World size for small group of friends?

[tentacle]

Im not sure what world size would allow for easier exploration and gathering of rarer materials. Like i don't want it to be too small. but i am worried about getting materials that only show up far north and south as the normal world size makes it a too long trek. We will also likely base near and with each other.

any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[LadyWYT]

6 hours ago, tentacle said:

Im not sure what world size would allow for easier exploration and gathering of rarer materials. Like i don't want it to be too small. but i am worried about getting materials that only show up far north and south as the normal world size makes it a too long trek. We will also likely base near and with each other.

Might try setting the polar-equator distance to around 50k, rather than the 100k default? That should result in a world that's big enough to feel relatively realistic, but small enough that you should be able to travel from temperate to tropics in a couple of days or so. You could try shortening the distance further, but that might make the world feel a little too small.

There's also the patchwork world generation option, which will generate terrain in Minecraft-style biomes. Obviously, this won't be immersive at all, and might trivialize some challenges from seasonal changes, but it could make for an interesting playthrough if you want to find oddities like jungles next to polar glaciers.

[tentacle]

On 4/20/2026 at 10:17 AM, LadyWYT said:

Might try setting the polar-equator distance to around 50k, rather than the 100k default? That should result in a world that's big enough to feel relatively realistic, but small enough that you should be able to travel from temperate to tropics in a couple of days or so. You could try shortening the distance further, but that might make the world feel a little too small.

There's also the patchwork world generation option, which will generate terrain in Minecraft-style biomes. Obviously, this won't be immersive at all, and might trivialize some challenges from seasonal changes, but it could make for an interesting playthrough if you want to find oddities like jungles next to polar glaciers.

Thank you so much like actually.
 

would 40k still work? i want it to still be a journey but we aren't the smartest tools in the shed. and our idiotic natures will make the journey much more difficult and much more likely to lead to death.

[LadyWYT]

1 minute ago, tentacle said:

would 40k still work? i want it to still be a journey but we aren't the smartest tools in the shed. and our idiotic natures will make the journey much more difficult and much more likely to lead to death.

That should be fine. If you aren't sure, you can always try the settings in singleplayer first and fly around in creative mode to get a sense of how it feels before committing those settings to a server.

[Wick]

I'd say it depends on what your goal is and how many people you wanna bring in. 

I usually play on small worlds with my friends/family and honestly, 100k x 100k with 50k equator distance is sufficient enough for 5 - 10 players, especially sharing a base/island etc. We've a world from 2024 that size we regularly play on and I'd guess we explored only 5% or so of it. And we're playing on rather small/medium islands so a lot is only ocean.

[Wick]

Just now, Wick said:

I'd say it depends on what your goal is and how many people you wanna bring in. 

I usually play on small worlds with my friends/family and honestly, 100k x 100k with 50k equator distance is sufficient enough for 5 - 10 players, especially sharing a base/island etc. We've a world from 2024 that size we regularly play on and I'd guess we explored only 5% or so of it. And we're playing on rather small/medium islands so a lot is only ocean.

For your "time / travel concerns", by sailboat you'll manage a larger distance on ocean worlds. We were able to travel in like 3-4 in game days down to the equator with some stops along the way.