Maps and map sizes
Every skirmish and multiplayer match in Dawn of Embers is played on a map the game generates for that match. There are no hand-made skirmish maps. The host picks a map size, a biome and a few other settings in the lobby, and the game builds the world from those settings and a seed.
Map sizes
Maps are square. The size sets how far it is across and how many players it can hold. The player count includes computer opponents.
| Size | Across | Most players |
|---|---|---|
| X-Small | 200 m | 2 |
| Small | 280 m | 4 |
| Medium | 480 m | 4 |
| Large | 720 m | 8 |
| X-Large | 1,200 m | 8 |
- The lobby greys out player counts that are too many for the chosen size. Hovering over a greyed count says how many players that size holds.
- The host cannot start a lobby with more seats than the size allows.
- The caps for X-Small, Small, Large and X-Large come from how many start positions fit with enough room between them. Medium's cap of 4 is a design choice: there would be room for more.
- Every map has an invisible wall along its edge that keeps units on the map. The camera can still look past it.
- The fog of war works the same on every size.
Biomes
The map type setting picks the biome. A biome is a setting of the world generator, not a separate map: it changes the look, the trees and plants, and how many resources of each kind are scattered. Apart from the Snowy Mountain's peaks, the land, rivers and start positions are laid out the same way on every biome.
| Biome | What it is |
|---|---|
| Forest | The standard map: rolling ground, a river with fords, and dense forest around every start. |
| Snowy Forest | The Forest in winter. The world is generated exactly as on the Forest, with snow on the ground, the trees and the roofs. |
| Snowy Mountain | Fewer trees (pines), a little more stone and gold, and tall mountain peaks that units cannot climb. Units walk between the peaks, never over them, and no building can stand on one. Needs a Medium or larger map: the lobby will not start a Snowy Mountain match on X-Small or Small. |
| Desert | Palms, cactus and dry ground. Far fewer trees and fewer bushes than the Forest, but more gold and stone. |
| Ocean | Planned as a map of islands in open water. See below. |
- Fish are placed on the Forest, Snowy Forest and Ocean maps, the Ocean having the most. The Desert and Snowy Mountain have none.
- Ocean, today: the Ocean biome currently generates the same land and water as the Forest, with fewer trees (palms) and its own ground. Island starts and open-water maps are not built yet.
- Buildings are the same on every biome. On the snow biomes they wear snow-covered roofs.
How a map is generated
The seed
- Each match's world comes from a seed, a number. The same seed with the same settings always produces the same world: the same terrain, rivers, forest and resources.
- Leave the lobby's seed box empty and the game rolls a new random seed, so every match gets a different world. Type a seed to replay a world you liked.
- In multiplayer, every player's game builds the world from the same seed, so everyone sees the same map.
Start positions
- Players start on a ring around the centre of the map, evenly spaced, with a little random variation.
- Each start sits in a cleared, levelled area reaching about 26 metres out from the start, ringed by forest.
- Just outside the cleared area, every player gets their own patches of gold, stone and berry bushes. In a skirmish, each start also gets one herd of huntable animals nearby.
- There is no separate wood patch at the start: the surrounding forest is the wood, and any tree can be chopped.
Resources across the map
- Beyond the starts, clusters of gold, stone, bushes and trees are shared out fairly: the map is divided into one sector per player, and each sector gets its share. Every sector gets at least two clusters, which guarantees each player both gold and stone within reach.
- About a quarter of the clusters sit in contested ground between the players rather than in anyone's sector.
- Bigger maps get more clusters, in proportion to their area.
- In a skirmish, open clearings in the forest that hold no resources get a small clump of gold, stone or bushes, and empty clearings get a herd of animals.
- Herds of huntable animals roam the map, and lost animals are replaced over time.
- The lobby's resources setting changes how many clusters are scattered beyond the start areas.
- Known issue in the current build: only High changes the amount. Sparse and Abundant play the same as Medium.
Water
- Rivers and ponds are generated from the seed and bend around the start positions.
- Where a land route between players crosses a river, the river has a shallow ford that units can walk through. Every start can be reached from every other start on foot.
- Deep water is for ships only. Land units cannot enter it.
Other lobby settings
These are set in the lobby alongside the map:
- Players and computer opponents (up to the size's cap), and each opponent's difficulty.
- Teams. Allies share vision (see Fog of war) and win together (see Victory conditions).
- Each player's Calling.
In the demo
The demo plays one combination only: a Medium Forest map with up to 4 players (2 against 2). The other sizes and biomes stay visible in the lobby, greyed out, with a tooltip saying they are not available yet in the demo. The seed is chosen for you from a small set of tested worlds.
Planned
- The Ocean biome's own layout: a few islands that players start on and sail between.
- A flat Desert whose wood comes mostly from the Trading Hub's market, with a cluster of trees at each start. Today the Desert's ground rolls like the Forest's.