My Map and need advice

[landorl]

Overall, I like the map, but the main river doesn't look like it works. Either it is flowing in two different directions... towards the lake and towards the sea, or else it has to flow uphill from the lake, because it looks like the lake is in a coastal plain, and then the river goes into the mountains.

As for the colors, I like them, and think that they work pretty well.

[The Cartographist]

Beautiful map, Yandor. Nice to see how it has come along over time with feedback from the group. I'll add two cents, which I'll probably add every time I see a new map with oceans until everyone just tells me to shut up.

You might want to use different levels of shading to indicate various depths of water. Typically, the deeper the shade of blue, the deeper the water. One example is here: http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-map...raphy-map.html

I personally think that this makes a map look better than when not done, and it shows that world creators are working to make their worlds even more realistic.

[Yandor]

thanks everyone, and to answer questions

Iandorl - I wasn't sure how to really do that river, to be honest I just followed the contours of my map when I had them before the rivers like in this picture I posted earlier
http://www.cartographersguild.com/at...4&d=1195270898
So I just worked from there to make the rivers, I'm thinking I'll need to do something to make it more realistic, but I was just using the idea of the river was eating down the top of the mountain and it finally broke threw a lower place and eventually divided the river into 2 streams thus the fork, and why one continues along the mountains and the other drops down into the lake, but yeah this was a sort of test map to see if it looked better then before...

The Cartographist - hehe I fully agree on the different depths, but it takes that much longer to load the image (its like 4200 x 2100 it just kept growing ) Anyways if you click the link above when I was responding to Iandorl, I've got the depths in, its just I need to turn it on, instead of it hidden...

Thanks everyone, I'll be posting more updates soon when I get a little more time to mess with it...

[RobA]

and eventually divided the river into 2 streams thus the fork

Pet peeve alert! Rivers almost never fork. They almost always merge.

(This is my own understanding - if wrong, PLEASE let me know!)

Water is lazy (kind of like me) and will almost always take the easiest route. This means that if a stream encounters an obstruction, it will go around it the easiest way possible. If the left channel is easier than the right channel, it will take the left channel. Not to say that rivers don't split around obstructions....they just usually end up rejoining on the other side, as the terrain allows (since both channels are trying to find the easiest route).

This is amplified taking erosion into effect. Once a river has an established channel, it is rare that it will create a new one, unless it suddenly finds an easier way. This is also why streams are more likely to join up...the terrain has to keep them apart, and if they get close enough the "higher" one will find the "lower one"'s channel and flow into it.

BUT - as I have found in the past, no matter what bizarre geomorphic anomaly you can imagine, it probably exists somewhere in the real world

-Rob A>

[Yandor]

Thanks RobA and landorl, I'll have to fix that, I read up on rivers dividing, and they will only or typically divide after a flash flood occurs causing the river to flow faster, and when it hits an obstruction it'll fork and proved 2 ways the river can flow down hill, as you said they usually join back together, but with a few expections one the route the second river takes may be easier and will flow down a different gradient then the other side of the river. The 2 rivers are no where near the same size, one may be the original river and after the "flood" the other part of the river that divided will be a small river if not a stream. So pretty much what I had could work, but I under stand where your coming from and if I were to leave it, I'll probably just get more annoyed with it and change it anyways =P So thanks again

[alucard339]

Thanks for the info lesson on the rivers subject it should help many of us create better looking rivers.

I think you did an amasing feat with your map, if I look back from the start up to now, and I'm sure you'll find the right solution for the rivers.

[Yandor]

Quick update
Kind of made a few adjustments like you guys were pointing out, its coming a long a lot better so thanks, any new comments would be great.

Still the before and after