This looks fun so I think I'll have a stab at it too. Four hours is kinda tight but I have some ideas that ill try out and ill submit whatever I have at 4hrs but ill prob continue if I cant squeeze it in.

I say its tight because id like to try to do a 3D cutaway of a hillside showing the caverns. I have been caving just a handful of times and the interesting thing in real caves is the way they link up with steep shafts and waterfalls and so on. Id like to try out an idea that has been talked about between a few of us on another board where we start with a fractured block and try to run a eroding river through it until it cuts out all of the caves. Thats not really feasible because I don't have a volumetric app like that but I will try it with height fields and overflowing caverns. The obvious drawback is that I wont be able to have vertical pitches but hey, its hard to map those things anyway.

There are a few more reasons why make a play on this. Pirates and sea mean islands and I have my Instant Islands app which can produce something in a few seconds. Also, I keep whittering on about how fast ViewingDale is so its time to bet against my kudos. My texture compositor is pretty geared up for sea and beaches so I think that will be quite quick too.

I'll finish with an image but upload the 3D maps so you can play with the result in my free 3D map browser. I might be able to turn the resulting map into a set of files to use with the demo version of ViewingDale and then you can try it out yourselves. I mean, there was not a single mention of it before I joined.

The chances of me getting a 4hr straight run with no interruptions are zilch so I have downloaded a stopwatch app. I'll produce a lot of WIP shots, posts and write ups which I wont bill against the 4 hrs. It will be 4hrs working on the map.

I dreamed up a good back story so ill write that up and sketch up some general ideas and plans about how I am going to attack it.

Three entrants already - excellent ! I reckon the pen and paper guys will do well here. Digital has benefits but its rarely faster.