Another fantasy world map

[mtbill]

Interesting. I am mixed on the Google Earth idea. On the one hand, it seems like a nicely flexible way to add future detail. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I want to be at the mercy of Google. I haven't used Google Earth very often, so I should probably take a closer look at the software. I didn't realize it could be used with different maps.

Good questions about the level of detail. You're right that you won't find distilled geographic detail on the site. Instead, those details are bound up in things like histories and nation pages. I don't really expect someone to mine for those. I will summarize the important details by region. What sort of details am I talking about? Most of the political borders lie on rivers. The borders as they are currently drawn are approximations and don't look realistic if they are rivers. There probably needs to be additional drainage, which I would leave up to the artist's discretion. There are some very large lakes on the map. I would leave others again to the artist, as those will likely be connected with adding rivers. Where I have a brown blob that represents a mountain range, I would expect that to be broken down into more realistic areas of higher and lower elevation. For example, the great mountain blob in the middle of the map is the Great Durnai Range. A line of tall peaks named the Aptec Divide runs northeast to southwest through this range and some of the peaks in this region are truly huge - extending above the level of breathable air. The page for each nation in the wiki lists the highest elevation in the Highlights section, which should help to give some indication of what sort of mountains are found there. In most cases, I haven't decided just where that highest peak lies - I just know it is somewhere in that blob of mountains. I'd expect forests to be broken up a bit more realistically. But, again, a lot of the details are up to the artist, so long as they fit within the overall regions that I have established.

Here is an example of some geographical details for a region:
http://maragtorok.com/wiki/index.php...mpire#The_Land

These sorts of broad details are available for several of the larger and more influential nations, but that only covers a fraction of the world.

I've had a hard time finding maps that are exactly what I am looking for, probably due to the blending of geographical and political features. It is important to me to have clearly defined political borders. Some maps that focus on the geographical features will simply place names and leave the viewer to figure out about where the borders must be based on land features. I like something more clear cut. I've picked the examples above because they do a good job at making it clear where the physical features are without making it difficult to see borders and cities.

With GE, if I recall, you can turn borders on and off, which I could see being a very useful feature.

[jwbjerk]

Interesting. I am mixed on the Google Earth idea. On the one hand, it seems like a nicely flexible way to add future detail. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I want to be at the mercy of Google. I haven't used Google Earth very often, so I should probably take a closer look at the software. I didn't realize it could be used with different maps.

I PMed you a simple example of a google earth RPG map.

If you don't want to go with Google Earth there are a couple other ways we could deal with the density of information and extreme variations in scale.

1) Create a couple different maps that emphasize different features, for instance a political map and a physical map. Since much of the details is common to both, it's is not nearly as hard as creating two totally different maps. Political borders and nations names might either be de-emphasized on the physical map, or removed altogether.

2) Add insets to the map. It looks like there are basically 3 regions with very small nations. We could put a box nearby in the ocean magnifying those parts of the world 2-4 times, making them big enough to label and see the details.

Good questions about the level of detail. You're right that you won't find distilled geographic detail on the site. Instead, those details are bound up in things like histories and nation pages. I don't really expect someone to mine for those. I will summarize the important details by region.

So to get an idea of the quantity of these additional details: are sparse enough that you could write on one of your maps, "more lakes here", etc. for all these pre-established details, or does the map not have enough room?

Breaking up the edges of things into more natural shapes, adding more tributaries, making the rivers wiggle more naturally, etc. is fine.

Where I have a brown blob that represents a mountain range, I would expect that to be broken down into more realistic areas of higher and lower elevation. For example, the great mountain blob in the middle of the map is the Great Durnai Range. A line of tall peaks named the Aptec Divide runs northeast to southwest through this range and some of the peaks in this region are truly huge - extending above the level of breathable air. The page for each nation in the wiki lists the highest elevation in the Highlights section, which should help to give some indication of what sort of mountains are found there.

Elevation could be done several different ways: The whole map could have topographic lines/levels/shading. Or just the mountains could receive topographic differentiation, via several different bands of color/texture to represent different elevations. I think you want something more on the information-bearing side of things than the classic Tolkien-map style where mountains are drawn from a side view.


It looks like the major detail that's in your text description that isn't on your map is where the cultivated/settled areas are. Might want to add another color/texture to the map to distinguish this from generic "land".

[mtbill]

Thanks everybody. I am discussing the project with several people, any of whom appear to be very good choices, so we might as well consider this taken even though the actual selection has not been made yet.