Mirage

Mirage is a wide rectangular desert with one ocean behind each player and a long contested land field between the bases. Fishing is compact rather than abundant—nine mahi per side in a complete layout—but each player begins with an equivalent shore and three-group fishing corridor.

The inland economy is substantial but exposed. Zebra, elephants or more zebra, rhinoceroses or giraffes, cows, gold, settlements, relics, and four to six sunken gorges all occupy the central desert. A shared flank roll coordinates the backward settlements with later gold, giving each seed one coherent expansion pattern.

Your safest-looking shoreline is not a private economy. The fish are close to the side coast in layout terms, but there are only three groups, so early vision and dock defense matter before pressure arrives across the wide land axis.

Standard 1v1 is genuinely rectangular at 380 × 240 meters. The players sit at the quarter and three-quarter points of the long center line. One ocean occupies the short edge behind the left player and an equivalent ocean occupies the opposite short edge behind the right player.

Each ocean targets 10% of the map and grows around the middle 30% of its side edge, forming a localized coast rather than water along the full north-south boundary. There are no scripted islands, channels, bridges, crossings, or alternate 1v1 orientations. The long center remains connected land.

Rectangular desert with player-side oceans · Standard 1v1 example Click to enlarge

The side oceans explain why raw area overstates the open land scale. Each player stands between a personal-side coast and the central contest, while the opponent's fishing ground lies at the far end of the long axis. Shore curves and dockable positions still vary by seed.

Mirage attempts four to six sunken gorges—two or three per player. Each covers 360–540 tiles, drops 8 meters below the surrounding desert, can form one to four connected lobes, and receives two ramps.

Gorges remain 35 meters apart, 30 meters from every start, 20 meters from buildings, and 20 meters from water. They can shelter one side of an expansion or force a local detour, but they are separated inland obstacles rather than a continuous wall or a fixed barrier between land and ocean.

A complete Standard 1v1 layout contains 15,700–23,600 initial finite food on land, with about 19,463 expected. This uses cows at their current fattening level and includes lion carcasses. Renewable mahi are kept separate.

Opening food

Contested hunt

Close zebra stay at least 60 meters from every start. Both outer layers stay at least 80 meters away, 50 meters from other hunt, and outside tower vision and settlement space. The species rolls apply to both players, so the map-wide type and amount change together rather than independently by side.

Cows & lions

Starting, close, and outer packages can produce 16–24 cows. They enter with 1,200–1,800 food across the map and can hold 6,400–9,600 when fully fattened. Close groups sit at 50–70 meters; outer groups begin at 70 meters.

One or two lion groups per player begin at least 80 meters from every start. They contribute 500–1,500 carcass food, about 938 expected, but remain dangerous bonus food rather than a dependable hunt layer.

Mirage attempts three groups of three mahi in each side ocean: six groups and eighteen renewable fish across the map if every placement succeeds. The familiar 9 mahi per player is therefore the successful-layout maximum and intended side allocation—not a guaranteed count or an expected value.

Each side uses a 48-meter north-south corridor and a 5-meter grouping radius. The fish line is deliberately shifted toward shore for 1v1 because the ocean occupies only the middle of the side edge. There is no separate neutral group and no deeper offshore fishing layer.

Shore access is equivalent by construction but not fixed to a meter band. The fish corridor is anchored to the outer map edge while the accepted coastline changes with the seed, so neither a minimum nor maximum fish-to-shore distance is defensible. No explicit minimum between groups is exposed either.

Mahi have unlimited supply. The nominal 10 Food stored on each object is not a finite 180-food total; Mirage's water economy depends on six compact gathering groups, usable dock coastline, and whether each side can protect its ocean.

Mirage can generate eighteen 50–70-tile palm forest areas. Three symmetric forests per player form the starting layer, and six more per player occupy later player-side positions. Starting stragglers and twenty scattered palms supplement them.

Forests remain 30 meters apart and 8 meters from both water and impassable ground. They also avoid Town Centers, farm-capable settlement space, collisions, and—after the starting layer—owner paths. The small forest size makes scouting the next wood line more important than relying on one dense block.

Forest area and tree density vary, so no exact wood total is defensible.

A complete successful layout contains a fixed 54,000 gold. Each player has one medium starting mine, two large mines in overlapping close bands, and two large outer mines.

Later mines remain 50 meters apart and outside tower vision, water, and settlement space. All three layers of paired large mines follow the same flank relationship as the backward settlements, so scouting that pattern reveals where long-term gold is likely to cluster.

Standard 1v1 attempts two expansion settlements per player. The backward pair sits 60–80 meters away; the aggressive pair sits 70–100 meters away toward contested land. Both avoid edges, tower vision, and siege-ship range.

A shared 50/50 layout decision puts the two backward settlements on either matching lateral flanks or opposite flanks. Every paired large-mine placement inherits that same decision, while hunt, fish, cows, and relics do not. The result is a coherent settlement-and-gold flank rather than a collection of independent side rolls.

Identify the flank before committing. One expansion route can combine settlement and gold security, while the aggressive site and outer hunt pull control back toward the long central desert.

Mirage attempts two relics per player, up to four. Every relic begins at least 80 meters from every start, has no maximum distance, and remains 80 meters from other relics.

Relics avoid water, tower vision, and settlement space and favor non-defensive land. They neither inherit the settlement-and-gold flank nor receive explicit mirroring, so gorges and the long rectangular footprint can make individual retrieval routes differ.