Isles of the Empire of Asahi

[Gamerprinter]

Actually I am not happy with the design. I am still struggling with a type of mountain to depict on this map. My ukiyo-e symbol mountains are too small and too few to adequetely cover this terrain. My Superstition Valley mountains are isometric (like the Ukiyo-e) but is indeed not working with my forests.

I may end up with top down hand drawn mountains, as my next attempt.

Yes, its low res, but regarding the client: that's me. I am the cartographer and primary publisher of this for use in a 3 part adventure mini-campaign for my Kaidan setting.

It was getting late so I threw in the forests last minute.

I'll probably work on this again.

My real problem, is I need a regional map, so I can start creating provincial which is what I really need moreso than the regional, but you can't make a province unless you know what the whole thing looks like.

Really, I need to start making a city map for the island port of Gaijinoshima, then start working on encounter maps for the adventure -- the regional map, though a necessary step, is in the way for the rest of my project. Its difficult to move forward without it.

I'm just not happy with it.

GP

[Jykke]

Well, You could do the whole thing with another technique and abandon this one all together.. I've gone over 3-4 techniques on the map I'm currently working on.. and even I've found the tools I need to get everything together, I'm still far from completing the map. So, you might wan't to try a whole new approach if this style isn't getting you any closer to your objective

[Gamerprinter]

That's a simple enough process, although those mountains are hand-drawn by me, they were PNG files that I just resized and placed, duplicated, flipped then resized again, until all mountains were placed. Added the color in as a separate object, mouse outlined the forests and applied a texture map - that's it.

So really a matter of selected all the mountains, forest and color and hitting the delete key.

I'll just hand-draw top down mountains next on a separate piece of paper, scan and place onto this same map. Its not really like starting over.

GP

[Gamerprinter]

OK, much better mountains - top downs and all hand-drawn for this map. I think it transitions with the ground layer better, as well. I think I'm not going to place any forests and simply imply that the land is mostly forested. This way I can feature the cities, roads, provincial borders and labeling much easier.

Besides at the altitude imagined, the forests would hardly be seen against the green planted soil.

Next on to labeling, city placement, etc. I plan to use Kamon (family crests) as city locations, though I might also place castles and temples as well.

I much more pleased with this version, than the last.

GP

[Jykke]

Those mountains do seem to fit the landscape better than those before. Good that you didn't have to redo the whole thing just because the mountains didn't fit as well as you had in mind.

[Karro]

OK, much better mountains - top downs and all hand-drawn for this map. I think it transitions with the ground layer better, as well. I think I'm not going to place any forests and simply imply that the land is mostly forested. This way I can feature the cities, roads, provincial borders and labeling much easier.

Besides at the altitude imagined, the forests would hardly be seen against the green planted soil.

Next on to labeling, city placement, etc. I plan to use Kamon (family crests) as city locations, though I might also place castles and temples as well.

I much more pleased with this version, than the last.

GP

The mountains look good, but now I think they beg a hand-drawn black outline for the islands... IMO, anyway.