[WIP] Empire of Humankind

[Daelin]

@A R Frost
You don't really have to do that much. Just wait, really... Once I'm done (probably in the same year as the map is set), I'll see about making a printable version available.

@zhar2
Yes, you are absolutely right, and although I have acknowledged this before, I will happily do it again: I have "borrowed" the textures for Venus and Mars from the Celestia application. Credit goes to whomever created those outstanding pieces of theoretical fiction, respectively. I have not asked for their permission (because I don't where to ask...), but I hope they will allow me this artistic licensing of their fine work.

Also, if you do a couple of Google Image searches with the right word combinations, you will find that the majority of my planets are similarly "borrowed" from there. I have not asked for permission to use any of those textures, either, as that would be logistically impossible. Whoever you are, I acknowledge your work and thank you for your gracious ignorance of my unscrupulous thieving.

God bless the internets. That is all.

[Daelin]

Yet another WIP version. Not that much has changed. Just some more planets. And some simple framing art. I might add more to it, I've got some ideas laying around.

I've tried looking for another way of displaying the images. The size limit on the files on this forum means that I can't show you the background star-scape, plus I also have to lower the quality of the jpg compression slightly. The only image-hosting site that seems to allow 10mb+ files and has unlimited bandwidth is www.bayimg.com, but I keep getting an error message when I try to upload images of a certain size, so that's not working.

Do any of you have any suggestions? I can just keep uploading images with stuff missing, but I'd rather let you see all the details. And I guess there's a reason for the size limits on the guild...

Anyway, enjoy!

[Ramah]

I know very little about star maps and usually just look at them and think "hmm... looks good but is it different to any other I've seen?" but even I can see that this looks really good.

As to your dilemma, how about just posting an area of your image at full size so we can get a taste of what it is that we are missing?

[Daelin]

Ah, well, I could do that, of course.

This is 4,5mb:

[someguy]

I'd be willing to host the image for you.

[Coyotemax]

I've had great results with deviantart.com - I have a file on there that's almost 17 megs, and never got a complaint.

[Daelin]

Yeah, deviantart worked perfectly:

http://daelind.deviantart.com/art/WI...kind-161369817

Hopefully, they'll keep letting me upload WIPs with no restrictions on disk space and bandwidth.

@someguy
Thanks for the offer, I might take you up on that, if the need should arise.

[bartmoss]

Very nice. I love how you automatically have a good idea of what the different worlds are like, plus it's got a bit of a space opera-ish feel to it, it'd work really well for something like Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon etc.

[Daelin]

Next WIP...

http://daelind.deviantart.com/art/WI...kind-162073926

What's this tunnel that I'm in? And is that a light, down there, at the end?
Please do continue with the comments, people, both the positive and the relevant points of criticism. I feed on this!

I've started work on the "encyclopedia" or simply companion book, that I'm planning to go along with the map. But it's still not that fleshed out, so I'll wait a bit before posting it.

[Ramah]

Looks amazing. So much detail on this map. As I said previously, star maps aren't really my thing but this really does look great.

I searched for some kind of criticism I could level at the map and the most I could come up with (and this is just guesswork on my part) is: would the starfield show up as brightly through the various nebulas and the Caeros Rift as it does for the rest of space? I get the feeling that those particular stars behind/in front of those particular celestial...er... things... should have their opacity lowered. As I say, just guessing on that and could well be wrong but it just looks a little off to me.

Anyhoos, great stuff.