First Map (Critique!)

[rpgmapmaker]

I think the new map looks great. I am sorry if you thought I meant your first land mass had too much "volatile tectonics", as I liked it very much! If you end up using the other map landmass you could explain away the volatile tectonics saying "since the last great earth shake, the crust hardened and cooled, bringing a new age of plant and animal life to the world"...

I like the way the mountains and trees look together... (it seems like I just said that about another map... humm, I will really have to try that mix of mountains and trees)

All in all the climate looks great and I think you are well on your way to a brilliant world map.

-RPGMM

[jbgibson]

Nice work so far. I know what you mean by plots starting to form - for me, physical geography spawns characters and situations.

The overall look is great, and your rationale for the rough climate areas is at least plausible. Some of the rivers seem odd, in that their upper reaches 'sneak past' high ground, flowing kinda sideways to what one would guess is the general slope. A river could start a hundred miles from one coast and flow away, some 4000 miles to the opposite coast... but you'd want some indication of why, topographically.

The city color is perfect - can you experiment with adding something to keep them from being simple flat disks? A bit of a dark outer rim, maybe? Highlights? Though I guess since you're doing other features 3-d, some sort of pictorial city glyphs would work well too.

Eager to see more !

[Ourea]

Oh I plan to do something with the cities Bit more of placemarkers, really, but I'm having a difficult time making icons that look nice. I suppose I'm not the most skilled artist. I had come up with a few very simple brushes that denoted which kingdoms the cities belonged to, but they don't suit the rest of the map. And I'll have another look at the rivers! It's just difficult for me (aesthetically) when there are such large areas with no water.

@rpgmapmaker - those forests were addicting to make. I kept trying to find more places I could stick some trees, and actually had to erase quite a few when I realised I'd covered nearly half the land in forest Oops!

Another thing I'm struggling with are finding out the 'wet' areas. I really adore fens and bogs and swamps, but I can't for the life of me figure out where any might be
Thank you all for your lovely comments!

[Ourea]

Here's a bit of a large preview I added a swamp? of sorts, and shifted around the desert and forest on the eastern continent. I had worked out some wind patterns, which I'm sure are just awful. Maybe I'll upload those a bit later.

[Ourea]

Still toying around with how I'd like to mark things. I didn't put very much forethought into this I'd like some feedback. Here is something I worked out:

[Gidde]

There's something to be said for simple, and it's hard to go wrong with the geometrics. These look pretty good, but I'm not sure if they match the style as well as some more representative symbols might. However, I've seen gorgeous maps that prove the exception to that rule, so go with your gut!

[arsheesh]

I agree that the symbols don't seem really well suited to the style you are going for. I think it might be worth your while to either (a) take the time to hand draw some more realistic symbols (e.g. miniature towns, windmills, bridges, towers, etc) or (b) use some previously drawn map symbols on offer here at the Guild. However, if you do decide to stick with the current symbols, I'd recommend making them off-white, rather than black, as the symbols tend not to show up very well in the darker portions of the map. As to the style of the map itself, I think it looks very nice.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Ourea]

I knew what I needed to do. I'm just such a rotten artist. I'm in love with Ramah's brushes, but I very much wanted to hand-draw everything myself. I have them as stand-ins currently.



The sizes are a little difficult however, and they come out looking blurry sometimes. Plus, I haven't got appropriate symbols for the forest cities. I'll be trying to create my own for awhile, I suppose, because these do look infinitely better. Ah, well.

[Gidde]

I hear ya there. If you look at my maps they *all* have dots for cities because I can't do the mini towns to save my life!


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[Ourea]

Heh, it's been awhile. I let this kind of sit and rot while I worked on other parts of the world (and honestly I didn't get very far there, either). I'd worked out a few hand drawn markers, but they didn't really work out, so I've used Ramah's to the extent I can. They don't look terribly good small, I'm afraid. There will be a key eventually of course; the red-roofs are hamlets to villages, and the blue are larger, towns and such. The green are known elven villages, and the towers in the woods are known elven capitals. The rest, I hope, is self-explanatory.

Edit: Also, each square is ~530km sq. I double checked against the size of the planet and it seems to be relatively fair. The distance across the wider part of the eastern continent is right around 3200km, or just under 2000mi (A little less than the distance from the east to west coast in the US). Yay for accidentally doing something right!



I'll be working on labeling soon - any recommendations for fonts? I've done some browing and found a few I'm fond of, but none that really match the style.

Anyhow, thanks for looking =)