[CWBP2] World Map construction thread

[Ghostman]

This is probably going to be a unpopular opinion, but I feel like I should voice it anyway:

I think we've been doing it wrong from the beginning. By focusing so much on the global scale stuff, things like planetary configurations which, while interesting, are going to have no bearing whatsoever on most of the maps to be made. I mean, the project is mostly about making regional, overland and city maps for a shared world. Celestial bodies aren't going to show up on such maps.

I know I have been waiting for the time we'd finally have a world map sectioned to a number of overland areas ready to be picked up and worked into maps by users. That is the point where IMO the whole project actually starts; everything up to it being merely preliminary work, a kind of necessary evil. But we've never reached that point because we're so bogged down on details. And too concerned about securing the approval of a large number of people for every detail, apparently with the assumption that most of the people who might be interested in mapping for CWBP2 would also be interested in participating in the preliminary design. I think that may be a false assumption.

What if we'd instead taken a quick and dirty, fast and loose approach to this? Just whipped up a barebones global map divided into appropriately sized pieces and declared, Here's a world, grab yourself a plot of land and map away!? The project surely wouldn't be aiming at a high degree of internal consistency then, but it'd be ready to go and easy for new members to just jump in and contribute.

[Azélor]

This is probably going to be a unpopular opinion, but I feel like I should voice it anyway:

I think we've been doing it wrong from the beginning. By focusing so much on the global scale stuff, things like planetary configurations which, while interesting, are going to have no bearing whatsoever on most of the maps to be made. I mean, the project is mostly about making regional, overland and city maps for a shared world. Celestial bodies aren't going to show up on such maps.

I know I have been waiting for the time we'd finally have a world map sectioned to a number of overland areas ready to be picked up and worked into maps by users. That is the point where IMO the whole project actually starts; everything up to it being merely preliminary work, a kind of necessary evil. But we've never reached that point because we're so bogged down on details. And too concerned about securing the approval of a large number of people for every detail, apparently with the assumption that most of the people who might be interested in mapping for CWBP2 would also be interested in participating in the preliminary design. I think that may be a false assumption.

What if we'd instead taken a quick and dirty, fast and loose approach to this? Just whipped up a barebones global map divided into appropriately sized pieces and declared, Here's a world, grab yourself a plot of land and map away!? The project surely wouldn't be aiming at a high degree of internal consistency then, but it'd be ready to go and easy for new members to just jump in and contribute.

We were not focusing on stuff like planets. It was just meant to be something we could do while deciding on the world map. Anyway, we do share the idea that trying to please too many slow down the project. Even if we try to please, it's hard to know the real impact.


Falconius: Do you have the map in PSD or something better than JPEG ?