Maps

Premade and random maps in Dominions 6, where map files go, the map editor, random-map settings and why roads exist only on custom maps.

verified 6.37updated 2026-10-02 · Jake3 min read

When you create a game you choose a map. It can be a premade one, which is a file made by someone with the map editor, or a random one, which the game builds for you. This page explains both and where the files go.

Premade and random maps

In Create World you pick the map first. A random map is generated once you have finished choosing the rest of the game’s settings. A premade map is a .map file; the manual’s example for choosing one from the command line is eye.map. You then name the game, and the game makes a folder of that name in the saved-games folder.

Where map files go

Maps live in the maps subfolder of the user data folder, next to the mods and saved-games folders. The easiest way to find it is Game Tools on the main menu and the Open User Data Directory function; the default places are a dominions6 folder in your Roaming application-data folder on Windows, and ~/.dominions6/ on Linux and Mac. A map that ships with extra pictures is usually distributed as its own set of files, so keep what came with it together.

The map editor and the random-map tool

The manual lists these among the tools in the main menu: besides creating and managing pretenders, there is a map editor, a tool for making random maps with settings of your own, and a shortcut to the folder where the game stores your files. Use the editor to build a map by hand and the random-map tool to produce one you can then keep and play on.

Random map options

From a command line, --randmap makes a random map for a new game with a chosen number of provinces for each player, and the manual’s choices are 10, 15 or 20. --makemap with a file name generates a random map and exits, which suits making a map to reuse. The same family of options shapes the result:

• size and province count: --mapsize and --mapprov;
• land mix: how much of the map is sea, mountain, forest, farmland, waste or swamp (--seapart, --mountpart, --forestpart, --farmpart, --wastepart, --swamppart), plus kelp forests and gorges in the water;
• features: rivers, bridges, extra islands, and whether an underworld cave plane is made (--noundercaves);
• wrapping: --vwrap wraps the map north to south, and --nohwrap turns off the east to west wrap;
• looks: sea and border colours, ground noise and similar drawing options, and --tgapreview to save a picture of the result.

Each option takes a number or colour value, and the manual gives the default for each. It also describes --blueprint, which uses a Targa or PNG picture as a template for the layout, with --blueacc setting how closely the map follows it.

Roads

Random maps have no roads. Roads can be added to custom maps by their makers, and where a map has them they lower the movement cost of a province. See Map movement for how the costs work.