I'm not sure what I am doing, but I am not going to let that stop me!

[Tomalak]

I have been trying some new techniques, looking to make a different sort of map - what exactly I am looking for, I am not certain. The map is not finished, but I'm uncertain whether I am ready to move on to cleanup & labeling, or if I need to fix the current styles - and how. I need a proofreader, because it is easy for me to tell what is depicted - after all, I made it. Please examine the map below, and tell me if the nature of the given areas is clear to you.
Horriffic Mishmap.jpg
Textures are courtesy of Coyotemax, base layer by Donjon.com (although heavily edited)

[waldronate]

It's a fleck of some blue mineral in a rock? Some sort of alien hoofprint? An open-pit mine? A large valley surrounded by high mountains with some forested areas around a lake at the center? I really can't say for sure what it's supposed to be until I know the approximate scale. That's the nature of fractal things.

Cues like a scale bar, labels on features, rivers (if applicable), or roads (again, if applicable) would all go a long way towards helping me to understand your intent here. A label that describes the purpose of the image would be very helpful (e.g. the mineral type, animal type, mine name, or valley name) to helping me, the reader.

I'm not a big fan of the "blobs of noise" mountains style (which is ironic, considering the tools I make). I also find the color a bit bright. However, it is something a bit different than what I usually see around here. As a WIP, it's undoubtedly a good first step.

[Chashio]

It's all a bit noisy and saturated to my eye, but my preferences lean the other way. Are those brownish black things mountains, with glacier fields on top? I really can't tell what it all represents as of yet, without some point of reference and scale, though I applaud you for experimenting with new styles and textures. Keep going.

[Triplicate]

The extreme contrast between the mountain and lowland regions, combined with the odd texture you chose for the mountains, reminds me a lot of the Aïr Mountains:
File:G06 s65 63158.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
With less saturated color, your map would resemble an oasis in such a region. I don't like the style of the white areas. Their edges are so smooth and soft that they look like clouds (which only reinforces the satellite image look you have going), but then the dark markings appear to be on top of them.

[Tomalak]

Thank you all for responding. Although I expected the "i see a bunch of colored blobs" response, everyone who responded did get the general idea, which waldronate put quite well;
"A large valley surrounded by high mountains with some forested areas around a lake at the center"

Before I go adding rivers, roads & other details, I'd like to clean up what I have here. I'll add a scale immediately. Then, I'll look for a better snowcap texture - any suggestions? Also, I'm not really sure about my forest texture, as it doesn't blend as well with the other colors - but maybe if I desaturate them as advised above, that will cease to be a problem. I will play with the saturation levels, and sharpen up the snowline a bit, and try to get a new version posted this evening.

[Tomalak]

I have been playing with layers & masks. I have some more cleanup to do, and haven't yet found a new snowfield. Also I need to figure out what to do with the yellow areas; they are an artifact of the generation process that should be removed. Ideally, I have hills in the yellow areas, and replacing the mountainous areas not near a snowcap - but I haven't figured out how I want to do those.

So, here's what I've got so far; any thoughts?

Mishmap 2.jpg
P.S. The map is about 300 mi across

[Tomalak]

First update in a while, been playing around with things. Tell me what you think - better or worse? What did I do right, so I can keep doing them? I need alot of feedback on this one because the style is so unusual, I need to know what it looks like to the casual observer.

BTW, the map is 300 mi wide and shows the 'valley' between converging mountain ranges.
Mishmap 3.jpg

[Revock]

it's interesting, but, for 300 mile wide and at the height to see that much area, I personally would reduce the texture size and maybe its a bit too vivid in color, at first glance it gives the impression that the land is even with or higher than the mountain texture, light should hit the mountains more than the valley I think. I would isolate the land texture and try to make a gradient mask, dark in the middle and lighter to the edges which would i think give the impression of depth in the middle, more experienced hands would say exactly and accurately but i believe its a simple radial gradient, maybe a shaped angular in hard light mode, try to get a darker center with a sense of valley walls rising up and blur as desired to soften the walls. i usually try every mode till i get what looks close to what i want so off hand i can't just pop out a mode to suggest.

[Tomalak]

I tried to follow your advice, but I'm not sure the gradiation came out right. What do you think?
I upgraded the mountains with shading, to accentuate the gradiation of the valley (which is mostly hilly, not flat). Then I remembered the advice to shrink the textures, so I did that with the mountains to see how it looked. With the shading, it looked awful, so I included both versions; old texture shaded, and altered texture.

[Revock]

I like, you're on the right track hmm, the one on the left is better i think.