Choosing a World, a Seed and a Map Size

Navezgane is the hand built map. RWG generates one from your seed, at 6144, 8192 or 10240. Changing any of the three starts a new world, so decide before your group builds.

4 min read · Updated Oct 25, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team

World, Seed, Random world size and Save name are on the Server settings page. Changing any of them starts a different world, so settle them before your group builds anything.

The three kinds of world

• Navezgane is the map the developers built by hand. Same every time, properly designed, and the one to pick if you want a known quantity. It is the default.
• A pregenerated map, named PREGEN01 and similar, ships with the game. These are random worlds the developers generated and shipped, so you get variety without waiting for generation.
• RWG generates a brand new world from your seed. Put RWG in World and whatever you like in Seed.

Generation takes a while and happens on the first start after you change the setting. The console goes quiet for several minutes on a big map. Leave it alone: it has not hung.

Map size

Random world size only applies when World is RWG. The game supports 6144, 8192 and 10240, in steps of 2048, and the dropdown in the panel offers only those three.

That restriction is real. Older copies of the configuration file, and a lot of guides quoting them, say anything from 2048 to 16384 is allowed. On current versions a size outside the supported set can make the server refuse to start with a range error, which is why the panel does not let you pick one.

Bigger is not much more expensive in memory than it used to be: across the whole supported range the difference is a few hundred megabytes. What a bigger map really costs you is generation time, the download each player does on their first join, and how spread out your group ends up being. 6144 is plenty for most groups and 10240 is for a community that wants somewhere to explore.

Save name is not a rename

Save name decides which folder on disk your world lives in. Changing it does not rename anything: it points the server at a different save, and if there is nothing there it makes a new one. Your old world is untouched and switching the name back returns to it, but in the meantime everybody logs in to an empty map and wonders what happened.

The same applies to World and Seed. If you want to try a new map without losing the old one, change Save name as well, and keep a note of the old value.

Starting over on purpose

1. Take a backup from the Backups tab first, even if you are sure. It is one click and it is the only way back.
2. Open Server settings and set World, Seed and Random world size to what you want.
3. Change Save name to something new, so the old world is left alone rather than mixed into the new one.
4. Click Save, then Restart.
5. Watch the Console tab. Generation is the quiet part; the server comes up when it is done.

Keeping the world small on purpose

Two settings do more for performance than map size, and both are on the same page.

• Maximum view distance, between 6 and 12. This is the big one: at 8 instead of 12 the server loads well under half as much world for each player.
• Reset unvisited land after, which is -1 by default, meaning never. Setting a number of in-game days lets the game throw away land nobody has been back to, which keeps the save from growing for ever. It also undoes anything built there, so only use it on a big exploring server.

How much RAM does a 7 Days to Die server need covers how these fit together.

Common questions

Can I upload a world I already have?

Yes. The game keeps saves outside the folder you first land in, so open a ticket and we will put it in the right place for you rather than have you guess. Keep the original zip until you have seen your world load.

Does the map size change how much RAM I need?

Barely, on current versions. The whole range from 6144 to 10240 is a few hundred megabytes apart. Players and view distance cost far more than the size of the map.

Why can I not choose a 16384 map?

Because the game no longer supports it, whatever older guides say. The supported sizes are 6144, 8192 and 10240, and a server given anything else can refuse to start. The panel offers the three that work.

Will crossplay still work on a big map?

Only up to 8192. Console players can find a server while it is set up for crossplay, and one of the requirements is a world no larger than 8192. Letting console players join lists the rest.

• 7 days to die
• world
• seed
• rwg
• map size

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