EDIT: Original opening post in spoiler:
It is possible to edit and load custom maps in Civ VI (including vanilla and both expansions), but it requires some workarounds and legwork. Read on below for details. CLICK HERE to jump to the GATHERING STORM update (thanks Woden)
I might have made some progress towards starting a game with a custom World Builder map (or at least an edited randomly generated map) ... not quite there but I'll post what I did and maybe someone can figure out the rest.
I read online somewhere that the 6 Arm Snowflake map option is not in fact a map script but a pre-made map. This gave me the idea of locating the pre-made map within the game files and substituting it with a map created in World Builder, then starting a game using the 6-Armed Snowflake map option. This worked perfectly except for the city states. Game started fine, no issues playing through 20 or so turns on a hot seat ... except that I never found any city states. Debug "reveal all" confirmed that city states were not generated.
Description of the steps I took:
1. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\Maps\BalanceMaps and rename Balanced6.Civ6Map to some other name to preserve the file [this is the pre-made 6-Armed Snowflake map file]
2. Open World Builder in Civ6 through Additional Content. Generate random map with desired settings
3. Edit map as desired. I tested a few of the map editing tools but didn't by any means get in-depth. I added a couple continent designations, changed terrain, adding resources & rainforest. I did not turn any water into land tiles or vice versa.
4. Save map. I don't think the name at this step is important. I was able to start games with randomly named maps.
5. Navigate to C:\Users\Joshua Peterson\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\WorldBuilder and copy the new map file that was saved in Step 4. Paste the map to the location in Step 1, and rename the file to Balanced6.Civ6Map
6. In Civ6 begin a game. Choose Map Type: 6-Armed Snowflake. I ignored the other settings (I didn't test the No Barbarians or No Tribal Villages checkboxes)
NOTE! The map generated in step 2 has pre-placed player starting locations. It is important to click on each starting location and change the designation from "Player" to "Random Player", otherwise starting a game in step 7 often stacked 2 civs at the same starting location for some reason. With designation set to "Random Player" I never experienced stacked starts. Also It apparently doen't matter which civs are selected when generating the map in Step 2. I just left those at Random and started the game in Step 7 with all civs Random and there was no correlation between the civs actually selected in the World Builder file versus the ones generated in the game.
Regarding city states, the 6-Armed Snowflake does not allow to change the number of city states. It is hard coded to 9. I tried placing 9 "Random City State" start location, no good. City states were not placed on the map. I tried no designating any city state start location, no good. There was one time it did work and I got a hotseat game to start with city states, but I was running on battery without my charger, it was my last desperate attempt, it worked but my computer went into hibernate automatically at 2% battery before I had a chance to make note of what I did
I saved the game when I finally got my computer charged again so I have the save game file but try as I would I just could not get another game to start again with city states.
I copied the original Balanced6.Civ6Map into the WorldBuilder folder from step 5 and opened the map in World Builder. That map has 9 "Random City State" start locations designated. No idea why it wasn't working for me when I added the city state start locations to a custom map.
I'm wondering now if maybe the settings from step 7 need to match the settings in step 2?? I don't see how that would affect placement of city states, I'm at work now so can't test and my evenings are pretty busy this week.
Screenshot below from a hotseat game with terrain, resource, and continent edits. All land tiles around the start location were changed to grass hill + jungle + banana, and I added another continent to see if that worked properly and it apparently does:
![Click to resize (Javascript)](https://www.dropbox.com/s/hqkukdc44w7e0j3/InGameContinent.jpg?dl=1)
I read online somewhere that the 6 Arm Snowflake map option is not in fact a map script but a pre-made map. This gave me the idea of locating the pre-made map within the game files and substituting it with a map created in World Builder, then starting a game using the 6-Armed Snowflake map option. This worked perfectly except for the city states. Game started fine, no issues playing through 20 or so turns on a hot seat ... except that I never found any city states. Debug "reveal all" confirmed that city states were not generated.
Description of the steps I took:
1. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\Maps\BalanceMaps and rename Balanced6.Civ6Map to some other name to preserve the file [this is the pre-made 6-Armed Snowflake map file]
2. Open World Builder in Civ6 through Additional Content. Generate random map with desired settings
3. Edit map as desired. I tested a few of the map editing tools but didn't by any means get in-depth. I added a couple continent designations, changed terrain, adding resources & rainforest. I did not turn any water into land tiles or vice versa.
4. Save map. I don't think the name at this step is important. I was able to start games with randomly named maps.
5. Navigate to C:\Users\Joshua Peterson\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Saves\WorldBuilder and copy the new map file that was saved in Step 4. Paste the map to the location in Step 1, and rename the file to Balanced6.Civ6Map
6. In Civ6 begin a game. Choose Map Type: 6-Armed Snowflake. I ignored the other settings (I didn't test the No Barbarians or No Tribal Villages checkboxes)
NOTE! The map generated in step 2 has pre-placed player starting locations. It is important to click on each starting location and change the designation from "Player" to "Random Player", otherwise starting a game in step 7 often stacked 2 civs at the same starting location for some reason. With designation set to "Random Player" I never experienced stacked starts. Also It apparently doen't matter which civs are selected when generating the map in Step 2. I just left those at Random and started the game in Step 7 with all civs Random and there was no correlation between the civs actually selected in the World Builder file versus the ones generated in the game.
Regarding city states, the 6-Armed Snowflake does not allow to change the number of city states. It is hard coded to 9. I tried placing 9 "Random City State" start location, no good. City states were not placed on the map. I tried no designating any city state start location, no good. There was one time it did work and I got a hotseat game to start with city states, but I was running on battery without my charger, it was my last desperate attempt, it worked but my computer went into hibernate automatically at 2% battery before I had a chance to make note of what I did
![frown frown](https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif)
I copied the original Balanced6.Civ6Map into the WorldBuilder folder from step 5 and opened the map in World Builder. That map has 9 "Random City State" start locations designated. No idea why it wasn't working for me when I added the city state start locations to a custom map.
I'm wondering now if maybe the settings from step 7 need to match the settings in step 2?? I don't see how that would affect placement of city states, I'm at work now so can't test and my evenings are pretty busy this week.
Screenshot below from a hotseat game with terrain, resource, and continent edits. All land tiles around the start location were changed to grass hill + jungle + banana, and I added another continent to see if that worked properly and it apparently does:
![Click to resize (Javascript)](https://www.dropbox.com/s/hqkukdc44w7e0j3/InGameContinent.jpg?dl=1)
It is possible to edit and load custom maps in Civ VI (including vanilla and both expansions), but it requires some workarounds and legwork. Read on below for details. CLICK HERE to jump to the GATHERING STORM update (thanks Woden)