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
$ ./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.