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Thread: Regional map around Alnamestan (criticism wanted)

  1. #1

    Default Regional map around Alnamestan (criticism wanted)

    I would like criticism on the following map.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    The feel should be that of a map drawn by someone living in the world. The size of the region should be around 300x200 miles thus only the major cities/town are drawn. The river is a border between an Empire and the Northern lands and while some know what is up north, most maps do not show it -- hence the "here be dragons".

    The city map thread is here if you wanted to have a look at the city map itself.

    What is wrong with the map?

    How can I improve it?

  2. #2

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    Try reducing the amount of trees and make some variations to the size, shape and spacing of the symbols you have used.

  3. #3
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    I somewhat agree with Jykke, but the other way.. if this is all forested land down "south" Then have a bigger grouping of trees. Also, the things on the left side to the right and above the iron hills, if those are trees, you need to give them trunks to match the other tree's style. The only other thing I see is that if this supposed to be hand drawn, it looks really computer generated with the mountains/hills/tree brushes being so uniform. size and shape variation will help some here, but in the end as others have said "if you want something to look hand drawn, you have to hand draw it".

    Specifically, the mountains/hills with the hard black border on the bottom is a dead give away. The mountain brush directly above the "tree" which is above the "A" in Arzenpaexe is an example of a method to avoid this type of effect since it has no hard edged bottom like many of the others.... But, of course, if you just stamp the same one down all of the place, it becomes real obvious that it's a perfect copy...


    Now.. with that said.. it's not a bad map overall and if it's a player hand out for a game, then this would suite that purpose very well unless you have some really anal players(which I doubt) without any of the changes I suggested above...
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
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    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  4. #4
    Guild Novice 290blue's Avatar
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    I agree with jfrazierjr about the computer generated look, but for me it's the font that stands out in that respect. I'd avoid using standard fonts because they invariably look modern.

  5. #5
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 290blue View Post
    I agree with jfrazierjr about the computer generated look, but for me it's the font that stands out in that respect. I'd avoid using standard fonts because they invariably look modern.
    I don't so much mind the font(I quite like it actually), but you are right in the uniformity of the letters. It needs some ever so slight variation. This can be achieved(though it may take a decent bit of work with do, check, undo, repeat) by(I am assuming he is using GIMP for this as he did for his other map):

    1. After adding Text using the text tool, click on the Path From Text button.
    2. Create a new layerand hide the one you were just on, making sure to have the NEW layer selected
    3. go to the Paths tab(you might have to open it)
    4. select the path just created and right click
    5. Select Selection from Path
    6. Under the Selection menu, click Distort. This is the part that will require playing with quite a bit to get something that looks similar to the original font, but also has some variations so that no two letters on the screen are perfectly the same....
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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