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This map is amazing! More than any other map I have yet seen does this seem like it actually exists! I admire you for the amount of work you put in Elyden and it is good to see a finished product!
-Dan
Excellent result, Nate!
This map is amazing! More than any other map I have yet seen does this seem like it actually exists! I admire you for the amount of work you put in Elyden and it is good to see a finished product!
-Dan
Originally Posted by AzurePlanet
Excellent result, Nate!thanks for the comments, and especially for your comment DanielHasenbos as that's the goal - to make a fantasy world appear as realistic as possible. Luckily all of the hard work on this map made work easier on the next ones. the next map of Pelasgos (region to the E of Korachan on the lower right of the map) is almost done with new labels and icons left to work on. So hopefully updates wont be as far apart as the previous ones.
I'm hoping for one map a month and, if i have the time a bit of a writeup on my blog about geography, history, culture etc. for those who are interested
I also tip my hat to your commitment to Elyden, and the amount of work you put into it. I really like this style, it actually reminds me of my old Atlas I used in school!
Really beautiful map, have some reps. Like the greyed out area, only comment, is on the outlined font for the greyed out areas, Tar Yodhai for instance, the font is distorted due to the stroke around the letterform, (In Adobe Illustrator you can place the stroke behind the fill, so you don't distort the text, using Attributes, not sure if you can do it in the program your using.), another solution might be to use a bolder face so the letters don't break down. Great job, looks fantastic, looking forward to the full atlas.
that's a good point. I spent quite a while looking for fonts that seemed fitting from the period and dont really want to change them. I havent started using illustrator yet (i worry that with a new tool i'll have to spend too much time learning how to use it, and then going back and changing half the stuff i've done on the maps!), though i can merge all the labels into a smart object and copy it and give an outer glow to the lower layer, keeping the top one sharp.
Last edited by vorropohaiah; 01-13-2016 at 01:55 PM.
Thanks for crediting me with knowledge of the higher arcanum of illustrator, but that quote is snodsy's!
Vorropohaiah;
I was not suggesting changing the font, I think you've done a great job with the one your using. I didn't know what program you were using, so I was just suggesting a possibility if you were using Illustrator. Another idea, just duplicate the layers of text that have the outline and place behind the other text and then stroke that one, so the one in front retains the letterforms integrity.
lol, how did that happen? fixed it!
@snodsy - yeah that's what i was thinking, thanks
Here’s some WIPs on the next batch of maps. Since I have the topography for all of the Inner sea ‘done’ (I use the word done loosely as I’m already seeing parts I’m not happy with on the Korachan map – I need more levels of topography, so I’m thinking of 15 total, so I need to make a swatch/palette for the extra levels, but more on that some other time) I can now concentrate on the maps themselves – transplanting details and features from my old Inner Sea Map over to the newer and far more precise atlas maps, which means I'll be able to retire the Inner Sea map (finally!) after many years of trusty service.
So Far I’ve been working on Korachan’s coastal neighbours to the west and east – Azazem and Pelasgos, respectively – as parts of them were already done when I was working on Korachan (though that doesn’t mean I skipped half the work – as I each map is a different scale, I have to re-label them, so that text and icon sizes remain a constant size across maps regardless of scale).
Pelasgos is farther along and is almost done. You might notice a new ‘road’ design which represents umbra pipelines. Umbra in Elyden is a magical substance that takes the place of petroleum and oil in the real world. Most technarcane engines run on processed umbra and it’s a vital resource. I just need to do a bit more tinkering, add a few more labels (like rivers, lakes and geographical features, mostly), before I can call it done.
Azazem is a bit more raw, and so far I’ve just managed to transplant the old labels from the Inner Sea map to it and found encyclopaedia entries for the region and am in the process of fitting them into the new geography I came up with. I love this part as I get to rediscover old features and details I came up with years ago that I had forgotten about, so it’s a bit like a historian/archaeologist, piecing history together, expanding upon it and placing it in the world. Azazem is also the first of this new batch of maps to be displayed in landscape mode, due to its orientation.
I mentioned the topography above, and it’s something I’m not 100% happy with. On face value there’s nothing wrong with it, though it seems a bit off – particularly the mountainous levels. They seem a bit bare, so I want to revisit the individual levels to make them more intricate and ‘realistic’, if that makes any sense. At this point it’s just polish though and I can live without it for now, though I do want to go back and revisit the levels in the future, maybe once I have some more regions finished, particularly around the Inner Sea.
Speaking of the future, I’m looking forward to moveing away from the Inner Sea, and somewhere a bit more virginal. I’m thinking of the continent of Bror, in the southeastern hemisphere. It’s an interesting shape and the only true island-continent in Elyden, so it’s something different to the Inner Sea. Either that of the Surrach, which I’ve touched upon before, though not explored in much detail so far.
BROR - in the S-E of the map
So many choices!
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