After playing enough games I decided to open the editor and see how the property of the maps depend on settings. I generated at least 5 maps of every possible setting or switching with the same seed and these are the observations(on standrd size)
1) Climate:
The world has usually the following belts of tiles: Equatorial jungle belt, Subtropical grasslands, Desert belt, Temperate plains, Temperate grasslands and Tundra. The mountains and hills dissect those belts but the belts always exist independantly. Those belts are pronounced the most in the normal-temperate setting. All belts have characteristic width There are 9 possible settings of climate and this is how the belts react:
Arid implies wide and continuous desert belts (5 tiles), normal have thinner (3 tiles) and discontinuous and wet have only small patches.
Tundra extends 10-12 tiles from the poles in cool, 7-9 in temperate and 5-6 in warm setting (including the ocean covered tiles in between, this is why tundra is so rare in warm as lands rarely comes too close to the pole as it can cause bugs).
Subtropical grasslands are pronounced in temperate-normal but patchy in others unless it is cool-arid where they replace part of the jungle itself.
Jungle is widest in warm-wet (9 tiles) and it's width is dependant upon temperature mostly (7-8 for temperate, 6-7 for cool) but it's continuity is dependant on precipitation setting. Of course the narrower jungle of cool setting can be broken more easily with aridity.
The width of temperate belt is largest in temperate-wet and hot-wet and narrowest in cool setting as most of the tundra consumes grassland (9-10 tiles on warm, 8-11 tiles on temperate amd 5-8 tiles on cool).
Marshes appear mostly in regions which are supposed to be jungle in the equatorial belt and are commoner when there are less rivers in this region ( marsh rarely touch rivers on the maps I saw).
Rivers are only weakly dependant on climate and are more dependant on the basic settings of continentality, ocean % and age.
The frequency of forest changes very little with climate except with arid, where there is less place for them to appear.
2) Age:
Age is more important then climate to the character of the map and strongly control the amount of rivers.
Rivers are preferrably formed in continuous non-elevated terrain so their frequency is low on 3B years and highest on 5B
The mountains behave the following way:
3B: wide fat mountain ranges of above 5 tiles, zones of blocky terrain with small patches on non elevated-terrain immersed in large elevated zones, fewer rivers, more marshes in the equatorial belt volcanoes found all over the map and in every region.
4B: Thinner ranges 3 tiles wide, more continuous open regions and consequently more rivers, volcanoes are rare and found in few ranges.
5B:Most elevated terrain is scattered among the open tiles, rivers are longer but about as common as in 4B, ranges are patchy and 1 tile wide, because more organized river network this leaves somewhat more marsh then 4B but less then 3B, one have to look very long to find any volcano.
3) Geographic settings:
The shape of the coasts is totally independent of climate and age as using the same seed with different climate and age will have similar coast lines. Each setting have its own pecularities besides the total amount of land:
Pangeas:
60%-The landmass is one huge block with no or almost no islands beside it, large inner seas can be found within, rivers are commonest in this setting.
70%-The landmass tends to be less continuous (with choke-points) and less chance to inner seas. In case of winding land there will be less rivers and more marshes, otherwise there might be pieces broken off as large islands and this is the setting with the most chances to an island start with pangea.
80%-The layout comes in three forms: one compact block with small islands, winding land with unpredictable form or "split pangea" similar to continents settings but with coast or sea bridge between them. Island starts are rarer as the islands are too small to be a viable starting location. If the computer allows island start it is usually separated by wide ocean from the mainland making it impossible to play above warlord (Suicide galleys won't help and no trade is possible)
The generator tries to maintain single basic shape for all ocean % settings but sometimes the 80% shape is different due to the fact that "eating" land stop the map from being pangea and the computer makes different shape.
Archipelago:
60%- Large amount of continents with strange shapes and coast passageways between them, rivers are much rarer then in pangea.
70%-Large islands or micro-continents. Micro-continents have always choke points as they are joined islands, rivers are even rarer then in 60%, most significant islands have coast or sea passageways between them.
80%-Small islands connected by coast and sea passages, rivers are so rare that there are some map seeds without any. The chance of starting with an AI on your island actually increases because computer finds most island as inviable for a starting locations, increased chances for having no frsh water. Generally this is the riskiest setting as starting location could be totally inviable or else the game can be spoiled as AI locations are inviable. Bonus food have usually little importance here and the most important factors are freh water access or the distribution of iron.
Continents: This setting have two continents or archipelagoes with an ocean between them:
60%- two continents with usually narrower starits between them. Many times the strait is coastal waters or seas so they can interact more easily, sometimes the maps are spoiled as there is effectively pangea with choke point.
70%-The classic setting of two continents similar to earth.
80%-Two continents or continent groups separated by wide oceans. Sometmes one or both continents are "broken" and are in fact archipelagoes with coastal water passageways. This is the riskiest start as the continents can be severely unbalanced.
4) Resources: The map seed contains resource distribution but the actual distribution can change due to change in the amount of civs which causes some of the resources to not materialize in the actual game.
5) size: all those descriptions are for standard size, changing the size have the following effects:
The generator tries to preserve the basic shape of the map in all sizes, making the map smaller causes the geberator to "squeeze" terrain blocks and eliminating rivers in the process. Enlarging the size causes choke points to widen, coast and sea gaps to become ocean gaps (which are impossible to cross with suicide ship strategies usally) and create wide single terrain blocks. Frequency of rivers increases as terrain is more continuous in this setting and their dependance on climate is the most pronounced.
On rivers: It's tough to find what causes rivers to form, the computer can form rivers in every unbroken terrain may it be plains, jungle or desert but less marsh. They require space so narrow land ,islands or 3B rugged terrains rarely contain them so they sre commonest on 60% pang and rarest on 80% arch.
On starting: The most amount of habitable land is in normal-temperate-5B-pangea-60% and it's the most balanced start (disregarding capital food bonuses). Changing climate tends to decrease habitable land. Increasing ocean cover and land divsion can increase the imbalances in the game when the map layout is more influential then capital food bonuses as is decreasing age. Imbalanced map make the actual difficulty much different from the chosen setting up to 3 settings (making emperor as easy as warlord or warlord as tough as emperor). Of curse increasing the size othe maps rebalances them.
1) Climate:
The world has usually the following belts of tiles: Equatorial jungle belt, Subtropical grasslands, Desert belt, Temperate plains, Temperate grasslands and Tundra. The mountains and hills dissect those belts but the belts always exist independantly. Those belts are pronounced the most in the normal-temperate setting. All belts have characteristic width There are 9 possible settings of climate and this is how the belts react:
Arid implies wide and continuous desert belts (5 tiles), normal have thinner (3 tiles) and discontinuous and wet have only small patches.
Tundra extends 10-12 tiles from the poles in cool, 7-9 in temperate and 5-6 in warm setting (including the ocean covered tiles in between, this is why tundra is so rare in warm as lands rarely comes too close to the pole as it can cause bugs).
Subtropical grasslands are pronounced in temperate-normal but patchy in others unless it is cool-arid where they replace part of the jungle itself.
Jungle is widest in warm-wet (9 tiles) and it's width is dependant upon temperature mostly (7-8 for temperate, 6-7 for cool) but it's continuity is dependant on precipitation setting. Of course the narrower jungle of cool setting can be broken more easily with aridity.
The width of temperate belt is largest in temperate-wet and hot-wet and narrowest in cool setting as most of the tundra consumes grassland (9-10 tiles on warm, 8-11 tiles on temperate amd 5-8 tiles on cool).
Marshes appear mostly in regions which are supposed to be jungle in the equatorial belt and are commoner when there are less rivers in this region ( marsh rarely touch rivers on the maps I saw).
Rivers are only weakly dependant on climate and are more dependant on the basic settings of continentality, ocean % and age.
The frequency of forest changes very little with climate except with arid, where there is less place for them to appear.
2) Age:
Age is more important then climate to the character of the map and strongly control the amount of rivers.
Rivers are preferrably formed in continuous non-elevated terrain so their frequency is low on 3B years and highest on 5B
The mountains behave the following way:
3B: wide fat mountain ranges of above 5 tiles, zones of blocky terrain with small patches on non elevated-terrain immersed in large elevated zones, fewer rivers, more marshes in the equatorial belt volcanoes found all over the map and in every region.
4B: Thinner ranges 3 tiles wide, more continuous open regions and consequently more rivers, volcanoes are rare and found in few ranges.
5B:Most elevated terrain is scattered among the open tiles, rivers are longer but about as common as in 4B, ranges are patchy and 1 tile wide, because more organized river network this leaves somewhat more marsh then 4B but less then 3B, one have to look very long to find any volcano.
3) Geographic settings:
The shape of the coasts is totally independent of climate and age as using the same seed with different climate and age will have similar coast lines. Each setting have its own pecularities besides the total amount of land:
Pangeas:
60%-The landmass is one huge block with no or almost no islands beside it, large inner seas can be found within, rivers are commonest in this setting.
70%-The landmass tends to be less continuous (with choke-points) and less chance to inner seas. In case of winding land there will be less rivers and more marshes, otherwise there might be pieces broken off as large islands and this is the setting with the most chances to an island start with pangea.
80%-The layout comes in three forms: one compact block with small islands, winding land with unpredictable form or "split pangea" similar to continents settings but with coast or sea bridge between them. Island starts are rarer as the islands are too small to be a viable starting location. If the computer allows island start it is usually separated by wide ocean from the mainland making it impossible to play above warlord (Suicide galleys won't help and no trade is possible)
The generator tries to maintain single basic shape for all ocean % settings but sometimes the 80% shape is different due to the fact that "eating" land stop the map from being pangea and the computer makes different shape.
Archipelago:
60%- Large amount of continents with strange shapes and coast passageways between them, rivers are much rarer then in pangea.
70%-Large islands or micro-continents. Micro-continents have always choke points as they are joined islands, rivers are even rarer then in 60%, most significant islands have coast or sea passageways between them.
80%-Small islands connected by coast and sea passages, rivers are so rare that there are some map seeds without any. The chance of starting with an AI on your island actually increases because computer finds most island as inviable for a starting locations, increased chances for having no frsh water. Generally this is the riskiest setting as starting location could be totally inviable or else the game can be spoiled as AI locations are inviable. Bonus food have usually little importance here and the most important factors are freh water access or the distribution of iron.
Continents: This setting have two continents or archipelagoes with an ocean between them:
60%- two continents with usually narrower starits between them. Many times the strait is coastal waters or seas so they can interact more easily, sometimes the maps are spoiled as there is effectively pangea with choke point.
70%-The classic setting of two continents similar to earth.
80%-Two continents or continent groups separated by wide oceans. Sometmes one or both continents are "broken" and are in fact archipelagoes with coastal water passageways. This is the riskiest start as the continents can be severely unbalanced.
4) Resources: The map seed contains resource distribution but the actual distribution can change due to change in the amount of civs which causes some of the resources to not materialize in the actual game.
5) size: all those descriptions are for standard size, changing the size have the following effects:
The generator tries to preserve the basic shape of the map in all sizes, making the map smaller causes the geberator to "squeeze" terrain blocks and eliminating rivers in the process. Enlarging the size causes choke points to widen, coast and sea gaps to become ocean gaps (which are impossible to cross with suicide ship strategies usally) and create wide single terrain blocks. Frequency of rivers increases as terrain is more continuous in this setting and their dependance on climate is the most pronounced.
On rivers: It's tough to find what causes rivers to form, the computer can form rivers in every unbroken terrain may it be plains, jungle or desert but less marsh. They require space so narrow land ,islands or 3B rugged terrains rarely contain them so they sre commonest on 60% pang and rarest on 80% arch.
On starting: The most amount of habitable land is in normal-temperate-5B-pangea-60% and it's the most balanced start (disregarding capital food bonuses). Changing climate tends to decrease habitable land. Increasing ocean cover and land divsion can increase the imbalances in the game when the map layout is more influential then capital food bonuses as is decreasing age. Imbalanced map make the actual difficulty much different from the chosen setting up to 3 settings (making emperor as easy as warlord or warlord as tough as emperor). Of curse increasing the size othe maps rebalances them.
