Capture and the map
Finishing a session turns part of your route into ground you hold. One cell per session, and the map keeps the record.
In the app today this is an on-device preview. Your phone works out what you claim and keeps the record for your own map. A territory record held on the server and shared by every player is planned.
Areas on the map
You play on the real map of your streets, parks and paths. It is divided into small areas, and every point on it falls inside exactly one of them. An area, which the app calls a cell, is the smallest piece of ground you can hold.
Behind the scenes, territory is computed on an internal grid so that every area has a fixed boundary. You never need to think about that grid. What the map shows is the ground you have covered, drawn over the places you actually walked, ran or rode.
Each cell covers about 0.7 square kilometres. The app and the server use the same grid, so the same corner resolves to the same cell for every player. What is still to come is the shared record of who holds each cell, which is what districts and clubs are waiting on.
What one session claims
Your route passes through a run of cells. When you save the session, the app walks that list in order and claims the first one you do not already hold. That is one new cell per saved session, however far you went.
The rest of the touched cells are not wasted. Any that you already hold have their hold refreshed, which is the main way ground stays yours. A long route through your own neighbourhood might claim nothing new and still be the most useful session of the week.
A session has to cover 200 metres or last five minutes before it can be saved at all. Below that it is treated as noise rather than a walk.
One claim a day
Saving is limited to one session per calendar day. A second session that day still records and still shows you its summary, and it will not claim a cell or refresh a hold.
The limit exists so the map rewards a habit rather than an afternoon. Someone who walks once a day for a month ends up with far more ground than someone who walks six times on a Sunday.
What the map shows
The territory map is the running record of everything you hold. Each cell is drawn in the state it is currently in, so you can see at a glance which ground is solid and which needs a visit.
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Yours | Held and defended. Nothing needed. |
| At risk | Your hold has drained low. A visit restores it. |
| Contested | Left long enough that the hold is gone and your grip is slipping. |
| Dormant | Neglected long enough to drop off. Walking it again brings it back. |
Tapping a cell opens its detail view: how long you have held it, when you were last there, how strong your hold is, and what to do next. The numbers behind those states are set out in Holding your ground.
Cell names
Cells carry short names like Riverside Loop or Signal Yard. They are generated from the cell's own identifier, so a given cell always shows the same name and it stays the same for as long as you hold it. They are labels for your own map rather than real place names, which is deliberate: the app never resolves your position to a real address, neighbourhood or landmark.