Underground cavern/pool

[Wannabehero]

Looks like you are off to a great start.

The thin black line around the island might not necessarily need to go, but it does stand out way to much. If it is on a separate layer you might want to consider a very small (1 or 2 pixel) blur on it just to give it less aliasing. If not on a separate layer, you might need to get tricky with the selection tools...

Other than that, the only beef I have is with some of the cavern corners. I don't know how the original map looks, but your natural caverns have a very odd look from the sharp-acute-wavy corners some of them end in. I would consider trying to round out those sharp corners to give it a more 'natural' look. Especially in the pool cave (with water involved, unless it was man-made, there shouldn't be so many 90° angles) I feel a more oval shape would look nice.

Aside from that, I think it looks good so far. The floor texture is really nice, where did you get it if you don't mind my asking?

[bmmurphy]

Thanks for the praise, both of you.

Ascension - the thin black lines are layer strokes, which makes removing a chunk problematic unless I flatten the layer, which I'd rather not do. However, it's actually not that big a deal, as the top "edge" will be obscured by a layer above it - the "rock steps" descend from a hallway with a worked stone floor). I've included a very rough shot of where the stone floor will be - though I spent all of 15 seconds on it.

Wannabeahero - yeah, I realize the tunnel walls (especially all the straight ones dominating the right side of the map) aren't very realistic. This is basically a test piece, where I figure out how to do the blending/shading/patterns/etc. for the walls, water, island, and so on. I decided that, since it's not the final map, I wasn't going to waste time on detailed drawings in this one. I tried changing the blend mode on the stroke around the island, let me know what you think. The pattern is called "mudgrass" and I got it from Ascension's Town Mapping tutorial. The wall edges are just a brown inner glow, set to Color Burn.

Lastly, I've included another room from the same, larger map. Basically the concept is a ruined room - the old, stone floor is semi-intact with a dirt-filled pit about 10 feet or so below it. Mostly I'm concerned about the NW corner of the chamber, where the entire upper ceiling caved in, leaving it covered in rubble. I actually adapted Ascension's trees tutorial, using a different texture and color, as well as larger brush strokes, to try and simulate piles of rocks.

[Wannabehero]

Very nice, the new blending mode for the island outline looks great IMO. I like the effect for the collapsed corner of the new room, I think with a little rubble to tie it into the rest of the room it will be top notch.

You might want to consider a larger or more extreme edge/slope on the floor-to-dirt transitions in the new room (particularly along the walls). Right now it doesn't give the impression of a 10' drop to me, more like 1 or 2 feet. That, and/or possibly making the deeper pit-portion a much darker shade, either through playing with your brightness/contrast levels or placing another layer over the dirt floor made from a semi-transparent black, possibly with varying levels of transparency.