Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: World Map vs partial/continent map and coloration!

  1. #1
    Guild Novice
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    16

    Question World Map vs partial/continent map and coloration!

    Not sure if this belongs here... >_> BUT! Question time!

    Would you recommend doing a full world map? Or doing partial to full continents of a world? Also, about coloration. What if the planet doesn't have "blue" water? I ask this because I am unsure of how to go about doing the map for my Role Play World. Also because the water is purple with a red area.

  2. #2
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    St. Charles, Missouri, United States
    Posts
    8,392

    Default

    This is up to you and what you're comfortable with. I like to do up a while world just to know where everything is then just focus on one continent then on one region of the continent then one town then one pub.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  3. #3
    Software Dev/Rep Hai-Etlik's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    48° 28′ N 123° 8′ W
    Posts
    1,333
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default

    Full globes are tricky as distortion from projecting the globe onto a flat map becomes impossible to ignore. The smaller the area you cover ("larger scale" in cartography jargon. Yes it's counterintuitive at first but there's a good reason for it.), the easier it is to just "wing it" and have a map that will work.

    If you want to start fitting those continents together, or if you want to have things like graticules, scales, rhumb lines, and compass roses, then things get more complex.

  4. #4
    Guild Novice
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    16

    Default

    Well, I wasn't really thinking about going into the whole distortion thing. and what are graticules, rhumb lines? O_o @_@

    @ascension: First *fan girl scream* Okay now that is out of the way. I was thinking of doing that... but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go that way... but it would seem logical to do it that way to know where stuff goes. although, i won't go as far as one building. lol. I couldn't draw a building layout to save my life. (even in sims my houses are awful. lol) I would love to draw towns/villages/possible city. but unsure if I really want to push that. I'm already having enough trouble with thinking about doing this map. XD I'm great at writing.. creating lands and continents.. eh.. maybe not so much. XD

  5. #5
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    St. Charles, Missouri, United States
    Posts
    8,392

    Default

    Well the easiest thing to do is grab some paper and just sketch out the world by hand - that way you always have the general layout to look at. It does not have to be precise just basic blobs and basic terrain (like upside down Vs for mountains, some squiggly rivers, quick forests) and you can put some fantastical races there for future reference like mermen or cat-people or something. Then pick one area of one continent where you want to detail and go to it. Keeping the other continents non-developed leaves room for further adventures later on as well as keeping the main continent sketchy at best. This way you never get lost in your writing but things are not nailed down either.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  6. #6
    Software Dev/Rep Hai-Etlik's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    48° 28′ N 123° 8′ W
    Posts
    1,333
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Anannsul View Post
    Well, I wasn't really thinking about going into the whole distortion thing. and what are graticules, rhumb lines?
    A graticule is the grid of lines indicating the latitude and longitude.

    This thread has some graticule templates for global maps in Normal Mercator and Stereographic Azimuthal projections.

    Rhumb lines are lines along which your compass bearing is fixed (For instance if you kept going northeast) Except for the four cardinal directions, Rhumb lines are actually spirals. They were used for a form of marine navigation called "Dead Reckoning" where you followed a bearing and tried to estimate the time and speed to get a distance along that line. They only appear as straight lines in one particular projection, called Normal Mercator.

    This is an example of a map with Rhumb lines.

  7. #7
    Guild Novice
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    16

    Default

    @ascension: I like the way you think. However, I'm terrible with creating even general landscape. Even layouts for land vs water. LOL. So.. I'll probably just do something, in general on the computer.. print it out and put it on my wall and go from there. But, I will take your suggestion to leave most of it blank for future rp ideas.

    @hai-etlik: Oh.... x.x Lines are confusing. I tried it on a map and I don't know. lol But they do make maps look more interesting.

  8. #8
    Software Dev/Rep Hai-Etlik's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    48° 28′ N 123° 8′ W
    Posts
    1,333
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Anannsul View Post
    @hai-etlik: Oh.... x.x Lines are confusing. I tried it on a map and I don't know. lol But they do make maps look more interesting.
    Well, if you stay away from them, you have a lot more freedom. Putting them on a map implies a degree of precision. If the map isn't meant to be to scale, then you can draw it as just a representative map, but then things like graticules, rhumb lines, compass roses, and scales become inappropriate.

    If the world you are mapping is a typical pseudomedieval fantasy world, then precise maps aren't even all that appropriate. Modern maps are highly anachronistic for such settings. Medieval maps were exceedingly rare and so abstract as to be almost unrecognizable to modern eyes most of the time. The important thing to consider is their ability with marine navigation, modern style maps go hand in hand with long distance sailing. Hugging coastlines and island hopping don't require them. Medieval navigation was mostly a matter of written directions, asking along the way, or just memory.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •