New Dawn of the West (redesign)

Ok, as per request, and so we don't clutter up inappropriate areas of the forum, here's my response to the map creation request by Aslanc

I saw the request, and the funny part was that I'd already been looking at the hex map and considering working it into an antique map for fun and practice.

So without further ado, here are the efforts so far. I put a bit more work into this one than some of the previous ones - my quality control goes way up when it's for other people :)
Though to be honest, I think I spent more time playing around with effects and filters than anything else, trying to create exactly the right look.

Still a ways to go!

Okay how do you want the feedback and notes?

I can just start blasting them out, or work stage by stage.

It is up to you sir and your comfort levels for me :)

And again, I am simply blown away with how awesome this is.

I will be trying my own as well, but this project must see the end of the road IMHO :D

whatever works, is good by me, i'm pretty free form that way.

Toss in your thoughts as you get them and I'll see about working things in/taking things out.

Okey dokey :)

The first though I have is this... the southern continnt, Azusa, on my original had a massive bay (Slaver's Bay) and on this one it is just gone.

Azusa is actually one of the few places I created whole cloth and not inspired from an existing map :)

The second thing is the compass and mile counters are huge (and I would love the mile bar to be in leagues, that just seems to be the order of the time :) ). Can they be reduces a touch in size?

The third thing is the dedication plate. I can provide you with the campaign specific names and institutions that would fulfill those roles.

And I actually have to thank you, as your map made me create a new one to add to the world :)

I hope this doesn't come off as harsh or demanding, I just tend to get matter-of-fact when I type directions.

I remain humbled and blown away by your generosity and amazing artistic talent :)

Nope, not harsh or demanding at all. And I can easily work those changes.. Considering I was working with practically no direction up to this point, I was completely expecting a whole list of updates :) (yay for nondestructive editing!) I need to get lunch on th go and then i'll start working on the updates.

Looking very good already. I'm a bit confused about what one of the symbols represents (see attached detail). I'm guessing that's supposed to be some sort of wetland from where they're looked on the map, but I must admit that the symbol itself isn't really giving me that impression. This isn't a type of map I have much experience with, so I'm not sure if this is a good suggestion, but you might try a more stereotypical swamp symbol (like the one I attached, perhaps).

Totally my bad, I was getting impatient at that step :)
*adds another item on the To Do list*

Well, it looks like there's a major revamping of the coastline coming up.

So here's what the To Do list looks like now.
(italics is done)

• re-add slaver’s bay
• black out artifacts in border
• resize compass
• resize/position cartouche
• resize scale (in progress)
• change miles to leagues leagues (in progress)
• redo swamp plants and colours
• remove/lighten/recolour grey tone under mountains
• recolour volcano and lava
• move volcano to be more prominent
• dedication/cartouche to be reworded

**waiting to see what the latest input will do to the map, heh**

Wow only three of those are mine... you sure do kick it up when you do this stuff :)

Okay here is your reworded cartouche. :)

Title is "The West" instead of "Dawn of the New West".

The King's name would be Wortigern Pendragon III

I would love to have a cira. dating of;

487 Common Reckoning
1496 Imperial Reckoning

With the assistance of the Acolytes of Kalin

obtained from the Imperial Galfas Society

In Game Note: Lucian Galfas was the greatest Verendi cartographer. He was the first man to map what is now called the West

Now how you want to make that all fit is up to you my good man :)

Ok, the new landmass is in, it went very smoothly (though I'm working at 3000x3000, i think the file you sent me was about half that, lol - still the resizing worked nicely for the landmass and rivers) oh, and the decorations didn't need any adjusting whatsoever, they look like they were placed specifically for this landmass.. we win!

I'm going to totally redo the mountains and foliage etc. The challenge with this is going to be conveying the terrain from your hex map somewhat accurately while not crowding things, and still leaving room for the text (hence the 3k size, but still..)

I was going to make the PSD available for you to putter with if you wanted, but then I realized the stripped down version (with all the spare layers etc deleted instead of just hiding like i usually do - i hate deleting things) is 126 megs *choke*

Looking at some of the other maps on this site, I imagine that's not unheard of, however this is a first for me :) (it doesn't seem that long ago that I had my first computer, heh.. and I remember at one point thinking wow! i have a 100 meg hard drive! how will I ever fill that up???)

Ok, I need to make some salsa so the flavour has a chance to settle and be ready for dinner, then it's back to work!