Smaeyaugh

[s0meguy]

Thank you for all your comments and input.

I like it! Very realistic. Maybe a bit too realistic formy taste, the textures divert from the main informations. I dont know where to look first.

But I'm new to this hobby so I cant say how I would change it or it should be changed at all :/

~Nightdragon

I love the level of realism. I guess it is a matter of personal preference. This type of map style does not seem to be popular here. Anyway, I'll probably end up making simpler more traditional maps of the archipelago too. And welcome to the Cartographers' Guild, though I am new to both this place and mapping too.

You can speak your mind about anything that might occur to you about the map.

s0meguy,

Very impressively textured! Might I suggest using a different color than that bright-midtone yellow where you've used it? It is rather jarring next to the smooth, pleasing earthtones of the topology/climatology. The plastic texture of the symbols seems somewhat cartoonish against such a well-developed backdrop, as well. I also think it would be helpful if a proper legend were provided.

I agree with the comment on the yellow stuff and the symbols, which is why I also provide one without any of that with just the geographical features. I experimented with more neutral symbols like black dots and more complex icons but the thing with that is that any neutral looking symbols do not have strong colors and they are easily swallowed up by the environment. You would have to closely inspect the map to find the city dots and borders. I experimented with many different colors and looked at other maps for inspiration. It's apparently a problem with all satellite picture style maps (check google earth), all the sattelite pic style maps I've seen use bright colors such as white, yellow and red to display information, which is why they tend to provide versions with information about population centers etc and without them. I'm going to experiment with replacing the city icons with zoomed out versions of the cities. If you have any ideas about better ways to show the borders of provinces, or have ideas for the icons of cities, I'd love to hear them.

Judging by the tonality difference between the water surrounding the archipelago and the larger ocean, you've given some attention to the bathymetry; how accurate is the deep-water bathymetry, or are those varying tones just the byproduct of the texturing process? If that is meant to be accurate bathymetry, then I'm curious what made you choose such a relatively uniform depth for the ocean floor.

I really like what you've done with this piece, so far, and hope my comments and questions are helpful!

It is meant to be accurate. I was under the impression that my ocean floor isn't that uniform, but I experimented with making the ocean floor deeper in some places, however I found that it had a weird effect that called attention/focus of the image away too much from the islands, unless I make all of the ocean deeper. It made the map a lot less pleasant to look at. Keep in mind that the color of the ocean and water in general is relative, every map gives it a slightly different shade of blue as well as every picture depending on the camera's settings, angle and light exposure of both the camera or observer and the water, and also the water's composition, currents and sea floor, if it is close enough to influence the look of surface water.

impressive. The mountains are especially nice, and the rivers merge quite seamlessly into the oceans. The only thing I might look at are some of the angles in the rivers - here and there are, the rivers make very sharp turns, and sometimes even seem to loop back in on themselves. Without some more geographic information (cliffs? canyons? etc.), it's hard to tell if the rivers are "forced" into those channels. Hard granite cliffs bordered by softer rocks could produce those sharp angles, maybe, but it's something to think about.
Other than that one little thing, though, I love this map! Right now, the amount of "political" details aren't too much, and work with the level of geographic information.

- Kes

Thank you for your comment as well. I like the mountains too. I have checked real life rivers on satellite maps and many of them make a lot of turns that look weird from top down, including very sharp short turns, even on relatively soft ground (take the tiber for instance). A factor in this is probably sediment collection by the river itself. Even so, the native rock composition on the island is tough, a necessary ingredient for a city built into mountains (and all the other things they had hewn).