Reply With QuoteHey, just stopped by to say this is really awesome man! I love the look of the map, it really pops!
Well... I like the areas with tons of treesMaybe it's just the areas where there aren't any make it feel unbalanced?
(Think that's the wrong word...)
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Hey, just stopped by to say this is really awesome man! I love the look of the map, it really pops!
WIP Update!
I think I'm pretty happy with this forest layout. It seems to portray both the natural distribution of the forests as well as show the effect of settlement.
Additionally, I've plotted out the locations for the cities. Haven't decided exactly how I want to finalize their mapping (whether with an icon or a texture... not sure), but at least I know where they're going to be.
And thanks to those who have commented!
Last edited by gspRooster; 03-03-2014 at 02:29 AM.
Updated some of the forests.
Included additional swampland in the southeast, sandwhiched between two mountain ranges. Seemed to fit well there.
The black in the forests look too high in contrast to the rest. I'd edit that to be a tad lighter. The river system in the middle of the continent is a bit unlikely to going nearly from one coast to the other through the middle of the continent, not impossible just less likely (I myself wouldn't have the heart at this point to go back and change it). I really like the land form and your choice of textures with the exception I mentioned (which is very fixable) they work very well together. I really like the island on the north side of the continent, definitely feels mountainous and the erosion has carved it up really well.
When you say "black in the forests", are you talking about the swamplands in the northeast and the southeastern valley? That would be an easy thing to tone down.
I agree completely on the river system in the center of the continent, but no matter how much I tried to manipulate the hills in that central location, Wilbur demanded the river on that side of the continent go south instead of northeast. The only way to have avoided this would have been to put high mountains in and block that location completely, which I didn't want to do because I wanted a central valley. So, yeah, I agree that it looks unlikely, but Wilbur wanted its way. lol. Also, it has sort of grown on me, as it has created this odd confluence of rivers that give the area a rather unique flavor, if that makes any sense. And I guess in some ways it's not all that unbelievable. The Volga River and Mississippi River in the real world follow similarly odd cross-continental flows when there are nearer bodies of water that one would think they'd have more readily flowed towards but didn't.
Thanks for the input!
Last edited by gspRooster; 03-05-2014 at 01:32 PM.
I meant the forest texture you used, the black between the trees is finer edged and darker than most of the rest of the map, though I like the slight sense of perspective to them. Simple select tool some feathering and some lightening would bring it much more in line to my eyes at least. For some reason the darker sections of swamp don't set my eyes off in the same way, though they are perhaps just a tad dark on close inspection. The river is definitely an invitation to some fun fantasy world building. A single unlikely (vs. impossible) element can create a lot of interest both in the real world and on fantasy worlds. Looking really sharp in general.
I'm happy with the forests as they are, but it couldn't hurt to tinker with them and see if I can sort something out that looks a little better.
In the meantime, here's a little backstory on this region of the world.
Imperial Takeshidai
For the last three hundred years, the island Empire of Takeshidai was ruled by an unbroken dynastic line of the "Okuma" family and their mighty Crane Clan. The Okuma Era saw a great increase in foreign trade, increases in domestic agricultural and industrial productivity, and significant gains in philosophy and education, as well as a population explosion brought on by domestic growth policies and an immigrant friendly skilled labor invitation policy. By all rights, the Okuma era was a golden age.
In the last decade, the golden era of the previous three centuries had begun to spoil. Natural disasters and external political strife slowed trade, drew many skilled workers back to their homelands, and caused conflict between the clans as petty differences began to flare into blood feuds. The Okuma's financial acumen could not prevent the influences of the external world from dragging down the interdependent economy they had built, and more and more they became the target of ever more brazen verbal assaults from the increasingly independent clans.
On the 5th day of Coldfire, the season when the color of the sun's flame is changed to an icy haze by the passage of the Blue World between the sun and Outremer, Emperor Okuma Moriaga died of mysterious causes while entertaining representatives of several clans at a diplomatic dinner party. The meeting was supposed to be a referendum on how to bring the empire back to prosperity without reliance on the outside world. Instead, the present representatives blamed one another for the mysterious death, and more than one verbal slight turned into a death duel that the Crane could not stop.
The infighting spread from the halls of the Imperial Palace to the borders of the clan territories, and the call from the Crane dignitaries as they struggled to appoint a successor from among their own squabbling household members fell on deaf ears.
The era of the Crane Clan's Okuma family had come to an abrupt end, and the chaos that was growing within the land would not be quelled until a new family arose that was powerful enough both militarily, and politically, to force the other clans and their mighty ruling families to heel.
Last edited by gspRooster; 03-05-2014 at 09:58 PM.
I was tinkering with potential distributions of clan territory.
By no means whatsoever do I plan on leaving the map like this. This was just a very colorful and very basic overlay so I could see land distribution vs city count and judge overall presumed strength comparisons. Interestingly enough... there was never an intention of having the clans geographic land area look so uniform despite massive differences in population and strength. But it's kind of interesting.
Compare the clans to an overlay of the traditional geographic regions in the empire...
Work is still progressing on this and things are shifting around, just taking a little longer than expected. Was on a business trip all last week, and heavy month for family get togethers.
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