How do you generate a Dwarf Fortress map bigger than 257x257?

I can't seem to find anything about making a map any bigger than 257.

Valid values are 17,33,65,129, and 257. Others may not work

It sounds like there are numbers that you can use – does anyone know of any, or if you can at all?

Solution 1:

From what I'm finding on the wiki, I do not believe this is possible. From the 40d World Generation page:

Note that only available world widths/heights are 17, 33, 65, 129, and 257; even directly editing the world_gen.txt file will not let you use other sizes than these.

Obviously this may no longer be accurate, but as there have been no major world gen changes, I believe it is. The DF2012 Advanced World Generation page is a little more ambiguous, but it says:

Valid values are 17,33,65,129, and 257. Others may not work.

Based on this, I don't think you'll be able to make a world larger than 257x257.

Solution 2:

This is possible with a cheat engine. That is a program that work like gamegenie. With it you can edit the world Y and X size variable.

PS: If you think about the size that DF has right now it follow a rule, the rule is: Size Y or X = (2^N)+1, N need to be a integer. I also heard X and Y need to be odd numbers, so 2 (2^0+1) is not valid. So the possible values you can put (according to somewhere) need to follow the formula (2^n)+1, n need to be a integer value and final value need to be a odd one, 17 (a possible dwarf x or y size), 65, 257, 513... follow this formula.

Just remember some thing, when you change the size of Y or X on advanced world generation, it auto change some world generation settings, you can see that by getting a setting with large size and reducing it to pocket size.

I made a 257 x 513 map with it.

As to how to exactly do it:

1. first download and install cheat engine http://www.cheatengine.org/
2. Open dwarf fortress and cheat engine
3. Go to cheat engine and tell it to look at dwarf fortress
4. Go to dwarf fortress advanced world generator and select the setting you will use
5. Change the size you want to change (x or y) to a different value.
6. Go to cheat engine program and write the value (X or Y) has and click on search.
7. After it made the search, go to dwarf fortress and change the X (or Y if you are doing with Y) to another value
8. Go to cheat engine program and write this new value and tell it to search.
9. Continue doing 8 and 9 until it cheat engine shows only one variable
10. Click on this variable on cheat engine and change it to the value you want.
11. Now the value you want is changed

if you did it with size X, you will know need to dowith size Y if wanted. After you finish to generate the world, you can close the program, you will not need to open it everytime you want to play the map.