If the Map page says “The ground of (planet) is not drawn yet.”, choose Draw the map. The panel draws the ground from the world’s seed using the game itself. It takes about a minute. If the server is running, it stops for that minute, starts again, and players are disconnected while it is stopped.
Why the server stops
Factorio cannot run a second copy of the game in the same folder. Drawing the ground needs the game, so the server must be off first. The panel stops it, draws the ground, and starts it again if it was running.
New servers already have the main planet’s ground drawn at install. You see this note for a planet whose ground was never drawn.
Draw it
- Pick a time when nobody is playing. Players are disconnected. To warn them first, use Message everyone on the Players page.
- Open the Map page. Choose the planet in Planet if there is more than one. If there is no Planet choice, the world has one planet.
- Choose Draw the map.
- Read the box titled “Draw the map’s ground?”. On a running server it says the server stops for about a minute.
- Confirm.
The panel says: “Drawing the map. The page shows it when it is done.” Wait a minute or two, then reload the Map page. Stopping a server saves the world first, so nothing in the world is lost.
On a stopped server the box says only that it takes about a minute, and nothing is disconnected.
Who can do it
Drawing the map needs a role that allows managing the live map and restarting the server. Without it the button does not work. Ask the owner to change your role: Settings, Access, Manage roles, then the organization page.
If it does not work
- It asks you to start the server once. The panel needs the world’s seed, which it reads from a running server. Start the server, wait for it to load, then try again.
- The server is back up but the map is empty. Wait a little and reload the page. The picture appears when the draw ends.
- Players were thrown out. That is how it works on a running server. Draw at a quiet time.
- No Draw the map button. The planet is already drawn, or your role does not allow it.
To make a whole new world, see start a new world. For the page itself, see the server map.
More about the game: Factorio servers.
Sources: wiki.factorio.com: Map generator