 or whatever size you wish to create. Below is the liner from Map.xml

<Row MapSizeType="MAPSIZE_HUGE" Name="LOC_MAPSIZE_HUGE_NAME" Description="LOC_MAPSIZE_HUGE_DESCRIPTION" DefaultPlayers="22" GridWidth="150" GridHeight="80" NumNaturalWonders="5" PlateValue="5" Continents="6"/>

Do you know what does "PlateValue" means?

I indicated "DefaultPlayers" as 22. I can create 30 civilizations and 22 City-States in the Worldbuilders. But when staring a new game, I can't create more than 20 Civilizations. Maximum allowed is 20.

I am trying different map sizes to check the largest map playable in the game. Previously, I tried 130 x 74 and the game was successful. Thus now am trying a slightly bigger GRID. Will update the status.

If you have any other guidance or information pertaining to map creation, do share.

Last but not least, when creating a new map in worldbuilder, do ensure only the game DLCs are selected and remove all external MODs from the "C:\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Mods" to another folder.

Good news. I have successfully completed the game with 150 x 80 GRID map at 619 turns (Diplomatic Victory). The game did crashed total of 3 times at various turns ( 200 +, 400+ & 602 turns). I restarted the game using the autosave and the game proceeded smoothly. Don't think the crash was due to map size but may be due to other issues. Overall, the 150 x 80 GRID map was stable and playable. I could have ended the game much earlier (500+) with diplomatic victory but intentionally delayed the game till more than 600 turns to check on map stability.

Next going to try 160 x 82 map. Maybe, this time shrink the sea area and include the American Continent.

 

[Salamis]

Good news. I have successfully completed the game with 150 x 80 GRID map at 619 turns (Diplomatic Victory). The game did crashed total of 3 times at various turns ( 200 +, 400+ & 602 turns). I restarted the game using the autosave and the game proceeded smoothly. Don't think the crash was due to map size but may be due to other issues. Overall, the 150 x 80 GRID map was stable and playable. I could have ended the game much earlier (500+) with diplomatic victory but intentionally delayed the game till more than 600 turns to check on map stability.

Next going to try 160 x 82 map. Maybe, this time shrink the sea area and include the American Continent.

Rajendran_P, thank you for these updates, very informative. I have not tried the technique of adjusting the grid size in the base files but will now try this. Would you be willing to share the 150x80 map file that you made? In exchange, I could offer the Game of Thrones huge map I’ve built – it is based loosely on this: http://tiny.cc/gt9lez

Regarding PlateValue, I wasn’t sure, but found this thread: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ6_map_utility.605392/

It seems to influence the number and variation of land masses.

I’ll continue to share any tips I have on World Builder but will start working on a reference guide as well. Though there have been frustrations there’s also a lot of satisfaction to be had!

 

[Lily_Lancer]

I haven’t tried to make a map with such extreme terrain but I think that a CS and/or Civ can only be placed on a plot with enough food to be able to grow. Perhaps that’s why the map fails to load? It might be worth making everything tundra and seeing if that works.

Can we add starting location to our worldbuilder map? i.e. force Civs to start on certain places to avoid such problem?

 

[Salamis]

Can we add starting location to our worldbuilder map? i.e. force Civs to start on certain places to avoid such problem?

Yes, by opening Advanced Mode and going to Player Editor. Please see the 6th post in this thread for detailed information. Also, don’t change anything on the map after you’ve added Starting Locations (see 9th post).

 

[Rajendran_P]

Rajendran_P, thank you for these updates, very informative. I have not tried the technique of adjusting the grid size in the base files but will now try this. Would you be willing to share the 150x80 map file that you made? In exchange, I could offer the Game of Thrones huge map I’ve built – it is based loosely on this: http://tiny.cc/gt9lez

Regarding PlateValue, I wasn’t sure, but found this thread: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ6_map_utility.605392/

It seems to influence the number and variation of land masses.

I’ll continue to share any tips I have on World Builder but will start working on a reference guide as well. Though there have been frustrations there’s also a lot of satisfaction to be had!

Salamis, I have attached the file. Place the file in >:"\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\WorldBuilder" folder for the map to be accessible. I have utilised and place all the available natural wonders in the map to make the map more interesting. Believe you can re-edit the map using the worlbuilder and suit the layout to your liking, if you want to.

Appreciate if could update me on the outcome......whether the map is playable. You can re-edit the map and place all the civilisations (total 42 civilisations) on the map to your liking.

 

[beorn]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I have just briefly tried the World Builder. My goal is rather simple: take a regular random map, probably using the Lakes script, and delete a bunch of mountains. I really dislike the way mountain ranges isolate civs and accelerate technology. Otherwise, I do not intend to change much about the randomly generated map.

But every time I try to generate a map, flood plains are missing (except desert tiles) and I am unable to add them. Am I doing something wrong? Or is this a problem with the World Builder?

 

[Salamis]

Rajendran_P, thank you for sending the map. I've had a hectic few weeks so haven't had a chance to test it yet but will do. Please find attached the Game of Thrones world map. Huge size with resources scattered but no players placed.

Beorn, I tried to generate the map in the same way as you described and flood plains on grass and plains were present. My best guess is, check that 'Expansion: Gathering Storm' is selected under 'Choose Ruleset' when generating the map.