Hey! With the release of Humankind I've been excitedly putting the map maker to use. I'm hoping to post my first complete map within a few days after doing some playtesting with friends. So far I've really enjoyed using the Map Editor to create maps and wanted to give a huge thank you to the devs for putting power in the hands of the players. It reminds me of the Warcraft III days, where some of the custom maps that were made by users ended up being implemented into the game for everyone to use!

While I have a lot to praise about the map editor, I'd like to touch on several features that should be put on Amplitude's radar for a better map making experience overall. This list is by no means comprehensive, and I'm splitting out the features based on my opinion of priority and effort. I work as a non-game developer so I'm trying to relate to what I believe may be easy or hard to implement.

-- MUST HAVES --

1. [Low Effort] Resource Deposit view toggle. Right now once you place a resource on the map there is no way to see that resource from a high-level view without inspecting each tile by zooming in or right clicking on it to see what resource is there. This is an absolute nightmare to deal with and makes playtesting the main way to catch resource location mistakes.
2. [Low-Mid Effort] FIMS view toggle. Similar to the resource view toggle, the only way to see the FIMS yields is to jump into a real game on the map, or have everything memorized. This would help immensely with setting up locations and figuring out potential city/output spots.

1. [Moderate Effort] Randomize resource spawns in game. Ideally with resource tiers + 'groupings' so one side or section of the map doesn't spawn all of a single strategic resource (ex. all horses on the one section of the map). Some of the beauty and joy of randomly generated Humankind maps comes from exploration during the early eras. Having some amount of randomness, within parameters, to the resource spawn locations would make user created maps have a much more enjoyable early-game phase due to the need to explore. When I say 'groupings' and 'parameters', ideally I imply that the map creator can determine what locations certain resources may spawn in, and then when the actual game is created, that pre-determined group of resources randomly allocates to the locations you've set they may spawn in. One more way of thinking about this - let's say I have a bucket of strategics: Horses x1, Copper x2, Iron x1. And exactly four locations where those strategics may spawn in. When the game starts, randomize which locations get which strategic. Where number in bucket = locations, varying in number, set by the map editor (maybe my bucket only has two resources, maybe it has five, etc).
2. [Low Effort] Territory border toggle. It would be really nice to have territory borders always 'on' while playing with tiles or elevation. I know, I know, right now you can use different biomes to sidestep this, but it feels like a low-effort add and easy win for map editors.
3. [Low-Mid Effort] Elevation number toggle. While the topographic view is nice to glance at, when I'm actually molding a section of the map for elevation I would like to see the elevation 'number' as an overlay over all tiles so that it is easy to determine how the elevation looks in the big picture. Right now I have to right click on several tiles to figure out what their elevation is, or spot check things. This is especially nit-picky with mountains, where trying to ascertain elevation at a glance can be misleading.
4. [Low Effort] Territory Tile Count. When the Territory -> TerritoryArea sub-menu is open, I would like to see a tile count number in the middle of each territory. Right now you have to count by hand or spot check. This would be very helpful for balance purposes.
5. [Moderate Effort] Tile Type Toggle. Sometimes I want to see the layout of all the tile types I have on a section of the map. Right now you have to inspect each individual tile, or eyeball everything. This can get especially confusing due to different biomes having different tile type appearances.
6. [Low-Moderate Effort] Identifying which tile is the cause of a validation failure. If you got a while without validating and find yourself with a ocean/continent validation failure, it can be a huge pain to have to find the exact tile or location that is the cause of the problem. A way to highlight the tile that is causing a validation failure would be a big help.

1. [Moderate Effort] Placement of buildings or units for testing in the map editor itself. For example: I would like to know exactly how long it takes a player with X ship to get to a certain island destination. This is also key for balancing maps so one spawn location doesn't have an advantage over another. Right now it has to be done by eye, or you have to get into a game and actually progress towards that particular unit you want to trial.
2. [High Effort] Templates. Whether it's small sections or more full maps. I would like to be able to save previous creations or import templates from others so that I can quickly spin up parts of a map. This would require more thought to get it right, but would be an immensely useful feature to really hit the ground running with a new map.
3. [Low Effort] Natural Wonder rotation. Natural wonders are currently the only objects that take up more than one space, and they can't be rotated (or at least I haven't figured out how to despite looking for answers online). Being able to rotate them, would be nice =)
4. [Low-Moderate Effort] Potential spawn locations. Instead of 'hard-coding' a determined spawn location based on player sizes, it would be great to be able to setup a few potential spawn locations for each player then let the game randomize a spot on start. This ties into early exploration mattering, even on maps that you would have seen before. Fostering a different experience on a map that has been played tens or hundreds of times is key for replayability!
5. [Low-Moderate Effort] Hard reset a tile. The engine lets you do some strange things, like placing strategic resources in the ocean, or in other strange spots that may be hard to catch if you're doing other edits on that tile. Right now to reset a tile you have to go into several menus and 'None' out anything there plus adjust the elevation. Having a hard reset tile hotkey to completely reset a tile, to say, Dry Grass with an elevation of 0, would be great.

Hey, just wanted to give a +1 to the post. I'm just starting to fiddle with the map editor, such a cool tool to have with the game's release !

I must say, based on my very limited experience so far, that I agree and support your suggestions. In particular, your "templates" suggestion is a great one, I'd love to have this possibility with the engine as well. And obviously, the 2 "must haves" are at the very least a necessity currently.

I hope all those great suggestions can be taken into account to enhance our experience with this already very nice tool !

{Edit] :

I'd suggest another QoL feature for the map editor : ability to mute the in-game sound, as currently, the only work around is turning off sound in Game's Settings > Audio, before launching the map editor. Don't get me wrong, Humankind's main title is beautiful, but I wouldn't want to be weary of listening to it over and over when using the tool ;)

Totally agree with this suggestion. Just some minor things I would like are:

1. Ability to load another map directly in map editor.
2. Return to the main menu of the game.
3. Possibly to give a custom name for continents.
4. If landmark are fixed, maybe a drop button to delete a landmark.
5. If players spawn are fix, a possibility to made a custom name of the spawn and give the possibility to choice in a game creation between these or random or totally random (the game don’t take account of spawn location).
6. A possibility to change the size or resize a map.
7. A possibility the game create auto territories.
8. In the meta-data (where is author and picture), to add a little description.

Have a nice day.