Teragon Reverse-Lookup Recipe Collection — "I Want to Make a World Like This" → Where to Tweak

The shortcut to creating all kinds of worlds in Teragon is not building from scratch, but starting from an existing preset and changing just a few parameters. This article is a recipe collection you can look up in reverse: “the world you want to make → where to tweak.” The values are rough guides, so adjust while watching the preview (as a general rule, staying within a range of ½ to 2× the default value is safe).

I want a natural coastline island map

Set the Steepness of Filter Logistic Square Mask to a fairly small value like 0.005. The coastline won’t come out square, but instead takes on an intricate, natural shape (the final result also depends on your mountain and hill settings).

I want to remove / increase / decrease the water around the map’s edges

Adjust the Trim Midpoint of that same Filter Logistic Square Mask. By default the trailing value is -400. Setting it to -0 (=0) removes the water around the edges while keeping the other effects. To reduce the water, make the 400 number smaller; to increase it, make it larger. You can also remove the water by disabling the command itself, but in that case you lose the other effects too.

I want rivers to flow into lakes

By default, rivers flow around lakes and avoid them. Move Subtract Height Map (just this one command out of the “lakes” section that creates lakes) to after Create Rivers and before Create Flat Water Map. The rivers are created first, then the lakes carve into the terrain on top of them, and finally everything is filled with water, so the rivers now run through the lakes.

I want to make lakes

Use the combination of Subtract Height Map (which digs down the terrain) plus Create Flat Water Map (which sets the water level) to fill the carved-out hollows with water. Set Sea Level is a deprecated command, so set the water level with Create Flat Water Map.

I want a single huge mountain in the center

Use mask / height map operations that create a large mountain in the center. The basic pattern is to add mountain noise with Add Height Map and concentrate it in the center with the Filter Logistic Mask family. The higher you set the mountain’s lacunarity and gain, the steeper it becomes — but note that the processing time of Create Environmental Region Map grows accordingly.

I want to make a megacity

Increase the maximum size and count of towns. Raise Max Town Size on the BASIC tab, and adjust density with Max Town Count and Min Town Size. That said, a giant city covering the entire map makes generation time balloon by orders of magnitude, so start small to check the behavior before expanding.

I want a custom biome layout

Combine Create Noise Biome Map, Create Directional Biome Map, and Fill Area with Biome / Fill Altitude with Biome. Layouts like “change biomes by altitude” or “split by direction (snow in the north, desert in the south)” can be achieved with these. When you want to blend the boundaries, use Filter Spread Noise / Filter Median Blur alongside them.

I want to add snowy peaks to a noise biome map

With Fill Altitude with Biome, replace everything above a certain altitude with the snow biome, giving a look where only the mountaintops are dusted in snow.

I want to place custom POIs

The basic approach is to point Add Source Path at your POI folder. As of v0.50.4 and later, wilderness (region/wilderness) POIs no longer need a POI Property List and are placed with just Add Source Path. Only use a POI Property List when you want town POIs, or fine parameters (limited to a specific biome, water-only, etc.). For details, see the “Adding Custom POIs” article.

I want to speed up generation (during the trial-and-error phase)

• Keep Rivers and Erosion off until the terrain is finalized. Leave Erosion off until the final generation.
• Use Create Single Region Map during the terrain-checking phase, and switch back to Create Environmental Region Map once you’re happy with it.
• Do roads last. When there are too many Side Roads, set a cap with Max Road Count on Create Side Roads.
• Export finalized terrain and region maps, then Import them from that point on and disable the relevant commands (so you don’t regenerate every time).

I want to use random values / formulas in parameters

Many parameter fields support Random (random within a range) and formulas (Math). These are handy when you want slightly different results each time you generate, or when you want values to be determined in tandem with the size.

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For the finer arguments of each recipe’s commands, please also check each command’s description within Teragon (as of v0.44.3 and later, explanations are built into the app) and the official documentation. If there are other “worlds you want to make,” we’ll keep adding recipes.