WIP: Ethania

[oli_chose123]

Hello!
First post here.

So, I've been looking at maps and tutorials on this forum for at years now but never got to post one of my maps and ask professionals for tips and tricks.

First, to introduce myself and my map:

The first map I ever made, well, played with, was a procedural fractal world generated by an app which I can't remember the name. I simply added borders and nation names on it. Strangely, there was a particular continent shape I liked in the fractal result, but was too small, so I ended up trying to transfer the shape and scale it to something editable. This is when I discovered this website, and, after a couple of tutorials and a mess of Photoshop layers, I had my second map.

Of course that wasn't enough, and since I always wanted something more of a satellite view instead of an atlas map, I started the long road toward realistic looking continents. I failed countless times, sometimes rapidly, others after tweaking and tweaking and finding out I couldn't go back anymore. I'm afraid I might be on the the same path this time I would like to ask what could be improved/revamped in this map.

This is Ethania, a continent. I don't have the back-story written in English, but to summarize, it is an earth-like planet that is settled by remnants of humanity, and the resulting civilization is similar to the classical era.

Using google maps, I found out I'm not supposed to see mountain relief at this size (consider every pixel a square kilometer), is that true? or are google map images just... strange?

I believe my forests look good when zoomed in but not when zoomed out, and it's the opposite for the deserts (they might be too reddish also).
Maybe the artic ice could go all the way down to the northern snow. Does the snow actually look realistic? I don't know what to think of it...

So, my main points are the forest, desert, snow, and water (maybe I abused the ps difference cloud effect? can you see this when in orbit?)

Thanks a lot for your comments and sorry if I ask too many questions!