The Landmass options are probably the biggest source of confusion, but they offer incredible flexibility once you understand how they work. They also have the greatest impact on map generation--landmasses decide where to place most of the land and water.

For each map that you create, Got Lakes chooses one landmass. Yet there are four landmass options--why multiple options? Because this allows you to control which families of landmasses Got Lakes chooses from.

The word "Shuffle" comes from the fact that landmasses do not combine with each other, but are instead added to a set and then randomly selected, like drawing a card from a shuffled deck.

Let's start with the default behavior, which sets every landmass shuffle option to All. This means that Got Lakes will choose from all landmasses. In other words, your map could be anything from an inland sea to continent-sized bagels to a maze-pangea to a vast ocean filled with islands.

Now suppose that you want a map that's a little less...random. Maybe you don't want to play a land-heavy map this time, because you just did that on Ludicrous size and you need a change of scenery. Perhaps you want a landmass that is mostly islands. Just set the following landmass options:

• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: All
  
• Lakes Landmasses: None
  
• Pangea Landmasses: None

This tells Got Lakes to choose a landmass from either Archipelago, Clusters, Island Plates, Large Islands, Megacluster, or Mini Donuts. So now your map will be a randomly-selected islands landmass.

A few more examples:

Something vanilla:

• Continents Landmasses: Continents
  
• Islands Landmasses: Island Plates
  
• Lakes Landmasses: Inland Sea
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Pangea

The above tells Got Lakes to choose either Continents, Island Plates, Inland Sea, or Pangea for the landmass.

Something slightly different:

• Continents Landmasses: Small Continents
  
• Islands Landmasses: Archipelago
  
• Lakes Landmasses: Seven Seas
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Oval

Something I can only get with Got Lakes...

• Continents Landmasses: Bagels
  
• Islands Landmasses: Mini Donuts
  
• Lakes Landmasses: Large Lakes
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Snake

Something Challenging!

• Continents Landmasses: Noodles
  
• Islands Landmasses: Clusters
  
• Lakes Landmasses: Inverted Extras
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Maze

Some tips on how to use various combos of options:

The most effective ways to adjust a Landmass:

• Extras: add additional islands (or lakes, depending on landmass)
  
• Sea Level: adjusts the amount of land generated
  
• Lake Level: adjust the number of random fresh lakes added to the land

Combos of landmass, extras, and mountains:

• Any landmass + Tectonic Extras + Mountains: what you choose for the Mountains option determines the shape of your extra islands/lakes!
  
• Inverted Extras Landmass + Extras: creates a land-heavy map with extra lakes
  
• Inverted Extras Landmass + None Extras: creates a map that is completely dry except for some tiny lakes that are adjustable with Lake Level.
  
• Inverted Extras Landmass + Tectonic Extras + Mountains: what you choose for the Mountains option determines the shape of your entire landmass!

Other notable landmass combos:

• Numerous Continents + Sea Level: sea level adjusts the number of continents and the size of each continent.
  
• Large Islands + Sea Level: sea level adjusts the number of islands rather than the size of the islands
  
• Donut + ???: various options can change the donut's filling
  
• Inverted Donut + ???: various options can change the inverted donut's filling
  
• Hex + Climate Granularity: climate granularity also adjusts the size of each hexagon.
  
• None for all landmass family options: a map with no landmass! Adds larger and/or more numerous islands from the Extras option to compensate.

Customizations allow you to modify various aspects of map generation. There are lots of possibilities here, and many of them are exclusive to Got Lakes. These options generally have a greater impact than the adjustments because they don't just tweak things--they swap out entire systems.


Mountains: style of mountain ranges.

• Adjust with Mountain Level and Hill Level.
  
• Also affected by No Coastal Mountains.

Mountain Clumps: what to do with large clumps of mountains.

• The base game simply ignores these clumps, but that can result in wasted space on the map. Alternatively, Got Lakes can either carve mazes into these clumps or hollow-out the clumps completely.

Rivers: style of rivers.

• Adjust with River Level.
  
• Also adjustable with Lake Level for non-simple rivers.

Extras: extra islands or lakes.

• Adjust with Sea Level.
  
• Also adjustable with Mountain Level for tectonic extras.

World Wrap: east-west wrap versus east-west borders.

Climate Wrap: controls the existence/orientation of poles and latitude bands.

• An azimuthal climate has one pole at the center of the map and the other at the edges.
  
• A global climate has one pole at the top of the map and the other at the bottom, with latitude bands similar to the base game.
  
• A regional climate's latitude bands depend on the Sunlight option:
  • Standard Sunlight results in no latitude bands at all (fixed latitude).
    
  • Tilted Axis randomizes the location of the poles as well as the distance between the poles and the center of the map.
    
  • Two Suns randomizes the location of the poles.

Climate: whether the world is extremely hot, extremely cold, or somewhere in between.

• Adjust with Temperature and Tundra Level.

Biome: the balance of trees, marsh/oases, and open fields.

• Also affects swamps if you have the following enabled: Gathering Storm, JNR's CB Wetlands, and Civ6 Plus: Harmony in Diversity.
  
• Adjust with Rainfall and Biodiversity.

Sunlight: determines whether the poles are both cold (Standard), one hot and one cold (Tilted Axis), or both hot (Two Suns).

• Combines with Climate Wrap as follows:
  • Standard Sunlight: Azimuthal and Globe each have two cold poles at fixed locations; Region has no poles or latitude bands, but instead has a fixed latitude which is still adjustable with Temperature and Tundra Level.
    
  • Tilted Axis: Azimuthal randomizes whether the hot pole is at the center of the map or at the edges; Globe always places the hot pole at the southern edge of the map; Region randomizes both the angle and distance of the hot pole from the center of the map, which affects both the direction and curvature of the latitude bands.
    
  • Two Suns: Azimuthal and Globe each have two hot poles at fixed locations; Region randomizes the angle of the hot poles, but keeps them at opposite ends of the map and always at the same distance from each other.

Icy Poles: whether to crop-out the coldest regions of the map.

• Globe Climate Wrap + Cropped reduces map height to literally crop out the coldest regions.
  
• The amount cropped varies by Climate as well as Sunlight.
  
• If half or more of the map is cropped-out, then Got Lakes increases the overall map size to compensate.
  
• Azimuthal or Region Climate Wrap + Cropped increases the temperature of the map in a way that stacks with Temperature and Tundra Level.
  
• Adjust with Temperature and Tundra Level.

Adjustments are the knobs that offset or tweak a single aspect of the map such as Sea Level. Some of these options, such as Resources and Start Position, are similar if not identical to the options that you get with the base game's map scripts.


Land Starts: how to assign starting regions to civs that start on land.

• Largest Area is similar to the Terra map type in that it places all land civs onto the same area.
  
• Separate Areas assigns each civ to its own area using areas that are similar in size and quality.
  • WARNING: this does not merely "space out" civs but chooses locations that are separated by water and/or mountains. Your map must have at least as many start-worthy islands/continents as players, or else someone might find themselves on either a tiny island or a peninsula walled-off by mountains.
    
  • This does not prevent major civs from sharing land with city-states.
    
  • Recommended if you prefer starting each major civ on its own island instead of starting on shared continents or a pangea.
• If the the largest area is too small, or if there are too few areas for Separate Areas, then Got Lakes will revert to the standard method for starting positions.

Water Starts: how to assign starting regions to civs that start on water.

• Most of the water in ocean-heavy maps is considered one area, so this option has a more noticeable effect on land-heavy maps such as Inland Sea and Lakes.
  
• If the the largest area is too small, or if there are too few areas for Separate Areas, then Got Lakes will revert to the standard method for starting positions.

Minor Starts: how to assign starting regions to city-states.

• Largest Area places all city-states onto the same area.
  
• Standard places city states without dividing the world into regions.
  
• Separate Areas assigns each city-state to its own area using the best areas available.
  
• Major Areas assigns areas to city-states as if they were major civiliations.
  
• Same as Land Starts places city states using the same method that is chosen for Land Starts. If Land Starts is Standard then Minor Starts will effectively be Major Areas since "Standard" for major civs is equivalent to Major Areas.
  
• If any non-standard method somehow fails to place city states, then Got Lakes will try again using the Standard method.

Mountain Level: quantity of mountains.

Hill Level: quantity of hills.

Volcano Level: quantity of volcanos (GS only; has no effect on non-GS maps).

Geothermal Fissure Level: quantity of geothermal fissures (GS only; has no effect on non-GS maps).

Sea Level: water/land ratio. (*)

Lake Level: quantity of random fresh lakes.

River Level: quantity and length of rivers.

Circumnavigation: adjusts how/whether to enforce watery channels for sailing across or around the world.

• None disables enforcement of circumnavigation, just like the base game.
  
• Edges are channels at the non-wrapping edges of the map.
  
• Paths randomly meander north/south while traveling east-west.
  
• If circumnavigation is enabled (that is, if this option resolves to any value other than None), then this option also removes all coastal ice and prevents impassable natural wonders from blocking naval chokepoints.

Coastal Expansion: adjusts the balance of shallow water and deep ocean by controlling how far shallow water can extend away from land.

• Also controls the amount of shallow water created by Tectonic Extras, which adds shallow water to represent submerged mountains.

Coastal Lowlands: adjusts the placement of coastal lowlands for climate-induced coastal flooding (GS only; has no effect on non-GS maps).

• The default value of Inland allows additional lowlands on inland marsh and river tiles unlike the base game.

Temperature: quantity of desert, snow, reefs, and ice. (*)

• Shifts all latitude bands either towards the equator (colder) or towards the poles (warmer).

Desert Level: quantity of desert versus fertile terrain.

• Adjusts the frequency of hot deserts and the latitude bands that control hot desert. High or Very High results in more desert, while Low or Very Low gives you more grasslands and plains.
  
• This effect stacks with Temperature and Tundra Level, but might not be noticeable with cold climates.

Tundra Level: quantity of tundra.

• Adjusts the distance between latitude bands that control tundra.
  
• This effect stacks with Temperature, but might not be noticeable with warm climates.

Rainfall: quantity of forests, jungles, and marsh. (*)

• Also adjusts swamps if you have the following enabled: Gathering Storm, JNR's CB Wetlands, and Civ6 Plus: Harmony in Diversity.

Kelp Forest Level: quantity of kelp forests.

• Has no effect unless the Sukritact's Oceans game mode is enabled.

Kelp Forests: where to allow kelp forests to spawn.

• None disabled kelp forests.
  
• Standard matches the placement rules of Sukritact's Oceans.
  
• Kelp Creep extends placement of kelp forests to shallow water that is not adjacent to land.
  
• Has no effect unless the Sukritact's Oceans game mode is enabled...
  
• ...Unless you're playing the Donut landmass, in which case certain "kelp-like" donut fillings might be possible even with Sukritact's Oceans game mode disabled.

Climate Granularity: controls the clumpiness of terrain and feature regions.

• Coarse granularity will result in a few large clumps, while fine granularity will result in many small clumps.

Grass/Plains Mix: controls the balance between grasslands and plains.

Forest/Jungle Mix: controls the balance between forests and jungles.

• Does this by expanding latitude boundaries for one while narrowing the latitude boundaries for the other. Wider latitude boundaries => more places on the map that can have that feature => more of that feature.

Biodiversity: controls which terrain/feature combos are allowed on the map.

• Lower biodiversity means fewer possible combos (perhaps no forest on tundra, for example), while higher biodiversity adds new combos such as jungles on desert.
  
• Defaults to "Climate Based" to let Got Lakes automatically adjust this option to suit the selected climate (higher diversity works better for more extreme climates).
  
• Warning: setting this option to Very Low may result in some unusually barren maps.

(*)Similar to the base game

Note that the Customizations and Landmass Shuffle have a much greater affect on the map. For example, the Mountains option (see Customizations) can greatly increase or decrease the quantity of mountains depending on what you choose. Adjustments merely serve to fine-tune the map to your liking. So if you're not sure what you want yet, then I suggest playing with the other types of options first.

These are simply additional switches to tweak the map script itself. They are all off by default.


Connected Lands: if enabled, connects all landmass lands into a sprawling pangea. For Lakes and Pangea landmasses, this also connects extra islands to the landmass.

• Recommended if you like the idea of turning any landmass into a pangea, or you like elaborate land/water mazes!
  
• If Isolated Coasts is also enabled then the connected lands may be disconnected by ocean barriers depending on landmass.
  
• For the Inverted Extras landmass, this connects islands created by extra lakes to the landmass.
  
• Sea Level has no effect on the number of water tiles removed to connect lands.

Connected Seas: if enabled, randomly connects all salt-water seas into a single network of oceans.

• Recommended as a balance fix for multiplayer games that have coastal-bias civs, especially on landmass that are prone to inland seas such as Donut and Oval.
  
• Sea Level has no effect on the number of water tiles added to connect seas.
  
• When enabled, also removes coastal ice and prevents impassable natural wonders from blocking chokepoints.

Isolated Coasts: If enabled, prevents coastal expansion from connecting lands that are separated by ocean.

• Also prevents extra islands from expanding the coast of the landmass for water-heavy maps.
  
• Lands that are separated by less than three tiles of water will still share the same coast.
  
• Has no effect on fresh lakes.
  
• Useful if you want to maximize your chances of being seprated from other civs by deep oceans, or if you just like to cross deep oceans.
  
• This does not guarantee separation of civs between oceans, even on Islands landmasses, except for the Large Islands landmass which has special support for this option.

No Additional Lakes: prevents additional non-wonder fresh lakes from spawning after generating the landmass and extras.

No Coastal Ice: prevents all ice from spawning at plots that are adjacent to land or mountains.

• This might increase your chance of being able to circumnavigate the map by water, though circumnavigation is not guaranteed--for that, see the Circumnavigation option.

No Coastal Mountains: replaces all coastal mountains with hills

No Desert: If enabled, prevents desert from appearing on the map by using other enabled terrains instead.

• If No Desert, No Grass, No Plains, No Snow, and No Tundra are all enabled, then Got Lakes will randomly remove 1-3 terrain types from the map.
  
• If 3 or more terrain types are disabled, then Got Lakes compensates for lack of terrain variety by allowing strategic resources such as horses to appear on all non-floodplains terrain types.
  
• WARNING: enabling this may result in challenging and/or unbalanced maps. You might want to try the Climate, Temperature, and Tundra Level options first before messing with this option.

No Desert Forests: if enabled, overrides biodiversity to avoid placing forests on deserts, just like the base game. Has no effect if Biodiversity is High or lower.

No Desert Jungles: if enabled, overrides biodiversity to avoid placing jungles on deserts, just like the base game. Has no effect if Biodiversity is Standard or lower.

No Desert Oases: if enabled, overrides biodiversity to avoid placing oases on deserts. Has no effect if Biodiversity is Very Low.

No Floodplains: prevents any type of non-wonder floodplains from spawning.

No Forests: prevents non-wonder forests from spawning.

No Geothermal Fissures: prevents non-wonder geothermal fissures from spawning.

No Grass: If enabled, prevents grassland from appearing on the map by using other enabled terrains instead.

• If No Desert, No Grass, No Plains, No Snow, and No Tundra are all enabled, then Got Lakes will randomly remove 1-3 terrain types from the map.
  
• If 3 or more terrain types are disabled, then Got Lakes compensates for lack of terrain variety by allowing strategic resources such as horses to appear on all non-floodplains terrain types.
  
• WARNING: enabling this may result in challenging and/or unbalanced maps. You might want to try the Climate, Temperature, and Tundra Level options first before messing with this option.

No Grassland Jungles: if enabled, replaces all grassland under jungles with plains, just like the base game.

• Enabling this option may result in maps that have significantly more plains than grasslands.
  
• Has no effect if Biodiversity is Low or lower.

No Hills: prevents non-wonder hills from spawning.

No Ice: removes all ice from the map. Recommended if you are allergic to ice :)

No Jungles: prevents non-wonder jungles from spawning.

No Marsh: prevents non-wonder marsh from spawning.

No Mountains: prevents non-wonder, non-volcano mountains from spawning.

No Plains: If enabled, prevents plains from appearing on the map by using other enabled terrains instead.

• If No Desert, No Grass, No Plains, No Snow, and No Tundra are all enabled, then Got Lakes will randomly remove 1-3 terrain types from the map.
  
• If 3 or more terrain types are disabled, then Got Lakes compensates for lack of terrain variety by allowing strategic resources such as horses to appear on all non-floodplains terrain types.
  
• WARNING: enabling this may result in challenging and/or unbalanced maps. You might want to try the Climate, Temperature, and Tundra Level options first before messing with this option.

No Plains Marsh: if enabled, replaces all plains under marsh with grassland, just like the base game.

• Enabling this option may result in maps that have significantly more grasslands than plains.
  
• Has no effect if Biodiversity is Low or lower.

No Reefs: prevents all non-wonder reefs from spawning for Rise & Fall later maps.

No Rivers: prevents rivers from spawning.

No Snow: If enabled, prevents snow from appearing on the map by using other enabled terrains instead.

• If No Desert, No Grass, No Plains, No Snow, and No Tundra are all enabled, then Got Lakes will randomly remove 1-3 terrain types from the map.
  
• If 3 or more terrain types are disabled, then Got Lakes compensates for lack of terrain variety by allowing strategic resources such as horses to appear on all non-floodplains terrain types.
  
• WARNING: enabling this may result in challenging and/or unbalanced maps. You might want to try the Climate, Temperature, and Tundra Level options first before messing with this option.

No Snow Forests: if enabled, overrides biodiversity to avoid placing forests on snow, just like the base game. Has no effect if Biodiversity is Standard or lower.

No Snow Oases: if enabled, overrides biodiversity to avoid placing oases on snow, just like the base game. Has no effect if Biodiversity is High or lower.

No Tundra: If enabled, prevents tundra from appearing on the map by using other enabled terrains instead.

• If No Desert, No Grass, No Plains, No Snow, and No Tundra are all enabled, then Got Lakes will randomly remove 1-3 terrain types from the map.
  
• If 3 or more terrain types are disabled, then Got Lakes compensates for lack of terrain variety by allowing strategic resources such as horses to appear on all non-floodplains terrain types.
  
• WARNING: enabling this may result in challenging and/or unbalanced maps. You might want to try the Climate, Temperature, and Tundra Level options first before messing with this option.

No Tundra Forests: if enabled, overrides biodiversity to avoid placing forests on tundra. Has no effect if Biodiversity is Very Low.

No Volcanoes: prevents non-wonder volcanoes from spawning.

Scrambled Land Luxuries: spreads a wider variety of land luxuries around by ignoring the rules for where luxuries should go.

• Not really necessary if you have the Truly Abundant Resources mod, however this option might still be fun to play with just for kicks.

Thin Mountain Clump Edges: if enabled, then uses thinner walls of mountains (1-2 tiles thick instead of 2-4) when turning mountain clumps into mazes or hollowing them out completely.

• Has no effect if you set Mountain Clumps to Full. Otherwise, this allows carving/hollowing of smaller clumps of mountains.
  
• Mountain mazes will be more intricate due to thinner maze walls.
  
• Increases the chance that mountain walls can be bypassed with a single tunnel.
  
• Displaces more mountains and increases the chance/frequency of lonely mountains scattered across the map.

Turn Seas Into Lakes: if enabled, replaces most if not all of the world's salt water with clusters of fresh lakes.

• For ocean-heavy landmasses, snaky barriers of coastal water will separate landmass/extras from clusters of fresh lakes even when Isolated Coasts is disabled.
  
• If Connected Seas is enabled, then the fresh lakes will be reconnected into an elaborate salt water maze!
  
• If Isolated Coasts is enabled, then snaky barriers of deep ocean will separate landmass/extras from clusters of fresh lakes.
  
• Lake Level has no effect on this option.

Finally, here are some fun examples of using all of the map options...

Something Familiar: as close to the base game as you can get

• Continents Landmasses: Continents
  
• Islands Landmasses: Island Plates
  
• Lakes Landmasses: Inland Sea
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Pangea
  
• Mountains: Tectonic Plates
  
• Mountain Clumps: Full
  
• Rivers: Simple
  
• Extras: None
  
• World Wrap: Globe
  
• Climate Wrap: Same as World Wrap
  
• Climate: Standard
  
• Biome: Standard
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• Land Starts: Standard
  
• Water Starts: Standard
  
• Minor Starts: Standard
  
• Mountain Level: Standard
  
• Hill Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Volcano Level: Low
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Low
  
• Sea Level: Standard
  
• Lake Level: Standard
  
• River Level: Low
  
• Circumnavigation: None
  
• Coastal Expansion: Standard
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Standard
  
• Temperature: Standard
  
• Desert Level: Standard
  
• Tundra Level: Standard
  
• Rainfall: Standard
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: Standard
  
• Climate Granularity: Standard
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Standard
  
• Biodiversity: Low
  
• [x] No Coastal Mountains

Something like Terra! (start all civs on the same continent in a continents map)

• Continents Landmasses: All
  
• Islands Landmasses: None
  
• Lakes Landmasses: None
  
• Pangea Landmasses: None
  
• Mountains: Tectonic Plates
  
• Mountain Clumps: Hollow
  
• Rivers: Simple
  
• Extras: None
  
• World Wrap: Globe
  
• Climate Wrap: Same as World Wrap
  
• Climate: Standard
  
• Biome: Standard
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• Land Starts: Largest Area
  
• Water Starts: On Land
  
• Minor Starts: Major Areas
  
• Mountain Level: Standard
  
• Hill Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Volcano Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Standard
  
• Sea Level: Standard
  
• Lake Level: Standard
  
• River Level: Standard
  
• Circumnavigation: Landmass-Based
  
• Coastal Expansion: Standard
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Inland
  
• Temperature: Standard
  
• Desert Level: Standard
  
• Tundra Level: Standard
  
• Rainfall: Standard
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: Standard
  
• Climate Granularity: Standard
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Standard
  
• Biodiversity: Climate-Based
  
• [x] No Coastal Ice
  
• [x] No Coastal Mountains

Something Friendly: a circumnavigable and extremely fertile land-heavy map!

• Start Position: Legendary (Got Lakes doesn't really control this but it probably helps)
  
• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: None
  
• Lakes Landmasses: All
  
• Pangea Landmasses: None
  
• Mountains: Random Moderate
  
• Mountain Clumps: Hollow
  
• Rivers: Detailed
  
• Extras: Random Moderate
  
• World Wrap: Region
  
• Climate Wrap: Same as World Wrap
  
• Climate: Standard
  
• Biome: either Arborea or Wetland
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Icy Poles: Cropped
  
• Land Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Water Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Minor Starts: Standard
  
• Mountain Level: Standard
  
• Hill Level: High
  
• Volcano Level: Low
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Very High
  
• Sea Level: Low
  
• Lake Level: High
  
• River Level: Very High
  
• Circumnavigation: Paths
  
• Coastal Expansion: High
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Standard
  
• Temperature: Standard
  
• Desert Level: Very Low
  
• Tundra Level: Very Low
  
• Rainfall: Very Wet
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: Kelp Creep
  
• Climate Granularity: Standard
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Standard
  
• Biodiversity: Very High
  
• [x]Scrambled Land Luxuries (if you're feeling adventurous / interested in wacky resource/land combos)
  
• [x]Thin Mountain Clump Edges

Something Scary: an extremely cold, barren and rocky islands map

• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: All
  
• Lakes Landmasses: None
  
• Pangea Landmasses: None
  
• Mountains: Everything
  
• Mountain Clumps: Maze
  
• Rivers: Simple
  
• Extras: None
  
• World Wrap: Region
  
• Climate Wrap: Same as World Wrap
  
• Climate: Snowball
  
• Biome: Prairie
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• Land Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Water Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Minor Starts: Separate Areas
  
• Mountain Level: Very High
  
• Hill Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Volcano Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Very Low
  
• Sea Level: Very High
  
• Lake Level: Very High
  
• River Level: Very Low
  
• Circumnavigation: None
  
• Coastal Expansion: None
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Everywhere
  
• Temperature: Very Cold
  
• Desert Level: Standard (has no effect on Snowball climate)
  
• Tundra Level: Very Low
  
• Rainfall: Very Arid
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: None
  
• Climate Granularity: Very Fine
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Much More Jungle
  
• Biodiversity: Very Low
  
• [x] Isolated Coasts

Something Rocky: a land-heavy mountain maze!

• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: None
  
• Lakes Landmasses: All
  
• Pangea Landmasses: None
  
• Mountains: Winding Canyons
  
• Mountain Clumps: Maze
  
• Rivers: Everything
  
• Extras: Tectonic
  
• World Wrap: Globe
  
• Climate Wrap: Region
  
• Climate: Standard
  
• Biome: Arborea
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• Land Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Water Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Minor Starts: Standard
  
• Mountain Level: Very High
  
• Hill Level: Standard
  
• Volcano Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Standard
  
• Sea Level: Very Low
  
• Lake Level: Very Low
  
• River Level: Very High
  
• Circumnavigation: Landmass-Based
  
• Coastal Expansion: Standard
  
• Coastal Lowlands: None
  
• Temperature: Standard
  
• Desert Level: Standard
  
• Tundra Level: Standard
  
• Rainfall: Standard
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: Standard
  
• Climate Granularity: Standard
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Standard
  
• Biodiversity: Climate-Based
  
• [x] Thin Mountain Clump Edges

Something Round and Randomly Delicious!

• Continents Landmasses: Bagels
  
• Islands Landmasses: Mini Donuts
  
• Lakes Landmasses: Inverted Donut
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Donut
  
• Mountains: Random
  
• Mountain Clumps: Random
  
• Rivers: Random
  
• Extras: Mini Donuts
  
• World Wrap: Random
  
• Climate Wrap: Random
  
• Climate: Random
  
• Biome: Random
  
• Sunlight: Random
  
• Icy Poles: Random
  
• Land Starts: Random
  
• Water Starts: Random
  
• Minor Starts: Random
  
• Mountain Level: Random
  
• Hill Level: Random
  
• Volcano Level: Random
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Random
  
• Sea Level: Random
  
• Lake Level: Random
  
• River Level: Random
  
• Circumnavigation: Random
  
• Coastal Expansion: Random
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Random
  
• Temperature: Random
  
• Desert Level: Random
  
• Tundra Level: Random
  
• Rainfall: Random
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Random
  
• Kelp Forests: Random
  
• Climate Granularity: Random
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Random
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Random
  
• Biodiversity: Very High

Something Fun for Everyone! (a reasonably-balanced multiplayer map that caters to both inland and naval civs)

• Start Position: Balanced (Got Lakes doesn't really control this but it probably helps)
  
• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: None
  
• Lakes Landmasses: None
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Oval (a nice big round-ish pangea for the land civs)
  
• Mountains: Random Moderate (adds some chaos to the map; alternatively choose Tectonic Plates)
  
• Mountain Clumps: Random Maze or Hollow (adds some chaos to the map; alternatively choose Maze)
  
• Rivers: Random (adds some chaos to the map; alternatively choose Simple)
  
• Extras: Random Moderate (add some chaos to the map; alternatively choose Sprinkles)
  
• World Wrap: Globe
  
• Climate Wrap: Same as World Wrap
  
• Climate: Standard
  
• Biome: Standard
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• Land Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Water Starts: Landmass-Based
  
• Minor Starts: Standard
  
• Mountain Level: Very High
  
• Hill Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Volcano Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Standard
  
• Sea Level: High (improves chances of circumnavigation)
  
• Lake Level: Standard
  
• River Level: Standard
  
• Circumnavigation: Landmass-Based
  
• Coastal Expansion: Standard
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Random Moderate (adds some chaos to the map; alternatively choose Inland)
  
• Temperature: Standard
  
• Desert Level: Standard
  
• Tundra Level: Standard
  
• Rainfall: Standard
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: Standard
  
• Climate Granularity: Fine (small clumps of terrain for a more even mix at the global scale)
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Standard
  
• Biodiversity: Climate-Based
  
• [x] Connected Seas (one big saltwater ocean system cutting into the landmass for the naval civs; also disables coastal ice)
  
• [x] No Coastal Mountains (improves circumnavigation)

Castaways! (start each civ on a separate island in a pangea map)

• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: None
  
• Lakes Landmasses: None
  
• Pangea Landmasses: Pangea (Donut, Hex, or Oval would probably work too)
  
• Mountains: Random
  
• Mountain Clumps: Random
  
• Rivers: Random
  
• Extras: Sprinkles
  
• World Wrap: Globe
  
• Climate Wrap: Same as World Wrap
  
• Climate: Standard
  
• Biome: Standard
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Land Starts: Separate Areas
  
• Water Starts: Landmass-Based (maybe exclude water civs somehow since they are OP on this map)
  
• Minor Starts: Largest Area
  
• Mountain Level: Standard
  
• Hill Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Volcano Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Standard
  
• Sea Level: Standard
  
• Lake Level: Standard
  
• River Level: Standard
  
• Circumnavigation: Landmass-Based
  
• Coastal Expansion: Standard
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Cataclysm (encourage settling on the pangea)
  
• Temperature: Standard
  
• Desert Level: Standard
  
• Tundra Level: Standard
  
• Rainfall: Standard
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: Kelp Creep
  
• Climate Granularity: Standard
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Standard
  
• Biodiversity: Climate-Based
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• [x] Isolated Coasts
  
• [x] No Coastal Mountains

Isolation (start each major civ on an island that is separated from other islands by ocean)

• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: Large Islands
  
• Lakes Landmasses: None
  
• Pangea Landmasses: None
  
• Mountains: Random
  
• Mountain Clumps: Random
  
• Rivers: Random
  
• Extras: Random
  
• World Wrap: Globe
  
• Climate Wrap: Same as World Wrap
  
• Climate: Standard
  
• Biome: Standard
  
• Sunlight: Standard
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• Land Starts: Separate Areas
  
• Water Starts: Landmass-Based (maybe exclude water civs somehow since they are OP on this map)
  
• Minor Starts: Separate Areas (limit each island to at most one city-state; major civs might still be able to reach one or more city-states without crossing ocean)
  
• Mountain Level: Standard
  
• Hill Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Volcano Level: Same as Mountain Level
  
• Geothermal Fissure Level: Standard
  
• Sea Level: Standard
  
• Lake Level: Standard
  
• River Level: Standard
  
• Circumnavigation: Landmass-Based
  
• Coastal Expansion: Standard (this actually has no effect on isolation)
  
• Coastal Lowlands: Standard
  
• Temperature: Standard
  
• Desert Level: Standard
  
• Tundra Level: Standard
  
• Rainfall: Standard
  
• Kelp Forest Level: Same as Rainfall
  
• Kelp Forests: Kelp Creep
  
• Climate Granularity: Standard
  
• Grass/Plains Mix: Standard
  
• Forest/Jungle Mix: Standard
  
• Biodiversity: Climate-Based
  
• [x] Isolated Coasts
  
• [x] No Coastal Mountains (ensure that each island counts as exactly one area for Land/Minor Starts)

Absolutely Nothing!

• City States: 0
  
• Natural Wonders: None Selected / All Excluded
  
• Continents Landmasses: None
  
• Islands Landmasses: None
  
• Lakes Landmasses: Inverted Extras
  
• Pangea Landmasses: None
  
• Extras: None
  
• World Wrap: Random
  
• Icy Poles: Standard
  
• Circumnavigation: None
  
• Coastal Lowlands: None
  
• [x] No Additional Lakes
  
• [x] No Desert
  
• [x] No Forests
  
• [x] No Geothermal Fissures
  
• [x] No Grasslands
  
• [x] No Hills
  
• [x] No Mountains
  
• [x] No Plains
  
• [x] No Rivers
  
• [x] No Snow Oases
  
• [x] No Tundra
  
• [x] No Volcanoes
  
• [x] No Tribal Villages