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Thread: [WIP] World of Flammarion: The Known World

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  1. #1
    Guild Journeyer Guild Sponsor Klaus van der Kroft's Avatar
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    Default [WIP] Flammarion: The Known World

    (I'm not sure if I should keep all my related maps in the same topic or use different ones when they are parallel works. If I should join them up, just give me a heads-up and I'll delete the topic, merge them together and spend some good minutes thinking about what I've done!)

    Hello again!

    Some weeks ago, I made a map for a new setting I'm working on (directly related with this one: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...he-Holy-Empire). Initially it was supposed to be a quick thing intended for a roleplaying campaign I'm currently running, but as ideas started to pile up, I started thinking about making a more detailed version.

    So today I had some spare hours and pressed the "Image Size: 500%" button and started working on it.

    It is still on a very early stage, and I have to admit I'm really new at making properly detailed maps on Photoshop, so any advise or criticism is more than welcomed.



    (click on the image to download the full map. 5mb)

    So far I got the landmasses and some labbels for islands and some important water bodies. The plan is to use an abstract symbology for the features (such as drawing the mountains and key landmarks rather than using a more realistic look), although I'm not sure what would a proper balance be to avoid the map becoming too overloaded/hard to read. Should I draw only the larger features (mountains, hills, forests, etc) and leave stuff such as towns as symbols (dots, stars, etc), or would it be proper to draw some important towns as miniature icons (tiny castles and such) while leaving less important ones as tiny dots? I'm torn between trying to do a very detailed map in terms of information (with every single location labbeled and marked) and testing my hand at doing something more artistic.

    What's your opinion?

    Thanks beforehand for taking your time to check the map!

    Latest Updated Version:

    Click image for larger version. 

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  2. #2
    Guild Expert Eilathen's Avatar
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    I like your continent shape a lot. And i for one am more for "towns as symbols" but i definitely want to see where the mountains, forests and rivers go etc. . Be that as it may, i am very much looking forward to what you will come up with.
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    Guild Apprentice miinstrel's Avatar
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    The continent does look nice. I think it depends on how many forests, mountains, etc there are in this region. If those are only going to cover 50% of the map then sure, go ahead and hand draw all the towns. Personally I would probably draw at least the larger cities as castles or something else to denote their prominence.

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    Professional Artist cereth's Avatar
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    Those are some nice landmasses you have there. (Hey, that would make a good pickup line )

    Seriously though, I like the colors and the shape of the continent so far.
    "Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government."

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    Guild Journeyer Guild Sponsor Klaus van der Kroft's Avatar
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    Thanks for all the kind words. Much appreciated!

    I just finished a climate overlay, intended to assist in the future drawing (since a lot of the world is yet to be developed!). I'm not very knowledgeable in weather patterns and such, so any help on improving it is more than welcomed.

    The reason the climates run from left to right rather than up and down is because the world is flat and the sun is a burning disk being hauled by flaming titans. It used to traverse the sky across the diametre of the world, but after an ancient civilization attempted to catch it and accidentally dropped one of the titans onto the ground, the sun changed its course and now runs sort of tangentially across the right side of the map. Hope it ended up reasonably adapted!

    You can click on the map to download the full-size version.




    Quote Originally Posted by cereth View Post
    Those are some nice landmasses you have there. (Hey, that would make a good pickup line )
    Let's get some subduction going on your tectonic plates, honk honk! <Gets thoroughly slapped>

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    Quote Originally Posted by Klaus van der Kroft View Post
    The reason the climates run from left to right rather than up and down is because the world is flat and the sun is a burning disk being hauled by flaming titans. It used to traverse the sky across the diametre of the world, but after an ancient civilization attempted to catch it and accidentally dropped one of the titans onto the ground, the sun changed its course and now runs sort of tangentially across the right side of the map. Hope it ended up reasonably adapted!
    Whoa. A flat world ... a burning disk ... flaming titans ... That's a quirky setting you're working at :-)

    First of all: I'm not a climate expert, just had to deal with the same issues than everyone when making maps. So take everything I say with a grain of salt. You've been warned :-)

    I'd start placing mountains before climate. Whatever the wind patterns, mountains are very important in defining the climate of a region, and you should start there. Of course, maybe you already have a few ideas of what climates you want; and if so, you should just put the mountains in the places that would favor those climates.

    A tricky thing will be winds. Winds on earth are caused by difference of pressure and the coriolis effect, which has no meaning in your world because it doesn't rotate. Random winds are not, in my humble opinion, very cool. So I'd just go for some pattern, any pattern, using whatever motive fits into your world.

    Having winds and mountains, climate will follow.

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    Nothing like a little tectonic innuendo to drag a conversation into the gutter!

    Love the shape detail of the landmass and look forward to the future on this project. I torment myself with climate so I'm of little help in this case, LOL.

  8. #8
    Guild Journeyer Guild Sponsor Klaus van der Kroft's Avatar
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    Thank you very much, Veldehar.

    Please accept my apologies for the slow updates. It has been a crazy time at work (although of the good kind of crazy), and not having a fixed work schedule means *all* my hours are work schedule.

    I'll hopefully get some progress done this weekend!

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    Community Leader Lukc's Avatar
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    It looks good, and shaping up well. I'd just mention that I don't think the capital K's on your font are very well kerned and would benefit from some manual manipulation. Cough cough.

  10. #10
    Guild Journeyer Guild Sponsor Klaus van der Kroft's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lukc View Post
    It looks good, and shaping up well. I'd just mention that I don't think the capital K's on your font are very well kerned and would benefit from some manual manipulation. Cough cough.
    I am but a man, and such understanding escapes me!

    How do I fix that? (the font is not of my authoring by the way. The name is Blackadder ITC).

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