Segarma - yet another "My First Map" - constructive criticism requested

[s0meguy]

Thank you all for your feedback, much appreciated. I have created an updated version based on all your feedback and made some other changes and additions I wanted to make. It's attached to this post.

More feedback is welcome.

Apart from any scale indicators the mountains seem like individual ridges and peaks, yet at the scale you indicate one would expect a bit more branching - whole systems of mountain ranges.

You are right - I looked at real world mountain ranges and they tend to be a lot more complex (and look more messy from the top) with more branching and I noticed rivers carving large valleys into them. So I expanded most of the mountain ranges, and also gave them more emphasis, some less and some of them more, so that they look more varied - what do you guys think?

You have diligently sourced every river at a mountain - and right up high on its flanks at that. While some streams do rise in the mountains, plenty of others have their sources in less precipitous terrain. Too, up at its highest reaches one of those mountain rivers would be a tiny stream, and at this scale of map perhaps not worthy of notice.

Thank you, I have shortened a lot of the rivers at their source. It makes sense now that I think of it.

You've done well with keeping river locations plausible, except I'm not buying the ones that run the length of a peninsula - like that near Onash, the one near Rilvas, the one by Thrivar, and so forth.

That's what I thought when I was designing the map in the first place as well, but then I reminded myself that the relevant peninsula's rival Spain in size. So it's not just some small area where a river would easily "fall off" into the sea. Also (this is purely conjecture on my part, I'm not sure if it actually works this way), take the example of Onash: the sea currents are far higher near Onash than near Toreste (because it is a more shallow confined area). If the river near Onash ended near Toreste, perhaps there would be sediment build up because the water currents there can't carry it all with them, thus causing the river to divert further into the peninsula because it chooses the path of less resistance. At Thrivar the situation is similar; the peninsula is huge, and the sea currents are stronger near the tip of the peninsula.

With this in mind, do you still think those rivers are unrealistic?

You look like you've got a vague prevailing wind from northwest going - is that right? Is the tan terrain supposed to be arid? Across such a vast expanse I'd expect some more variation in generalized airflow - UNLESS you're playing your definition of 'giant planet' to the hilt. Care to give us a diameter? Have you thought what latitude you want Segarma to be at?

I do (northwest wind), and yes (tan terrain=arid/dry). And you're right, it's just that I wanted some vast expanses of desert, and I guess that I got a little carried off there. I replaced some desert with mild vegetation. With giant planet I did not mean that all its geographical features are huge, it refers to the size of the planet itself. I want the geographical features to be what they realistically could be if the planet were real. The planet's radius is 15,057 km, and the diameter would be double that.

As for latitude, the continent is located about halfway between the equator and the south pole.

You've wondered elsewhere about forest placement - I'd say you are doing fine. I do see some extensive river systems that are exclusively in arid areas - you might want to indicate an in-between climate zone - steppe or savannah or the like?

The idea that I had in mind when creating those relatively few rivers (that are flowing through otherwise dry areas like deserts) is that there is a thin strip of fertile ground next to them (where there are villages and sometimes a city) where vegetation grows. Tracing real life rivers in google earth, I've there are quite a few of those. It probably has something to do with the fact that many of those rivers have a lot of power and they have a relatively straight pattern so they don't shed much sediment that would otherwise make the area fertile. Many other rivers (in Segarma too) do fertilize the ground around them a lot.

I don't know the Saderan process - are the bits of continental shelf generated or painted, as it were? If you can easily paint some more, broader shallow expanses would do well in places.

It isn't complicated to alter continents. You mean to add landmass into the oceans and seas? Where, and why?

Would the northern of the two big Istane lakes overflow to the sea?

That lake is a bit less than a thousand kilometers (about 600 miles) from the sea, it doesn't. The lake is subject to a lot of evaporation and so catches a lot of sediment and does not rise to the point of creating a river outwards.

Good stuff - keep it up. I find myself wanting to know more about your lands, which is a good sign!

Thank you for your time, comments and feedback, I hope to see more when I progress.

I'm working through that tut right now, and it IS awesome! I like what you've done with the place.

One thing I noticed is that a lot of the the mountains appear to be the same height. Some variation in elevation might be nice. Maybe even some hills so its not just either flat or mountains? I'm a newb myself, so I hope that I'm not talking out of my butt!

Thanks, try tweaking the settings from the tutorial and experimenting with other photoshop features, it made my map look quite a bit different from the Saderan one but I like it better.

I thought about the elevation thing and I tried to elevate the terrain in some places, but either its barely noticable or it looks like a mountain - I don't think its a good idea to try to show relatively small elevation differences at this scale.

Your map is really well done! I particularly like your forests and your naming. I don't know much about rivers and jbgibson gave you great pointers there, but to a lay person who is still figuring them out, they look believable.

Unfortunately I don't know enough to give you any useful criticism. I really like it so far, and I can't wait to see when/if you delve into making a map for the entire world

Thanks! It is coming, but I have to study a lot for university as well.

To me it looks wonderful, especially for a first map. Jgibson's already given a lot of good suggestions, so I'll just make a focused observation. The ridges in the lakes of Istane and Nysageno look ... off to me. That's not to say that very deep lakes do not exist, they do. However, I would doubt that the level of elevation difference would be so great. They just look a tad geologically implausible to me - if they were long, narrow rift-valley type lakes, like Lake Baikal say, I'd buy it - but yours are round and pretty flat. I'd leave off the steep drop-off and possibly just paint the centres of the lakes a slightly deeper blue.

Thanks, you are right. I had doubts about it before, I didn't really like the way I the elevation in the lake looks there. As for the depth, (again conjecture) opposing/clashing forces from the rivers entering the lake could force part of the streams downward, hollowing out the lake in the middle. Is that implausible?


Thank you all. I am working on the rest of the world, and a political map (and background for the planet and it's civilizations at different points in their development).