Thread: [WIP]Caelun - First Map

Thanks man, I think it looks pretty decent if I do say so myself. I didn't want to add an active volcano or canyon, seems like it would be a little bit too busy with those.

Updated a bit. Increased some elevation, and added underwater landscaping. But I'm not sure how much I like it. Any suggestions?

Updated again. Added a scale and Title. Next to add some city labels and paths.

Hey Subatomic,
you asked me to give you some feedback, so I'll try my best.

The ice layer from the tutorial is meant to whiten the edges of continents, not for creating arctic continents, but Ascension already got you covered there, so all is well.

While I personally think exaggerating land features for a map is ok, don't forget your scale altogether. The volcano crater lake is more like a huge meteorite impact site at this scale.

The rivers seem a bit random. They should follow depressed areas in the land upwards to look more natural.

You used grass very sparsely. This might be entirely intentional, and if it is forget what I'm saying, but some more would help to smooth the transitions to the forests.

The mountains could use some more emphasis. This might also be intentional, but it's a bit difficult to see where they are.

Islands and continents always are on top of underwater shelves and ridges. A good example where it looks really off is your central ring of islands.

Don't forget you can play with the adjustment layers on the top of your layer stack. Maybe try just a little bit more contrast.

Of course, all these comments are just suggestions. It's your map, after all. I'm just posting my thoughts.

I hope this helps, and have fun mapping. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this.

Thanks a lot man, I appreciate it. I'm not at home until mid december, so I don't have my tablet to do rivers, sadly. And I'll totally look at using a bit more grass. But I'm going to keep playing with it. Hopefully I'll end up with a nice finished product in a while. Also, in regard to the central islands: They were once one solid continent, but there was a massive arcane explosion which ripped them apart, hence the ring of islands, and the large underwater crater, I figured that the shelves would be a little bit messed up from the explosion, but I didn't really know how they should go.

Edit: Did some more work. Updated.

Originally Posted by thesubatomic

They were once one solid continent, but there was a massive arcane explosion which ripped them apart, hence the ring of islands, and the large underwater crater

The crater is fine.
All I wanted to say is that the islands would form at the edge of the crater. On the ridge. Yours appear to float on the water surface inside the crater.
Sorry for not being more clear there.

I see what you mean. Fixed. Also, fooling around with a border.

That's a good lookin ocean color. Don't have anything to add other than that

Haha. Thanks man, I appreciate it. I think I'm getting close to a finished product.

I need to start thinking about adding some markers. Any ideas?

Hey there, thesubatomic! That's a very nice looking map you have there!

I really only have one criticism to add: I believe there should be more vegetation around the Dormant Volcano. Even though it's in the corner of a (at least it's what it seems to me) desert area, I believe that it would surely have quite a lot of vegetation crawling around it's eastern slope if it rains there enough to maintain a lake inside the crater. Unless the lake is really lucky and it always rains inside the crater itself

But, other than that (and I might even be wrong about it...) it's a very nice looking map!