This is a summary of the script used to generate the current Bid World Map.

It is possible to use the script to generate an additional continent, island, or other land masses with tweaked configuration settings.

The script is available at the SourceForge Code repo or git repo crossfire-crossfire-maps/Info/land.c

Mailinglist Thread - World generator (land.c) questions

Git commit - Add manual page for world generator

 $ ./lander -m . -m -x 1500 -y 1500 -s 1007623715 -p 300 -n 170 -w 10000 -l 50000

LAND(6)

:doctype: manpage

NAME

land - world map generator

SYNOPSIS

*land* ['OPTIONS']

DESCRIPTION

*-l* 'land'::

  There is a minimum value (11) which is enforced at run time. Not sure if
  there is an actual max value that makes sense. Basically, based on the
  size of the map (overall spaces), this randomly makes land number of
  spaces randomly lower or higher. The default is 300000. Note that this is
  run also based on passes (-n). Note that each additional pass of land
  (-l), the the altitude amount will likely be less. So if you do something
  like -l 20 and -n 4000, it will make make steep cliffs and the like.
  Conversely, something like -l 200000000 -n 10 will still have a lot of
  variation, but in general should be smoother (more rolling hills than
  cliffs).

*-n* 'passes'::

  Make lakes and ocean trenches. General note - it works better to have more
  passes, but each pass doing less work - this results in more consistent
  lakes and ocean trenching. Note that passes and land (-l) play with each
  other.  The default (npasses = 40, land=300000) means 12 million spaces
  will be modified. However, 1500x1500 is 2.25 million, so it means that on
  average, each spaces will have its altitude modified 6 times - sometimes
  positive, sometimes negative. But the thing to keep in mind here is that
  the total number of spaces modified is -l * -n. Note that the comment
  above is directly from the source, but applies to wpasses (-p)

*-p* 'wpasses'::

  Works the same way as *-n* and *-l*, but instead of increasing altitude,
  it decreases it.

*-s* 'seed'::

  Seed for the random number generator. It does not directly affect the
  output of the maps in any predictable way. The main purpose of the seed is
  that if you use the same seed, you will get the same map (assuming size
  and other parameters remain the same).

*-w* 'water'::

  Works the same way as *-n* and *-l*, but instead of increasing altitude,
  it decreases it. On a simple bases, if land total (-l * -n) is a lot
  bigger than water total (-p * -w), you should get more land, and a lot
  more mountain peaks and so forth. If the opposite is true, the land should
  be flatter and you will have more water.

*-x* 'width'::

  Number of 50 tile wide maps on x axis (1500 would be 30 maps that are 50
  pixels wide; 150 would be 3 maps 50 pixels wide).

*-y* 'height'::

  Number of 50 tile tall maps on y axis (1500 would be 30 maps that are 50
  pixels tall; 150 would be 3 maps 50 pixels tall).

EXIT STATUS

Always returns zero, unless invalid command-line arguments are given.

EXAMPLES

`lander -m . -m -x 1500 -y 1500 -s 1007623715 -p 300 -n 170 -w 10000 -l 50000`

HISTORY

Kevin Zheng cobbled together this `man` page, which is based off an email sent by Mark Wedel answering a question from Rick Tanner. Please do not yell at the author for copying large portions of the said email in verbatim.

BUGS

Note that the land program is very simple and not realistic. For example, if the finished altitude of a space is <0, then it is water, otherwise land. And the type of land is based on the altitude of the space. Which means you won't get high mountain lakes (quite common on earth), high prairies (low altitude in land.c is grassland), etc.