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Thread: May/June 2009 Lite Challenge Entry: Golden Sands

  1. #1
    Guild Journeyer msa's Avatar
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    Post May/June 2009 Lite Challenge Entry: Golden Sands

    Update: Added the final version of the map to the attachments

    Well, I'm a whole hog kinda guy, so in honor of my third week in this community I'm submitting another entry. I'm excited because I have so much more time to work on this month's entry, so here we go...

    This is the map of my old campaign world... I've been using it to toy with techniques and ideas while I work on a map for my DM's world (which will be a WiP once we get the coasts and mountains decided). This is a region in a young world where a handful of new human and demihuman nations and try to hold their own against a dangerous, arid land full of monsters, savage humanoids, and the restless dead.

    The Burning Sands is a restless and savage arid land located in the northern equatorial region. It is equal parts paradise and wasteland, where expanses of loose, nutrient poor sand and stone are peppered with fertile rivers and lush oasis. To the north-east, an ancient human-dwarven alliance toils endlessly under their rigid god-kings, erecting massive monuments and tending their heavily engineered fields along the Kurfu river. To the south, a relatively new and loosely organized human confederation shares a tenuous relationship with savage elves in the foothills of the Twilight Mountains. Around them, the brutal hobgoblins of The Envenomed Spires, the howling undead of the Blasted Lands, and the barbaric orcs of the Desert of Flame constantly threaten the their daily existence. Will these civilized nations endure, or will the chaos and savagery of this brutal world prevail?
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    Last edited by msa; 06-07-2009 at 12:46 PM.

  2. #2
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    I like your mountains, their different that the usual styles. Over all and excellent start!

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    That's a good lookin delta. I also like the play of the blue-slightly purple water against the yellow-slightly green land.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

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    Guild Journeyer Facebook Connected JoeyD473's Avatar
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    Like Ascension, I love the coloring

  5. #5
    Guild Journeyer msa's Avatar
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    Here is the second revision of my map, and I've added most of my terrain features now. The new revisions includes:

    • Forests - not many of them... appropriate for my desert map
    • River texture - Some fading at the edges to help them blend in better with the map, and some detail along the path of the river to give it a little more depth
    • Improved wasteland - Trying to create the feel of a broken, blasted desert (the work of an ancient civilization that experimented to heavily with necromancy and destructive magics)


    Thanks for the positive feedback! Here are my direct replies:

    @Lath, the first few weeks of my mapping have all been about mountains, in particular creating a long, gradual decrease in elevation that results in pronounced foothills. These are actually very similar to the mountains with gimp mountain tutorial here. I'm fairly happy with the result, although I think some more experience will help them further. I made a few changes:

    • Combine the clouds with a layer of blurred noise to create some finer granularity elevation changes
    • Create 2-4 additive layers of this noise covering foothills to peaks.
    • Near the coast, I use the elevation heightmap to define the coastline instead of fading the mountains away based on the pre-mountain coastline.


    @Asce and Joe, thanks I like the colors a lot too. For the record, there is no red in the ocean or green in the land (except around the fresh water). They are pure blue and yellow-orange respectively, although there is a significant amount of gray mixed in. I think I'm partial to the low-saturation colors.
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    Last edited by msa; 05-22-2009 at 11:34 AM.

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Steel General's Avatar
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    I've looked at this several different times, and even though I like the shape and the layout of the terrain, etc. something always seemed 'off' to me and it finally dawned on me what it was.

    The coast lines are very smooth, I guess I've gotten used to the very 'jagged' coastlines the majority of stuff folks post has. In fact all of the map features have a 'rounded off' look to them (for me anyway).

    I think it's a different look and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Just putting forth my opinion/thoughts...
    My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...

    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.



  7. #7
    Guild Journeyer msa's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steel General View Post
    The coast lines are very smooth, I guess I've gotten used to the very 'jagged' coastlines the majority of stuff folks post has. In fact all of the map features have a 'rounded off' look to them (for me anyway).
    I'm actually really torn on this issue. Basically, I agree... I feel like in many parts the coastline is far too smooth. I'm relatively happy with it where the ocean meets mountains, like the western edge of the large island. But I've retouched it there to fit with the mountains. The other coastlines are all older when I wasn't as good at roughing them up.

    On the other hand, if you look at a world map, coastlines are much smoother in areas that are largely loose deserts. Rough, detailed, fractal coastlines I think need to have various rock layers or flora to cause unusual erosion patterns. If you look at, say, eastern egypt or the southeastern coast of Yemen and Oman you see very smooth coastlines.

    So I feel like its more *realistic* now, but I think it would be more *pretty* the way you (well... both of us) are suggesting. I'll probably go with the later. If I cared about realism, I wouldn't have populated the map with f***ing orcs, elves, and zombie empires, now, would I? LOL!

    I'd love to hear anyone else's feedback on the matter, though.

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    Guild Journeyer Zar Peter's Avatar
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    I just wanted to say the same. I used Google earth to get some "Real Life Examples" and found very different types of coastlines. I took a picture of the coastline of Cameroun (very interesting for the river police, too, I think )

    And so far I really like the map. The coloring is looking great.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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    Avatar by courtesy of Castaras from the GiantitP-Forums

  9. #9
    Guild Journeyer msa's Avatar
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    Here is my newest draft of my map, and I am now starting to add the labels. This is my first time with labels so I would be thrilled with any feedback on them. They look a little bold to me personally, but I will start playing with the colors a the background once I get them all in place.

    There are two additional minor changes since the last version. First, I added a small detail around the coast in the form of a second ripple just beyond the initial fade. Also, I did one more iteration on the coastline, adding some more noise to make it a little less smooth.
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    Last edited by msa; 05-24-2009 at 08:56 PM.

  10. #10
    Guild Journeyer msa's Avatar
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    Another new versions... I had a little bit more time to play this weekend.

    • Added more labels for minor geographic features
    • Reduced the intensity of the background highlight on the labels
    • Experimented with a compass rose effect


    I might have made the compass too big, but that is easily adjustable. I am still trying to figure out how I feel about it. I am much happier with the new labels, however, and I like the differentiation between the major and minor geographic features. At this point I am trying not to let it get so cluttered that it impacts the map features.
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