WIP - Ortellum

[Natai]

Thanks for the feedback.
I very much care about climate/biome placement, and I have made use of the Climate Cookbook. I'm assuming you are talking about the large desert in the southern area; the smaller desert to the north would be classified as a coastal fog desert. After reading your comment and looking at the map again I started to question that large desert as well, so I decided to look back through my notes and the various maps from 'cooking the climate'. That area does get less rain than much of the rest of the continent, but maybe not to the point where it should be a desert, or at least not that large. For reference purposes, the equator runs along the southern edge of the southwestern mountain range, and the northern edge of the continent is at around 60 degree north latitude.

I should probably also explain how many of these elements originated. I started work on my game and world back in 2000/2001, and I had virtually no knowledge of climates, weather patterns, biomes, or world-building in general. The original map had this shape and was created in Photoshop, but was little more than some different colored shapes with a couple of filters applied. I have been working on a "second edition" of the game for a couple years now and have made a lot of substantial changes to make the game world more realistic. Originally, I 'black boxed' the world by suggesting it was created artificially, but that has changed. Some highly advanced terraforming might have occurred centuries ago, but the planet is natural. Also, the original scale of this continent was much smaller, so the large size of some areas may also be a result of the rescale.

I'm going to look through the Climate Cookbook again, but I will probably shrink that desert while keeping it placed at the end of that range in the continent's interior. Which brings up the issue of what biome should replace it. I'm reluctant to make the entire southern area all savanna, so I'll probably add more rainforest. It seems like there is a lot of forest on this continent, but that is actually supported by the fiction. A species of sentient plants, which are capable of controlling most forms of plant life, mintained control over most of the continent for 100-200 years. They eventually retreated to the forest to the north of central-western range, but most of the continent was covered in vegetation within the last couple of centuries. In case you're wondering, I did not develop this fiction in relation to mapping; it's previously established history, which just happens to make things a bit easier.

As for the coastlines, I would like to make them rougher and more detailed. I had actually toyed with the idea of redoing the entire map with Vue, but decided to stick with Photoshop. It's been close to a year since I created the base landmass, so I'll have to examine the layers and determine how easy it would be to adjust the coastline.

Glad everyone likes the textures. I'm thinking of making adjustment to make the colors of the forests more uniform across the continent. I've got a couple different textures for deciduous and boreal forests, which I use based on the biome of each region (boreal forest, temperate rainforest, hemiboreal, deciduous forest, tropical rainforest, etc). This makes each region unique in appearance, but at this scale I'm not sure they should be so distinctive.

Again, thanks for the feedback. I look forward to more.

[jwbjerk]

Thanks for the feedback.
I very much care about climate/biome placement, and I have made use of the Climate Cookbook. I'm assuming you are talking about the large desert in the southern area; the smaller desert to the north would be classified as a coastal fog desert. After reading your comment and looking at the map again I started to question that large desert as well, so I decided to look back through my notes and the various maps from 'cooking the climate'. That area does get less rain than much of the rest of the continent, but maybe not to the point where it should be a desert, or at least not that large.

Yes, i meant the big southern desert, particularly since it has forests hard on it's southern and northern borders, and sort of sitting in the middle of the continent. Normally you wouldn't get such a dramatic increase in precipitation, at least not without a dramatic increase in elevation.

Using the climate cookbook method, it's easy to over-emphasize one element or another. In the case of this desert, the amount of precipitation you would get off the ocean against the prevailing wind. I don't know which way your prevailing wind is, but i doubt it is from both the east and west coast near your desert. If you look at a Koppen map, you'll notice that large deserts (BW*) tend to run all the way to the ocean unless there are intervening mountains.

It seems like there is a lot of forest on this continent, but that is actually supported by the fiction.

I wouldn't worry about that even if you didn't have a story-explanation. Most of Canada, Europe, and Russia were forest at one time. In more northerly regions were evaporation is low, you don't need a remarkable about of rain to support a forest.

I've got a couple different textures for deciduous and boreal forests, which I use based on the biome of each region (boreal forest, temperate rainforest, hemiboreal, deciduous forest, tropical rainforest, etc). This makes each region unique in appearance, but at this scale I'm not sure they should be so distinctive.

That depends if this is supposed to be an information-conveying map, or a photographic-looking map. I wouldn't be ashamed of highlighting the differences between different types of forests, even at the expense of some realism-- unless, of course, pure realism is your goal. The fact, for instance that you can even see the rivers at this scale is not very realistic, but does make it a more informative map.

[Natai]

Using the climate cookbook method, it's easy to over-emphasize one element or another. In the case of this desert, the amount of precipitation you would get off the ocean against the prevailing wind. I don't know which way your prevailing wind is, but i doubt it is from both the east and west coast near your desert. If you look at a Koppen map, you'll notice that large deserts (BW*) tend to run all the way to the ocean unless there are intervening mountains.

Looking at my notes and maps, the prevailing wind should be from the east. The break between the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone and the Subtropical High Pressure Zone would cross over the land bridge just south of the mountain range. However, due to the high- and low-pressure areas, there would also be a significant wind coming off the western gulf on to the southern part of the landmass. It might be worth examining how these two air flows would interact.
One problem I have is that there is no real-world analog to this part of the continent. It's shape, size and position are difficult to compare, and it's also very far away from any other landmasses on the planet. I think my mindset with the desert was that by the time air from the coast reached the interior it would have lost most of it's moisture. However, you make an excellent point regarding deserts extending to the coast. I'll work on reducing the desert's size when I get home and post what I come up with.

That depends if this is supposed to be an information-conveying map, or a photographic-looking map. I wouldn't be ashamed of highlighting the differences between different types of forests, even at the expense of some realism-- unless, of course, pure realism is your goal. The fact, for instance that you can even see the rivers at this scale is not very realistic, but does make it a more informative map.

I'm trying to strike a balance between the two, as I imagine everyone does. The original idea was to have a realistic "world" map large enough to allow for zooming in for a reasonable approximation of a regional map. In terms of game fiction, Humans would be trying to combine fragmented orbital/aerial imagery with land-based observations as well as information gathered from other sentient races. I imagine such a fusion of information would result in an unsual style of map.