Thraeton NG

[bartmoss]

Verstehe - und hätte auch keine gute Variante auf Englisch ohne jetzt drüber nachzudenken.

"Too chaotic", maybe?

"Africa" is actually Antarctica without the ice sheet, they just happen to have similar shapes. I am quite fond of it. I think "Europe" is okay now, but for "Asia" I totally agree with you. I love big rifts, but somehow it just doesn't look natural at all. It still needs a lot of work. But I do think it's getting better.

(What I always do is put the current and the last WIP into one browser tab each in firefox, then use ctrl and pageup/pagedown to switch between them. That helps me see what is better and what's worse.)

"North/South America" are from a map which I created from the ground up using plate tectonics, the rest isn't (with the exception of "Africa", which is of course based on Real Earth). And I guess that's what shows.

Thanks for your feedback, always love to hear what others think about my stuff. :-)

[miinstrel]

I love the Africa section... Not really feeling the Thailand/Vietnam part.

So you love the western continent and used plate tectonics to create it. You dislike the eastern continent and *didn't* use plate tectonics... I'm just sayin

I think the Asia section is too compacted compared to the rest of the world. The other continents are nicely spread out and flowing. They look alive.

[bartmoss]

Yes, you have it exactly right. I think it does prove to me that plate tectonics, even simplified and faked, make for MUCH better maps.

[miinstrel]

How did you go about faking the plates? I'm curious about how that influenced the map vs. a more off the cuff approach.

[bartmoss]

Well, faking as in my plate tectonics aren't / weren't very good. I'd basically eyeball it and make it look somewhat plausible. I'm not doing "real science". The original Thraeton tectonics are early in this thread: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...1-Thraeton-Map

[miinstrel]

Got it. That's cool, i like how comprehensive you get. I probably won't take the same approach with my current map because well... My plates would be insane with how many mountains I have.

Maybe if you detach Australia it will feel right to you? Or maybe detach asia? Not sure, just throwin ideas out

[bartmoss]

I really don't know what would make it look more natural. Don't want it to look even more Earthlike than it already does, either. I think I will just have to play with it, it will fall into place. But I always appreciate feedback and ideas - so, thank you

Current WIP:



And, no, still not happy with it, though I do like it a bit better than the last WIP.

[bartmoss]

Next iteration. I think "Asia" is much better now, but too similar to the "Caribbean" so I will change the later.

[Lukc]

You know what might make it awesome - or at least give you some further ideas - is to flip it and see what comes out. When you do art, flipping it horizontally and vertically is a good idea to see how the whole is "balanced". Usually the view you have is the one you're comfortable with, but there might be balance issue that subconsciously annoy you. When you flip a work of art, it makes you focus on it in a new and different way, bringing possible problems to the forefront.

[Klaus van der Kroft]

Very nice work. I particularly like the way Shadra looks.

One idea I'd add would be fjords in the southern tip of Not-South America. The real-world version -which I visit several times per year- is a maze of inlets, canals, fjords, cliffs, and bays, caused by glaciar movement (native legend has it that the region was the battleground between two enormous sea serpents, that coiled and fought together so hard that the world broke down under them).

Since in your map it is still very close to Not-Antartica and one could assume the climate and geography is similar to the real one, I'd figure it could be equally plagued with fjords.