Terra Patria - Novice Map Effort

[Gumboot]

I'm a bit late to the beginning of the thread, but I wanted to ask if you'd be willing to share your method for developing the coastlines. Firstly, well done! They're the best coastlines I've seen. They seem much too detailed and natural to be hand-drawn, but they don't look fractal or generated - there's a great variation between smooth, sweeping coast and squiggly rocky areas, and the island chains look like they're straight off a map. The whole thing looks incredibly earthlike and geographically realistic.

This is something I've been struggling with for a while - I've experimented with sampling google maps data, cutting and pasting to make a coastline, but it's incredibly laborious and I worry a local might recognize their beach somewhere! Did you use any real-world geographic data, was Wilbur involved in the coast as well, or did you draw them by hand? I'd understand if you don't want to give away a secret, but I'd love some pointers if possible - thanks!

I have to confess there's really no secret at all - the coastlines are entirely hand drawn. They've probably gone through more revisions over the years than any other aspect of the geography, precisely because of the things you've mentioned above. My original coastlines were of your generic "squiggly line" variety but over the years, thanks to a love of geography and close study of real-world landscapes, I suppose I just have a better eye for what looks "realistic" now than before.

Particular areas of the coastline are "inspired" by real world geography, for example the southern coastline of the larger inland sea on the regional map is inspired by the coastline of Northern Europe.

[LowerSpatialDimension]

I have to confess there's really no secret at all - the coastlines are entirely hand drawn. They've probably gone through more revisions over the years than any other aspect of the geography, precisely because of the things you've mentioned above. My original coastlines were of your generic "squiggly line" variety but over the years, thanks to a love of geography and close study of real-world landscapes, I suppose I just have a better eye for what looks "realistic" now than before.

Particular areas of the coastline are "inspired" by real world geography, for example the southern coastline of the larger inland sea on the regional map is inspired by the coastline of Northern Europe.

Thanks for getting back - again, very impressive. For the past 6 months or so I've been studying paleogeographic maps for inspiration, hopefully at some point I'll have integrated the geography of coastlines enough to do the same. I'll keep checking back on this thread every few months!