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Thread: Unnamed world, criticism appreciated

  1. #1
    Guild Novice Teyrnas's Avatar
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    Post Unnamed world, criticism appreciated

    This is a map i did a while back. Never mind the name, cause they no longer match. The idea and thus the name of Teyrnas will receive a new map in the future.

    Anyway, I'm not really happy with the mountains, cause the don't really fit in with the style. In later versions, I've used another techique that is a bit more subtle and doesn't look at all like these mountains. The forests arent perfect either, they could have been a lot denser.

    Well, what do you think?
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  2. #2
    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    Is this a work in progress or is it finished? Do you have a bigger version?

    Anyway, the map has a very simple style (just a few colors and icons) but I like it. The mountains look ok, the forests are too small for me to say anything about.
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

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  3. #3
    Guild Artisan Hoel's Avatar
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    You should think about making the sea less cloudy. And use lighter colors.

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    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hoel View Post
    You should think about making the sea less cloudy. And use lighter colors.
    Yeah, what he says
    Hoel's latest map has some great looking seawater:
    http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3789
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

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  5. #5
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gandwarf View Post
    Yeah, what he says
    Hoel's latest map has some great looking seawater:
    http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3789

    True dat... but that style would get lost at the scale of the image posted, so it's not worth it... besides... I don't think that water style would fit this map anyway...
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    Community Leader Gandwarf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jfrazierjr View Post
    True dat... but that style would get lost at the scale of the image posted, so it's not worth it... besides... I don't think that water style would fit this map anyway...
    You are of course right. I was mostly supporting Hoel's reply with some evidence that he knows what he is talking about
    Check out my City Designer 3 tutorials. See my fantasy (city) maps in this thread.

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  7. #7
    Guild Novice Teyrnas's Avatar
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    It's finished, but I can't say I spent a lot of time with it. It's pretty simple, mainly because I don't know very much about Photoshop, and I'm not that experienced in mapmaking.

    Anyway, I appreciate the feedback, and I'll think about it in my next map. Asking for advice on this map is because pretty much all my large scale maps look like that and I'm not entirely happy with how it looks, it's just I'm not good enough to make it look better.

    By the way; the grass on that map looks awesome! What program are you using?
    Last edited by Teyrnas; 12-29-2008 at 03:38 PM.

  8. #8
    Guild Artisan Hoel's Avatar
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    I think it could use a flat color of the same hue but lighter or darker than the land. Then draw some wave symbols that work with the rest of the map.

    You should always decide at an early stage if you're going to make a realistic or a symbolic map.
    Realistic maps are very very hard to do. I think I'm getting somewhere, but I've actually been trying to make them for 10 years or more (I just found this place recently), and there are others here who are a lot better than me. If you're doing regional maps, a realistic map should approach the look of google earth (you can make great small maps using screens from GE btw) or you can go more cartoonish and exaggerate the features.
    Symbolic maps are easier and looks just as lovely. They can fit a fantasy theme better in many cases.
    If you choose a symbolic map you can skip terrain texture and elevation and use symbols for general terrain types instead.
    Now it come of as a know it all.. The first time I really thought about this subject in hard terms. I don't know, is this something everyone knows from the start? I think I just picked it up along the way. My first maps were a jumble of symbols of different types, some cartoonish, some hand-inked, some relistic and different realistic and symbolic textures...

    The grass on my maps are mostly different grass textures I've downloaded and i usually put them in as a texture overlay in photoshop. There's some layers involved, but I've seen it done in tuts here.

  9. #9

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    I don't know if you meant to exclude them, but i can't see any rivers on your map! You should put some in, as it will help you divide the world into factions later on...

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