September Entry: Generic Fun

[dorpond]

Thanks everyone, I think..

So a couple people are suggesting problems with my rivers but didn't tell me what. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[dorpond]

You know, I read and re-read many of the replies in this thread and I can't help but feel offended by some of the comments made..

I find it upsetting that people have to mention my previous entry in a negative light, suggest banning me if I win, and state that parts of my map are illogical but not say why. I thought this site was all about making better map makers out of us?

I am starting to question my decision making that map and sharing in the excitement with you all. I am disappointed, that is all I can say.

[NeonKnight]

Sorry you feel that way Dorpond.

I think the map is very well done, and I know we all joke and kid about the Forking rivers, but don;t feel bad. we all have features we screw up.

I like your map, and of the Photo-realistic maps I have seen it is probably one of the few I don't need to squint my aged, failing vision to determine forest from swamp from plains.

[Gamerprinter]

Dorpond, don't feel disappointed, I believe JFrazierJr and others were just kidding - nobody wants you banned, we love your work! I think his comment was meant to suggest you entered one challenge and won, as if just entering guarantees you a win - it was a joke in poor taste.

The previous posters do not have any negative feelings regarding your previous map - this much I am sure. I personally am very glad you entered and have missed your work since the VTT map challenge a few months back -that you won.

You are quite right, that we CG'ers only seek to help other mappers out - any posts about banning, as I said, a joke in poor taste.

Get excited about your work, we are!

GP

PS: I believe the river problems involve the fact some of your rivers split downstream into two rivers. Rivers don't do that. When two rivers converge and flow downstream, this is a fork, as it occurs in nature. Rivers do not split downstream into multiple rivers - this problem is common with many new regional mappers.

[jfrazierjr]

You know, I read and re-read many of the replies in this thread and I can't help but feel offended by some of the comments made..

I find it upsetting that people have to mention my previous entry in a negative light, suggest banning me if I win, and state that parts of my map are illogical but not say why. I thought this site was all about making better map makers out of us?

Dorpond, please accept my most humble apology about the banning remark. The first part "Ummm that would be the one he WON..." was a light hearted jab at Delgon. The part about the banning was nothing more than a jest, indicating that I actually LOVE your map making skills; As in, they are too good for us mear mortals, so to speak.

I am starting to question my decision making that map and sharing in the excitement with you all. I am disappointed, that is all I can say.

If anything I want to encourage you to to post MORE, lots, lots, lots more, and especially if you have time, we(at least I) would all like to see more tutorials from you.

As for the river comments, I believe they were pointing out the river NW(if north were straight up) of your main city (about 1.5 inches from the city) which splits going downhill. Likewise, the lowest river splits about 6 inches due south(in the straight up orientation) of your largest city. The point being that in general, rivers rarely ever split while going down stream. While not impossible, it happens so rarely on Earth that most of the time, it feels out of place on a map. "I" for one have no problem with it once in a while, but two on the same map of this scale might be pushing it.

Again, please accept my profuse appologies for any hard feelings.

[dorpond]

OK, OK. Obviously a misunderstanding on my behalf. Perhaps I woke up a little sensitive this AM.

Thanks for the tips on the rivers, Gamerprinter and Jfrazierjr. I always felt weak with making rivers and now thanks to your explaination, I can improve on them. Very helpful - thank you!

[jfrazierjr]

OK, OK. Obviously a misunderstanding on my behalf. Perhaps I woke up a little sensitive this AM.

Thanks for the tips on the rivers, Gamerprinter and Jfrazierjr. I always felt weak with making rivers and now thanks to your explaination, I can improve on them. Very helpful - thank you!

That's ok. I KNOW I sometimes say things that I should not or don't phrase things correctly. I try really really hard to avoid saying stupid stuff, but sometimes stuff slips out. Heh... I have almost gotten fired more times than I can count by saying stuff in the wrong way. Sometimes "it's hard to get your foot out of your mouth after your toes are past you tonsils", so to speak.... Again, I apoligize for any misunderstanding on my part!


As to the map itself, over all, I really like it. When I open the map in FF3, it looks really really nice at the prescaled resolution(about 800x800). Once I bump it up to full scale, several of the elements look a little mottled together(not sure how to explain that). The Mountains look pretty good at the prescale resolution, but I think they are a bit to "bloby" at full resolution for my tastes, I think full size, it's hard to tell that they are supposed to be mountains.

Now, since the whole point of this challenge is to make the map in "your" style, don't in any way feel you have to change anything because of what I say. For that matter, since there can be reasons for a river to fork downsteam, you don't even have to change that either (there is some river somewhere in the midwest(Idaho???) that forks and one fork goes to the Pacific ocean and the other ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, which is even more rare.) if you don't want to. Lkewise, I NEVER think about geology when doing maps. I just don't want to learn about how mountains are formed by plate shear, subduction, etc. I map for fun not for realism.

BTW, I really like your ocean "texture". Can that be done fairly easy in GIMP? If so, I would love to see a quick walkthrough. I like the tossed glassy type look about it.

[dorpond]

Since we are on the topic of rivers, are there any discussions, tutorials, theories, writeups, etc, on rivers or the making of rivers? I have never studied them before and am very curious how they actually work.

For example, do all rivers eventually flow to the ocean or dont they at all?

Perhaps this could spark an interesting discussion or future workshops, if they don't already exist here.

[Midgardsormr]

Since we are on the topic of rivers, are there any discussions, tutorials, theories, writeups, etc, on rivers or the making of rivers? I have never studied them before and am very curious how they actually work.

There are discussions about rivers and how they behave scattered throughout a number of threads here, but no single thread that tackles that subject thoroughly. Sounds like it's high time we had one. I'll start it in the tutorials forum. My expertise is far from comprehensive, so I'll hope that others will chime in and offer some instruction, as well.

Here's the thread: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...1583#post31583

[dorpond]

Everything is cool guys! Obviously there was a misunderstanding.
The problem is that I am not here enough to know that your tone and lingo is just being fun, sarcastic, and jokingly.
All cool.

So, I just didn't like my mountains so I tried again. I also did a ton of other stuff over the whole map but little stuff that probably won't even be noticable at a glance.

Anyway, still chipping away!

Please let me know if this is getting better or worse.. Sometimes if we chip too much, that can be a bad thing too!

### Latest WIP ###