Thread: August/September Entry : Nadhyr-Sot

The first significant update.

I spent a bit of time re-tweaked the elevations this morning for a little more roughness and trying to create a better transition between the plateaus and lower portions of the terrain. And it was just soooooo much fun. Lots of erosion, lots of selection manipulation and a considerable amount of bouncing back and forth between too versions of the initial elevation file to get things where I wanted them. After that, I let Wilbur define the suggested river flow for the terrain. The rivers are, at this point, a little too plentiful and there are some that don't seem to drain in a realistic fashion. I may be able to solve some of that by adding in lakes and eliminating those rivers that I can't do anything sensible with.

For the most part, though, the elevations are finished, so now it's a matter of deciding how I want to present the map (color or black/white) which will determine how I will add in the other prominent terrain features (i.e. forests, buildings, and the nests, if I can manage them). As predicted, however, I do have to go in to work for a few hours today, so I won't have a chance to work on this again until later this evening or some time tomorrow.

GW

P.S. The coloring, for right now, isn't meant for anything other than to help me differentiate between flat areas and sloping areas.

P.P.S. I was thinking about how this challenge is similar to the River Mania challenge a year or so ago, though not quite as labor intensive in terms of having to meet such detailed requirements.

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.. I guess its... cool?

Interesting so far, I hope you get to finish it.

Started reworking some of the coloring and, at least for now, disabled the rivers since they are in major need of editing. I think I might still need to work the coloring of significant lowland slopes, but things are starting to come together. I did, however, inadvertently cut the river paths into one of the lowland masks, so things might look a bit odd. I'll rework that and get started on the rivers shortly. I've decided to go with the black/white (greyscale) presentation as it looks better against the parchment background (at least to me) than the few tests I did with a colored version.

GW

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I'm so not winning the lite challenge ^^

This is looking pretty interesting GW, I look forward to seeing what you end up with.

Originally Posted by Marken4

I'm so not winning the lite challenge ^^

Don't let it get you down. The best thing about challenges is the way they give you a deadline and you actually get to finish your piece. Plus, with so many great map makers here I'm happy if I can even get a vote or two. As long as it's a worthy contender try to be happy. It only takes one person to really "hit the nail on the head" so to speak, and they can suck up ALL the votes. Besides, it's art and it's so ridiculously subjective. For instance, I have a hard time appreciating art that doesn't look like anything. Not that I don't find an occasional splattering of paint to be aesthetically pleasing, it's just not my favorite cup of tea. Hopefully, you learn with every bit of work you do and that just serves to make you better for the next challenge.

Originally Posted by Marken4

I'm so not winning the lite challenge ^^

Jax said it. It really isn't about the winning or losing so much as it is about the friendly competition. I have as yet to win, but the fun is in completing the challenge, something that has eluded me on a fairly regular basis this last year between work and family illnesses. I'm hoping to finish this one, but it appears that I'll be revamping the map because I'm just not getting what I want out of it. Well, let me rephrase that, I'm getting closer to what I want, but each little tweak is taking forever, and if it isn't right, I back up a step and have to re-tweak. I'll probably end up working both the original and a side version of the map to see what I end up with in the long run.

Either way, don't get discouraged. I haven't had a chance to comment on any of the maps so far, but I've taken a look at yours and like what I see. Most definitely a worthy competitor/entry.

GW

Not to mention that challenges are a great way to build your portfolio if you want to make one. I love that sketchy look you've got going there, Greason.

For this update, I reworked the mountains on the plateaus and ironed out the coloring. It's still not quite where I would like it to be, and I may have to add another level or two of shading to give a better impression of these plateaus being near the top of an expansive mountain chain, but I'll fiddle with that a little later. My next major goal is going to be setting up rivers and lakes so that I can get a better idea of where everything else might be at. I'm already working on names for some of the features, but won't be adding them in until the features are actually finished.

And, for anyone interested, everything has been "drawn" by Terragen so far with most of the actual height field editing being done in Wilbur.

GW

Bah, 4 attempts to upload and finally . . . I really hate my POS internet connection!!!

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