Map of the Twin Kingdoms of Aran and Ilan - Handdrawn

[Deadshade]

Maybe I'm not smart enough, maybe I should've read the documentation better (RTFM, right?), but what is certain is that I failed. Miserably. I either ended up with a map that's only slightly recognisable, or elevation steps that were slightly eroded, but still very much present.

Right, RTFM .
OK there is only a prehistorical one but anyway. You have a function "Deterrace" which should/might/could with the help of God do exactly that - deterrace. The more your map has terraces, the better it works and you have a lot of them. It is relatively bad on the top and at the bottom but that leaves you only 2 places to correct instead of N.
However the vertical discontinuities (cliffs) are what Wilbur (or FT for that matter) can't really deal with. It would sorely need a continuity tool like an S curve that smoothly connects at the top and at the bottom Inside a selection. World Machine 2 has that.
I have been struggling with a 2000 m sea cliff (residual artefact from continental shelves creation) for 1 week and even with the help of Waldronate couldn't get rid of it.

The problem now is: will I really be able to let that bump map sit there, unused save for the blurry shading on my handdrawn map? Or will I cave in and start a complete redo of my map in a more realistic manner? Argh, ambitions! The death of my social life!

The former you will not but the latter you will. Too much time investment in a sophisticated problem and negligible yield.

What do you think of the added shading, guys? Is it worth the trouble, or does it actually make my map worse than it was before?

Well it's better for me but that's because I know that it is there. Yet it doesn't make much difference and a casual observer wouldn't even notice. It seems to be a waste to have reconstructed a height field and only use it for shading.

[Caenwyr]

What I wonder about most, however, is not how to eliminate the steps, but how to fill in the spaces BETWEEN each contour line so the steps are no longer visible. In fact the contour lines are the only real information we have. Do you guys know of a solution? Is there a way to digitize the contour lines and let some sort of software fill in the blanks?

[- Max -]

I agree with Deadshade : You spent a lot of time on the shaded reliefs but it doesn't make that much difference on your map. I would rather kep them and refine the process to make another version of the map in a realistic style rather than mix them with the hand-drawn style here.

[Soixante]

I read through most of the thread (whew!), and I must say I really liked the first version of the map. The second one is good too, but as others have noted, try not to mix styles (the hand-drawn mountains and the height map shadow). They can both be very nice on their own but not together, in my opinion. Also, I would suggest complementing the hand-drawn mountains with some minor hills here and there in the rest of the map, to suggest a more varied terrain. Plus I would get rid of the coloured borders, they are mostly distracting in this case, especially in the independent regions.