In an attempt to learn more of the techniques here in the hope that will help me develop my own style i have just about got something ready to post after quite a bit of planning.

My main interest is getting a realistic layout for my maps based on fairly accurate geology and climate models so I'm going to create a world from scratch, follow the steps below and then pick particular continents/island/region and map them in more detail in a particular style depending on the tutorial I'm following at the time.

The world is called Calen Ndor which in my best pidgin Tolkien means "Green Land". Thanks for reading and if you spot any mistakes or have any pointers they will be gratefully received.

Steps I'm going to follow to get the world:
• Plate boundaries
Draw basic plate boundaries
Decide on plate movement at boundaries

• Major relief
Create rifts at divergent plate boundaries
Create mountains at convergent
Create fault lines at transform boundaries
Add island chains / atolls

• Temperature
Incoming solar radiation

• Wind patterns
Effect of Hadley cells
Add effect of Coriolis
Add effect of mountains blocking air currents

• Ocean currents
Temperate from hot to cold
Effect of wind
Effect of coastline
Wave direction strength on erosion

• Rainfall
Rainfall follows winds
Mountain ranges cause rain areas and rain shadows
Effect again of Hadley cells
Frequency and amount

• Vegetation
Combine frequency of rainfall, amount of rainfall and terrain to map vegetation.

• Rivers and lakes
Add depending on rainfall and relief

• Civilizations
Final stage to be decided