Extra large map size?

[Mistress]

The tooltip says that the game isnt designed to run on the max map size and can cause issues. Is this still the case or is it a hold over from older versions? I really wish maps were bigger

[Security Cam #7]

You will get a lower performance with an extra large map size and your colonists will take an entire day to grab the 4 steel that somehow happened to be on the other end of the map. That's pretty much it.

[Moonwarden64]

sometimes they can also get stuck in certain activities, I had some caravans and visitors get stuck in "wandering" mode instead of leaving because the exit to the map was like 300 tiles of distance (map was closed in 3 sides)

[brian_va]

they'll run to the other side, get hungry and run back to eat. or even worse, eat without a table, the worst sin imaginable.

pathfinding is the issue, otherwise it will work fine. it can take some extra micro, but you gotta pay to play.

[Defektiv]

Most of the issues you'll face with large maps are things like raids starting so far out they're either trivial to deal with by the time they get to you or take too long for your pawns to reach before being tired or hungry. Or events where you need or want to save people but they spawn so far out they're dead before you can get to them. But otherwise large maps are great if you want to stay on one tile for an incredibly long period of time because there's just so many resources. Wealth tends to go up way faster as a result though.

[Astasia]

Most of the downsides to the largest map sizes are overcome by bionic legs and other movement speed increases. It sort of adds an extra layer of progression to those maps, where early on some stuff is just too far away to do and you want to restrict your colonists to a more local area, and as your colonists become enhanced and faster later in the game and you build things like stone/concrete pathways around your map the travel speed increases to the point where it is no longer a problem. These map sizes were considered functional and fine throughout most of beta, and it was only around release that a warning was added. A reddit poll with a few hundred votes I came across a couple years ago revealed that a majority of users played on 400x400 or larger maps.

[dragonsphotoworks]

Can also add Force Trait to map preset. Give them Fast Walking Trait. It is what I am doing. Doesnt require cybernetics or anything. And it doesnt really break game flow. Just speeds up there walking so they actually get things done in a day lol

[Steelfleece]

Biggest issue I've had with large maps is when your base is too far from any map entrance - especially on mountain/ocean border maps or when using any sort of map-changing mods to get yourself in a canyon or something. If there's too long of a walk to get to the map edge, released prisoners, visitors, even some caravans will decide screw it, we're gonna live here now. The prisoners were the worst, if they weren't fully healed and were dropped outside, they'd just run past the person who released them, charge into the prison and flop back onto their bed like, I dunno, I'd like to be free but this prison's okay and that's too long a walk for my delicate footsies.

[Defektiv]

Extra large mountain maps are OP for easy game mode for sure. A long time ago I had one that was so big with so much rock that raids would sometimes give up or get wiped by map events before they even got to my base.

[dragonsphotoworks]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

Extra large mountain maps are OP for easy game mode for sure. A long time ago I had one that was so big with so much rock that raids would sometimes give up or get wiped by map events before they even got to my base.

Lol i had same.

Originally posted by Steelfleece:

Biggest issue I've had with large maps is when your base is too far from any map entrance - especially on mountain/ocean border maps or when using any sort of map-changing mods to get yourself in a canyon or something. If there's too long of a walk to get to the map edge, released prisoners, visitors, even some caravans will decide screw it, we're gonna live here now. The prisoners were the worst, if they weren't fully healed and were dropped outside, they'd just run past the person who released them, charge into the prison and flop back onto their bed like, I dunno, I'd like to be free but this prison's okay and that's too long a walk for my delicate footsies.

Do you remember which mod did that and if updated? The map changing.

[Steelfleece]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2111424996

Map Reroll's good to pair with it. Lets you preview what your tinkering will result in.

I'm fond of canyon type maps, especially desert canyons. Exit on either end, can build in the middle, in a side canyon that may form, or tunnel into one side for a mountain base if that's your thing. Can still get surrounded, but on two sides instead all of them.

[dragonsphotoworks]

That was what i was thinking as well :-) Used to use a mod to do just that before but had forgotten name when reinstalled game. Thank you

[Siegfried]

umm now with mechanitors, robots would haul far away resources. that would solve long distance logistic problems right?

[ichifish]

Originally posted by Siegfried:

umm now with mechanitors, robots would haul far away resources. that would solve long distance logistic problems right?

They would for mid-late game, but hauling animals can take care of that as well. The question is “do you want to/need to make the game easier.” The difference between standard and 300 is a pretty significant advantage for many events. The downsides are caravanning, hunting, and crash victim rescues). But the upsides (more resources, more distance between the base and raids/mech clusters, more choices of locations, more base space, more ancient dangers) more than make up for that. Even with lots of caravanning I found them to be too easy. If you’re planning a large colony or just like the larger size (I just like to see more), go for it, but know that they’re easier.

[Astasia]

More distance to enemies is more often a negative than a positive. Having a few seconds more time to prepare for a normal raid isn't really an advantage, you just sit there and wait a moment until they get close enough before drafting and moving people into position. Assuming you have outer walls and raids that spawn near you have to run around to your entrance, that is plenty of time to get ready for them anyway on any size map. It helps a little with sappers and breach raids, more in avoiding damage to your walls than helping you win though.

A siege or cluster on the opposite side of a huge map can be absolutely brutal, you often don't have time to interact with clusters before countdown timers expire so setting up some quick walls to help block turret lines might not work, and sieges can usually get up and running before you reach them and you start getting shelled. Then dealing with combat that far from your base is risky, calling in extra support from your colony takes too long and people suffering significant injuries can bleed out before making it back to base if you aren't able to tend remotely. On small maps a fast pawn can get to a cluster before prox activators kick on with enough time to say build a roof over an auto-mortar to disable it.

Extra resources or dangers aren't a real advantage either, you can quickly setup a second colony a couple tiles away from your base and strip it of resources and clear the dangers there and you have already "caught up" with resource amounts and spent about as much effort getting it, considering the difficulties of mining and hauling very remote ore on huge maps. My last playthrough I had steel deposits left on the edges of my starting map that I ignored for most the playthrough and instead was getting steel from mission maps and traders because sending someone to mine it and then having people haul it was too much work for a long time.

The only real "advantage" of playing on a larger map is more space to build on, in theory. You probably aren't going to run out of space to build on a 250 map though.

[Jaasrg]

Originally posted by Astasia:

build a roof over an auto-mortar to disable it.

I... wow.
That's up there on the ridiculousness scale as stairs in WH40K.