Map Exchange String - What does that do?

[we6jbo]

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit new to the game. I noticed that my game has a button called map exchange string and when I click it on one of my save games it says,

>>>AAAKAAwAAAADAgYAAAAEAAAAY29hbAMFBAoAAABjb3BwZXItb3Jl
AwUECQAAAGNydWRlLW9pbAMFBAoAAABlbmVteS1iYXNlAwUCCAAAAGl
yb24tb3JlAwUEBQAAAHN0b25lAwMCj00lANGcAABnsgAAAAAAAAAAAA
AFAQuGNZI=<<<

I'm just wondering what all that means. Is that the map seed? If someone were to use that string, would my save load up? Could you see all the factories and stuff that I've built?

I'm just wondering because I've been debating putting my saves into Dropbox as I have done with previous games but if those lines can if fact hold my entire game then I'll just keep that handy instead.

Thanks. I hope this qualifies as "Gameplay Help" but if it does not, let me know and I'll move my post to the correct forum location - Still new to the forums et al.

- Jeremiah O'Neal

[The Lone Wolfling]

The map exchange string is a way of passing around the map itself - the layout of the land, the resources, etc. The terrain, in other words. It doesn't save your factories, etc.

[cube]

You can copy it into the Map exchange string field of the new map dialog for identical starting conditions

[Phillip_Lynx]

... identical starting conditions

Does this imply that after starting the world could end up with other terrain discovered away from the starting location?

[ssilk]

The terrain should be exactly the same, as long as you have the same Factorio version.

[Skellitor301]

The terrain should be exactly the same...

but isn't that what the Map Seed section is for? I mean I would think that made more sense if the map seed was for terrain procedural generation and based on what Cube said I'm guessing it's just to copy the map generation settings like starting area size, and the size, richness, and frequency of each resource (minus trees)

[cube]

The terrain should be exactly the same...

but isn't that what the Map Seed section is for? I mean I would think that made more sense if the map seed was for terrain procedural generation and based on what Cube said I'm guessing it's just to copy the map generation settings like starting area size, and the size, richness, and frequency of each resource (minus trees)

Map generation string contains Factorio version, map seed, and all the frequency-size-richness settings, map size limits, peaceful mode settings ... everything you see in the generate map dialog.