To address player feedback regarding the game's optimization issues, the upcoming Alpha 1.0.3 update on Friday (10/24/2025) will add three tile density modes:
Low (7,000 tiles across Europe)
Medium (22,000 tiles across Europe)
High (42,000 tiles across Europe)
As of Alpha 1.0.2, the game's Europe-only map has 42,000 tiles and uses a 16384x8192 tile index map. This is very computationally intensive and high-end hardware is required to play at this extreme level of tile density (more expensive rendering and pathfinding, more frequent tile updates, etc), hence why the minimum specification requirements are so high as of now.
The lower tile density modes (Low and Medium) will offer higher performance for all systems and they will allow players who prefer larger tiles to play on the map that fits their preferences.
All tile density modes are all planned to have the same states and provinces to ensure macro-level gameplay remains the same across all tile densities, so once historical provinces and states are added to the game, tile density would determine how many sub-province subdivisions (municipalities) each province has.
Even with these tile density modes (and keeping inherent hardware limitations in mind), I'll try my best to optimize the core systems to improve the game's performance on all tile density modes for broader accessibility.
If time permits, the Alpha 1.0.3 update will also come with bug fixes, optimizations, and potentially new features.