Map

The Martian Map consists of a large number of tiles, of which each is characterized by the following:
 * Terrain type
 * Height
 * Wind strength
 * Presence of ice/dry ice

Terrain types determine what a tile looks, whether it is usable; and are at the core of resource generation. However, they presumably do not affect gameplay in any way.

Height affects the effectiveness of Solar Panels.

Wind Strength affects Wind Turbines' strength.

Ice allows you to built Solar Condensers. Note that ice does not replace the terrain type, so a volcanic tile under ice is still a volcanic tile.

Map size
There are 5 map sizes available: Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, and Huge. Their size in hexes is as follows:
 * Tiny - 48x48
 * Small - 54x54
 * Medium - 60x60
 * Large - 66x66
 * Huge - 72x72

Distance
The size of a hex is the same across map types at 8.66 distance units wide and 6.495 distance units tall. This relevant for Unit movement speed.

Terrain types
There are 11 terrain types in the game: Normal, Volcanic, Rocky, Sand, Lakebeds, Riverbeds, Crater, Crack, Slope, Canyon, Hill. These can be usable and unusable (based on whether or not you can build over it or not).

Usable terrain:
Normal terrain does not have any specific features. It is usable (you can build on top of it), however it does not contribute towards resource generation in any meaningful way.

Volcanic terrain is the main source of iron tiles in the game. Maps with a lot of Volcanic usually tend to have a plenty of geothermal vents.

Rocky terrain holds aluminum deposits.

Sand generates silicon.

Lakebeds and Riverbeds both provide water.

Craters have carbon in them.

Cracks do not have any particular resource that they hold, other than geothermal vents.

Unusable terrain:
Slopes - these are the tiles influence the height and wind strength parameters of adjacent tiles. Unless it's a crater (2 adjacent rings of slopes), slopes are a transition between the layers of the map. Also, the larger the amount of slopes next to a usable tile, the stronger the wind on it.

Canyons are the large pits that serve no particular value other than limit the space on the map.

Hills are similar to canyons in that they only limit the space, however, hills also tend to affect the presence of resources on the map. Usually - the more hills, the fewer resources.

Resource generation
Resources have a fixed base probability of spawning on any usable land tile, with terrain types being added in as bonuses. Multiple resources can spawn on a single tile, but there are some combinations that have reduced probabilities to appear, as some resources have an added probability to avoid tiles with specific other resources already present, such as Iron/ Water.

Map types
There's a total of 10 different map types that a player can choose to play on (other than the random option which simply picks one of the 10). These maps can be divided into 2 different categories:
 * 1) Maps with a dominant terrain type
 * 2) Maps without a dominant terrain type

Maps with a dominant terrain type
Each of these maps has a particular terrain type in abundance which guarantees that presence of a particular resource is plentiful. The maps the belong in this category are (with corresponding terrain type and resource):
 * Riverbeds - riverbeds ( water)
 * Lakebeds - lakebeds ( water)
 * Plains - sand ( silicon)
 * Volcano - volcanic ( iron)
 * Craters - crater ( carbon)
 * Basin - rocky ( aluminum)

The map type is always shown on the debt counter screen and scan counter screen if you are not using the reveal map mode, so it is possible to assume what resources you are going to encounter in larger quantities right at the start of the game.

Maps without a dominant terrain type
These maps do not have a particular terrain as a dominant one but still have different characteristics. These include:
 * Normal
 * Chaos
 * Canyon
 * Plateau