OpenFront Sol Map — 85% Ocean, and What That Changes
The Sol map is 85.7% water with only 7.8% land — the priciest map in the rotation to advance through. Its trade routes pay up to 269,550 gold.
The short version
- 85.7% of the map is water. Land is 7.8%, scattered across planets — it plays as an island map
- The most expensive of the 20 frequently-rotated maps to push through. Only 11.6% plains, magnitude 105.1
- Trade routes are enormous — up to 3,891 tiles, paying 269,550 gold per ship
- Ports and warships decide it. Ground expansion is costly and every coast is reachable
Sol is 85.7% water and only 7.8% land. It maps the solar system, so planets and moons sit as scattered islands with fully navigable ocean between them.
Its public-lobby frequency is 20 — second only to World at 30 — but the two play nothing alike. World is a fight over continents; Sol is a naval game from the first minute.
Composition — counted from the map file
| Tiles | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 9,606,239 | 85.7% |
| Land | 877,664 | 7.8% |
| Impassable | 720,193 | 6.4% |
| Shore tiles | 42,485 | 4.8% of land |
The map is 4,432 × 2,528 and one grid cell is 246 tiles — more than twice World’s 100. Recalibrate your distance sense before you build anything. See measuring distance on screen.
Terrain — the priciest map in the rotation
| Terrain | Share | Loss magnitude (unitless, highland = 100) |
|---|---|---|
| Plains | 11.6% | 80 |
| Highland | 51.2% | 100 |
| Mountain | 37.2% | 120 |
The weighted average is 105.1 — first among the 20 maps that appear frequently in public lobbies, and well above the 92.5 median across all 118 maps.
| Map | Frequency | Avg magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| Sol | 20 | 105.1 |
| MilkyWay | 8 | 102.8 |
| World | 20 | 98.6 |
| Sierpinski | 10 | 80.0 |
The same troops buy 31% less ground here than on Sierpinski. This is the map where grinding forward on land pays worst. See the combat guide and the combat loss calculator.
Coordinates — the nations are celestial bodies
There are 53 nations, all named after solar system objects.
| Body | Coordinate | Cell | Body | Coordinate | Cell | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sol | (2419, 1241) | J6 | Saturn | (955, 651) | D3 | |
| Terra | (2340, 853) | J4 | Uranus | (856, 2048) | D9 | |
| Luna | (2268, 668) | J3 | Neptune | (3753, 625) | P3 | |
| Mercury | (2605, 1262) | K6 | Pluto | (272, 1412) | B6 | |
| Venus | (1806, 1383) | H6 | Eris | (4292, 1454) | R6 | |
| Mars | (2196, 1805) | I8 | Sedna | (414, 197) | B1 | |
| Jupiter | (3341, 1786) | N8 | Makemake | (4103, 2090) | Q9 |
Sol sits at the centre of the map. The Jovian moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) and the Saturnian ones (Titan, Rhea, Iapetus and friends) cluster tightly — they play as archipelagos — while the outer dwarf planets are far apart.
Some nations are named Pioneer 10, Voyager 1, Sputnik 1. Those are probes, and they are tiny.
Trade routes — the real economy here
Distances are extreme. Trade revenue bends at 300 tiles, and on this map essentially the entire range above that threshold is available.
| Route | Distance | Revenue per ship |
|---|---|---|
| Io ↔ Pioneer 11 | 135 tiles | 7,278 gold ← below the threshold |
| Titan ↔ Pioneer 10 | 301 tiles | 53,112 gold |
| Sedna ↔ Pioneer 10 | 1,053 tiles | 127,650 gold |
| Sol ↔ Uranus Trojans | 1,649 tiles | 157,450 gold |
| Triton ↔ Mimas | 2,354 tiles | 192,700 gold |
| Pluto ↔ Makemake | 3,891 tiles | 269,550 gold |
269,550 is double World’s best route (136,300). Ports are not optional here — they are the main line, and “further is better” runs all the way to the edge of the map.
The trap is linking moons within a cluster. The Jovian moons sit 100–300 tiles apart, which falls under the threshold. Check any distance in the trade ship calculator.
Troop caps
| Share | Tiles | Cap (no cities) | Cap (city levels 10) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1% | 8,777 | 564,556 | 3,064,556 |
| 2% | 17,553 | 804,110 | 3,304,110 |
| 5% | 43,883 | 1,320,135 | 3,820,135 |
| 10% | 87,766 | 1,949,378 | 4,449,378 |
| 20% | 175,533 | 2,903,143 | 5,403,143 |
With 877k land tiles, 1% of the map is 8,777 tiles — more than World’s 6,516. The same leaderboard percentage means more actual ground here.
What changes on this map
1. Ports come first. On most maps cities lead, but a single route here pays 270k gold — the port buys the city. The usual order inverts. See port placement.
2. Warships are your entire defence. With 42,485 shore tiles and open ocean everywhere, terrain cannot block a landing. A 130-tile warship covering both your routes and your coast is the only answer. See stopping amphibious landings.
3. Ground expansion drops down the priority list. Magnitude 105.1 means about 12% less ground per troop than average. Boating to an empty moon usually beats pushing the planet next door.
4. Nukes waste a lot of their radius. Only 7.8% of the map is land, so most of any blast lands in water. An atom bomb’s average 1,640 tiles converts into far fewer enemy tiles here. See the nuke calculator.
With
WATER NUKESenabled this map gets brutal — the already-scarce land is removed permanently. See water nukes.
5. Taking a moon cluster hands you an archipelago. Grab one Jovian or Saturnian moon and the rest are short hops away. Just run your trade routes outward, not within the cluster.
Spawn selection works the same as anywhere → spawn selection.
Terrain shares, coordinates, and distances are counted directly from the game’s map files. Regenerated maps show up in the patch value history.