Greetings map makers

**justanotherhack** · 04-19-2016, 12:46 PM

Hello Guild,

I've know about this site for ages and was even registered once, but somehow that account did not survive, which isn't a loss, since I never read or posted anything. I'll endeavour to be more active this time.

I'm a computer guy that loves coffee, art and plays rpg. I guess maps just come along on those lines, but I really like them, always have. Maps can take you to places and tell you stories, while also being an accurate field of work, even science and art. My standard souvenier from the countries and cities I visit are maps of the places. For fun or our rpg sessions I've been doing maps every now and then, but never on the (truely amazing) level that some people here display. But since I also love art and dabble in various fields, I might as well add cartography to that. So, I'm here to learn some (new) tricks and hope for active exchanges. Looking forward to it

.

Oh yeah, it might also happen that I will never finish a map. Simply because I don't seem to be able to just draw down a map and call it a day. The scientist (aka. the pedant) in me has to make it "realistic". So I can't just put a farm on a medival/fantasy map, noooo, that would be too easy. I have to read about farmland sizes, how the water systems need to work, what kind of crop would fit into the region and so forth. I hate making maps!

**Meshon** · 04-19-2016, 01:05 PM

Welcome to the guild! It sounds like you have lots going on, it will be great to see what sorts of maps you make. I recommend just jumping right in. Share a map of one of those farms…

And I totally understand the desire to "get it right." The thing is, the more of that kind of work/research you do, the better you will get at it and the faster it will come the next time. At least, that's what I hear

Nice to meet you.

Cheers,
Meshon

**jbgibson** · 04-19-2016, 11:22 PM

Welcome, justa ! I understand the drive to make something better and better, never ending. A nice side effect of posting one's efforts in a work-in-progress thread here is that at any one moment there's a map good enough to look at, use, learn from - and it is *understood* that is isn't done yet. At the same time, reading the process of some of the ninja cartographers here - pros who *have* to finish and move on - gives one a sense of how to just stop, whether 100% polished or not.

"Good enough" is a great concept to own. Make a bunch of maps, even setting some aside for later finishing, and maybe you can start to think of those merely paused ones as maybe adequate.

In the meantime, the only people who will complain about unfinished maps in your posts will be those eagerly asking for more detail, more fleshed-out ideas, more polish .... which is itself a wonderful motivator, when people like your stuff. I can run a good six weeks on one good 'attaboy' :-).

**tilt** · 04-20-2016, 02:05 AM

Welcome to the guild - sounds like you know you got a challenge ahead - and who doesn't like a good challenge. If you want to learn to actually finish a map, I suggest taking part in our monthly challenges - they push you for getting things done, and it doesn't really matter if you win - you learn something every time you participate

... so, check out some tutorials and get to mapping