Commission: Lleimilla

[Magrathean]

Fade looks great. Looking forward to the hills!

[jfrazierjr]

Go some hills done around the "southern" mountains... If this is ok, I will next move on to line work on a few more mountain locations to see how that jives with the world....

At this point, the only thing permanent is the mountains and water, though I plan to do a bit more touch up on the water to make it appear like there are some waves toward the end.

[Magrathean]

I like the hills. The only "complaint" I would have at this point is the fact that the bottom (northern) border of the hill-covered region is a rather straight line and you usually seldom see straight lines in nature (i.e. it should be a little more irregular), but let's see how that turns out when more hills and mountains are added to the rest of the map; my concern might even disappear.

Thanks for the work done so far!

[jfrazierjr]

Yep... and I agree... I just wanted to get your take on the style before doing any more. Do you have a preference in terms of how to make a bit more "natural" or would you like me to just throw some more around. My initial thoughts were to curve along both shores like the mountains so that both coasts would be a bit hilly for a short way inland, but the central part of the landmass would retain the "number" of hills already present...

Once i have that part figured, I can start adding more mountains in other places.

In this quick mock up, black was my original thought, but adding a few more merging in at the center and fading out the higher "south" they go to make a very gentle "U" shape. The blue is another possible way to break up the "straight" line. Let me know what you think about these two or if you have alternate suggestions... once we get that knocked out, I will do some line work to place other mountains for your approval.

[Magrathean]

Replied via pm. Terribly sorry about the delay.

[jfrazierjr]

Ok... another test... Increased the size to give the continent a bit more "breathing" room.

A new mountain style. Same lines/shading on each, just swapped out colors. This mountain style is much closer to Torstan's own and side benefit is that it's much faster to do. Of course, colors can vary from these and different mountains on the map may also be different colors if desired to make regions blend a bit better...I tend to think the light tan mountains go well with a desert color.

[Magrathean]

Sorry for another delay. I foresee this week and probably the next (i.e. all of september) as awfully loaded with work. But october should be better for me.

Love the darker sea texture. As for the mountains I guess which style you choose depends on what the rest of the map will look like; it's a little hard to choose without the terrain textures in place. But for now just use the new style if it's easier to make.

Concerning the colouring, I agree that different colours could be used in different areas. I'm thinking the light tan for the desert region, the dark brown (perhaps with a very subtle hint of green) for the grassland/plains regions, and the grey for the stormy region where all the islands are.

[Magrathean]

By the way, I'm curious to see what hills would look like in the new style.

[jfrazierjr]

By the way, I'm curious to see what hills would look like in the new style.

Well... the hills would be similar, just smaller. Really, it's just a matter of shading. Also, with the smaller mountains, there would be fewer hills. Kind of like in hot air balloon, the higher you go, the less detailed the individual elements look. As an example, just take look at the maps you linked to. For Torstan's map, the only hills I see are ones that don't butt up to mountains while the Lykarnia map has none that I can tell(a few smaller, but they appear to be the same general shape as the mountains themselves and not distinct as "hills.)

With that said if you "need" hills, they would be more of a few small ones here, a few there, to give the impression of a hilly region. Overall, they will like very much like the previous ones only smaller and probably with fewer of them. Or something along the lines of Torstan's map or something like (if your familiar with it) the map of Nentir Vale from the D&D 4E Dungeon Masters Guide. Give me a day or three and I will throw up some examples, but I will also be trucking on with the rest of the map at the same time.....

[Magrathean]

Ok, I see your point. Come to think about it, I don't specifically need any hills anywhere except for one small region in the "stormy" section of the map (I'll tell you where exactly later on), so I don't mind if there aren't any hills. Maybe just smaller mountains at the edges of large mountain ranges will do the trick (like on the Lykarnia map).

I am familiar with the Nentir Vale map, and those hills actually look pretty much like what the "stormy"-area hills I told you about look like inside my head. As I said, we can discuss those hills later.