Die Mittellande (The Middle Lands)

[Draszmar]

I want to recreate an old campaign map I did years before in CC2 Pro in "satellite style".
The original map was done without thinking of geology, I made it by request of the game master we had then. This guy likes the Wheel Of Time book series by Robert Jordan very much and he took names from the books for the map, unfortunately some are spelled wrongly. He took also names from a campaign from the German role playing rule set "Midgard" and spelled them also wrongly. This mixed with one or two tongue-in-check names and some I created for a campaign before and during creation of the map results in an...interesting map.
But it is still needed for the campaign, so it has to stay like this. The main plot takes place in the Fürstentum (principality) of Corinnes. The characters own a small fiefdom here at the edge of the swamp called Elderbog, but it's too small to show on a map with this scale.
The principality of Corinnes is always in peril from its bigger and stronger neighbours from the west and south, Illean and Arafel, who want to swallow it. And from the east we have a threat of trolls (Peninsula del Trollo), dark elves (Karmodin woods) and Orcs (Orkrücken and Orksteppe). So the characters have enough to do.

Here is the original map and my last recent map in the style I want to use.

[Sigurd]

I'd say you've got a more realistic style now .


Good Job. Have some Rep.


S

[Gandwarf]

I kinda like both maps. I am a sucker for well organised CC3 maps, but the new map looks good as well. The thumbnail doesn't do it justice, I must say... I was expecting something not too spectacular, but when zoomed in it looks pretty darn good.

[Draszmar]

I also still like my old CC2 map - I think it is really nice regarding my skills at the time and the features of CC2. Unfortunately I lost the original in a hard disk crash and now I have only a jpg copy.

Here are the first two main steps in the new map: the coastline and sea and land. I'm going to to something with the grass texture - unfortunately it's not tilable, so I had to smear the edges and that looks bad.

[Davros01]

I actually like the original one better. The photo realistic look is very popular right now (Im gonna have to break down and learn how), but I like the cartoon, and colorful maps of old.

[Draszmar]

I think this is all a matter of taste. Currently I'm able to impress my group immensely with the "new" kind of maps. But this may also be a passing fancy.

Here are the next two phases: Mountains and hills/foothills. Still haven't done anything about the grass texture yet.

[Steel General]

Coming along nicely...

I like the foothills and mountains so far.

One thing that caught my eye - because the sea is so blurry it appears (at least to me) that the lands "float" above the water rather than merging with it. You might consider adding some kind of narrow "beach" to help with the transition *shrugs*

[Draszmar]

Here's a new version with forests, and I was finally able to solve the issue with the grass texture.

I added a narrow beach but I'm not really sure if I like it. Did you have something like this in mind, General?
May the beach will look better when the river valley hightmaps are in place.

[Steel General]

That's the general idea (no pun intended), but it didn't seem to really help the way I was hoping it would. You might try making it more brown than yellow.