Map Generation Settings

Preset


'We strongly recommend starting from the Space Exploration Defaults'' preset when starting new game, for a more balanced experience. (See picture on the right)'''

This preset does 3 things:
 * 1) Lower biter evolution speed, to compensate for damage upgrades being pushed further into the tech tree. (Override this at your own risk!)
 * 2) Adjust Nauvis terrain settings to be more vanilla-like and Earth-like, making other planets feel more alien by comparison.
 * 3) Increases pollution spread to compensate for stronger efficiency modules, and to encourage their use.

After selecting this preset, you can change settings according to your preferences.

Settings
Nauvis is always your starting planet.

Enemy
Enemy bases setting only affects Nauvis.

Enemy evolution and expansion settings, as well as peaceful mode and starting area size, are all global settings and affect every surface. Note that biters on all planets share the same evolution factor. Once you first view a planet via satellite, the biters in scanned areas come alive and start to multiply. You can always delete a surface to reset biter bases to their original positions.

Terrain
Terrain settings only apply to Nauvis.

The Planet Size: Scale slider controls the size of Nauvis. The default value is still huge (5692 tile radius). If you are not sure, leave it to the default. A smaller planet will come with fewer resources, but also fewer biters and cheaper rocket launches. The "coverage" slider has no effect.

The temperature, moisture and terrain type settings affect Alien Biomes settings for Nauvis.

Resources
Resource settings only apply to Nauvis.

Water Ice, Methane ice, Cryonite, Vulcanite, Vitamelange, Beryllium, Holmium, Iridium and Naquium have no effect as they cannot spawn on Nauvis.

Iron, Copper, Stone, Coal, Uranium ore and Crude Oil can be adjusted to player preference. It only affects resources on Nauvis.

Other
Space Exploration comes with complex processing chains, but is generally not a scale challenge. You will not need a high SPM or a large factory in order to beat the game. Oftentimes you will spend 10 hours setting up a new science chain, and then research all its technologies in 30 minutes.

If you do enjoy a scale challenge, consider using a ~2x-4x technology price modifier.