Sornel Redux

[Gregorus Prime]

Thanks for the compliments. Really, the praise should go to arsheesh because his tutorial is what made this possible. Without that clever method of layering difference clouds to make nice mountainy crests to copy and paste I'd still be using shaped gradients to create rather artificial-looking mountains. And then of course there's Wilbur, so kudos to Joe Slayton for coding that miraculous little program.

I added in forests and some sparse vegetation as well as toning down the contrast on the sea coloration and lowering the opacity of the seashore ("waves") layer, then upped the overall contrast on the map for this picture. I uploaded the old version for comparison. I feel like the old one has a certain character about it that the new one is missing. I can't quite put my finger on what it needs. (I've already ruled out obnoxious glowing text, distractingly gaudy icons, and a "are you kidding me?" marble border and embossed title card, so there's that.)

[DrunkenEwok]

I'll throw in my kudos again - I definitely agree that the forests look incredible, and while I keep thinking the mountains are a little too linear, I remind myself that it's an impact crater, and normal rules don't apply.

If I were to pick at nits, however:

Looking at the scale on your previous map - that's one hell of an impact crater. It looks like ~500mi (750km) - more than twice the size of the Vredefort crater (largest confirmed extant crater on Earth) and nearly 5 times the size of Chicxulub (the theoretical dinosaur killer at the end of the Cretaceous). Assuming this crater was formed any time in recent memory, it would have caused one hell of an extinction event - possible fodder for the campaign history, perhaps?

There's also a bit of a question why an impact crater would form an island - most sea-bound craters are completely (or at least mostly, as Chicxulub) sub-surface. Maybe the surrounding sea is relatively shallow? Or maybe the crater is old enough that the ocean currents have worn away some of the ejecta? Or maybe it's not so much an impact crater as a volcanic caldera - but then why the prominent central peak uplift? A caldera could form a central peak, but it's more likely to be a rough mound or hill than a sharp peak... OR maybe I'm just being too OCD...

The coastline glow still seems a bit distracting when zoomed in. It's fine when viewing the map as a whole, but zooming in the glow just doesn't seem to "fit" with the rest of the map - it feels a bit artificial to me... too regular, perhaps? Maybe try using the technique from RobA's artistic map tutorial (post #8 ) - blur the sea mask by a bit, then use displace filter to give it a wispy irregular look? I've also wanted to try using the sea mask as a selection, then using Stroke Selection with a big grungy brush and a lot of jitter (maybe a couple times with a low opacity) to give it a more random appearance... OR I'm just way to hung up on continental shelves for my own good.

[Protopop]

I want to go to Victory Bay - I love a name with history in it. I wonder what happened there?