I don't know if this can be consider as bug, however it's really odd! the position where we're able to start isn't good. Look at this image we can't go anywhere with the commander whether starting at this point. Here dew things: Too much montains - Block the path. This is bad for small planets (size 1 and 2) Odd start positions - Would be good if calculate a clean area which we can (start) walk with the commander. That's it. Hope it helps. Best regards, pjrm1470.
So far there is nothing that determines start positions aside from "It's not in water." This is a known bug, start positions would sometimes appear in craters or ravines and be completely useless.
Mushroomars is correct. The starting positions don't take any local features into account. We intend to *eventually* fix this, but it only seems to be a problem on very, small rocky planets