My world - The Everlandias

[LonewandererD]

Will do Gandwarf, but not on this map, this is only a colour/style test.

Yeah it would be a problem if a climate was temperant, mother nature is very annoyed in those areas

I have some questions if anyone can answer them. I need some measurements to help to set up Khazardia. I tried looking at an atlas but it didn't help. So, using the measurements for our world, my questions are...

1 - How far is it from the equator to the poles?
2 - How far is it from the equator to the tropic lines?
3 - How far is it from the poles to the artic circles?

If possible I would like the know these measurements in miles.

If anyone could answer these three I would be most grateful. The idea for Khazardia is that the southern most point sits between the tropics and the equator and the northern most point hits the artic circle. Of course, all of the ice up there hides the actual end of Khazardia and makes it look like it goes all the way to the north pole, where the Everlandian Santa lives. I am very aware that Khazardia is going to be quite big, Adallia is going to be tiny by comparison.

Any help would be great.

-D-

[Karro]

Will do Gandwarf, but not on this map, this is only a colour/style test.

Yeah it would be a problem if a climate was temperant, mother nature is very annoyed in those areas

I have some questions if anyone can answer them. I need some measurements to help to set up Khazardia. I tried looking at an atlas but it didn't help. So, using the measurements for our world, my questions are...

1 - How far is it from the equator to the poles?
2 - How far is it from the equator to the tropic lines?
3 - How far is it from the poles to the artic circles?

If possible I would like the know these measurements in miles.

If anyone could answer these three I would be most grateful. The idea for Khazardia is that the southern most point sits between the tropics and the equator and the northern most point hits the artic circle. Of course, all of the ice up there hides the actual end of Khazardia and makes it look like it goes all the way to the north pole, where the Everlandian Santa lives. I am very aware that Khazardia is going to be quite big, Adallia is going to be tiny by comparison.

Any help would be great.

-D-

Earth's meridian circumference is 24,860 miles, so the distance from the equator to the poles is one quarter of that, or 6,215 miles.

The tropics lie at about 23 degrees, 26 minutes, with each degree representing approximately 68.7 to 68.8 miles. So the tropics are roughly about 1,600 miles from the equator (I calculated about 1,608 or 1,609).

The arctic circle is at about 66 degrees, 33 minutes, so from 90 degress (the poles) down, with each degree at this point representing roughly 69 miles (the difference having to do, I think, with the oblong shape of the earth, being somewhat flatish at the poles compared to the equator), the circles are roughly 1,618 miles from the poles (not appreciably greater than the distance of the tropics from the equator).

[LonewandererD]

Thanks a million Karro

As my map is divided into 100x100 mile square grids I'm going to round to the nearest 50 miles (100 pixels). So my measurements are

Pole to Polar Circle = 1,600 miles
Equator to Pole = 6,200 miles
Equator to Tropic = 1,600 miles

This means that Adallia, which is about 3,300 miles from north to south (and about 2,900 miles from east to west), should fit snugly between the tropic lines, on the assumption that its 3,800 miles from tropic to tropic. I have 500 miles to spare, i actually have more to spare than this because i counted by grid, not by where the land actually sat in the grid and so the actually length is less.

So, from the southern to northern tips, Khazardia should be about 4,600 Miles. Using my grid system, this comes down to about 9,200 pixels. That's big, but big is realistic and realistic is what I need.

Thanks again, now that I have my height I need an approximate length, does anyone know far it is from the eastern to western border of Russia? I'm aiming for about that size for my width, maybe wider if i feel that Russia isn't big enough. I'm thinking that Khazardia needs to be twice as wide as Adallia, or close to it, so I'll need about 5,800 miles (11,600 pixels). Is that about the distance from the east border to the west border of Russia, or is it closer to the distance from east of Asia to the west of Europe?

Khazardia will be divided into about three maps so my comp doesn't crash from trying to run 9,200 x 11,600 pixels. Each map should be a little smaller than Adallia.

On a side note, would a landmass this big really be classified as a single continent? Should I break it down into more continents?

-D-

[Karro]

Thanks a million Karro

As my map is divided into 100x100 mile square grids I'm going to round to the nearest 50 miles (100 pixels). So my measurements are

Pole to Polar Circle = 1,600 miles
Equator to Pole = 6,200 miles
Equator to Tropic = 1,600 miles

This means that Adallia, which is about 3,300 miles from north to south (and about 2,900 miles from east to west), should fit snugly between the tropic lines, on the assumption that its 3,800 miles from tropic to tropic. I have 500 miles to spare, i actually have more to spare than this because i counted by grid, not by where the land actually sat in the grid and so the actually length is less.

So, from the southern to northern tips, Khazardia should be about 4,600 Miles. Using my grid system, this comes down to about 9,200 pixels. That's big, but big is realistic and realistic is what I need.

Thanks again, now that I have my height I need an approximate length, does anyone know far it is from the eastern to western border of Russia? I'm aiming for about that size for my width, maybe wider if i feel that Russia isn't big enough. I'm thinking that Khazardia needs to be twice as wide as Adallia, or close to it, so I'll need about 5,800 miles (11,600 pixels). Is that about the distance from the east border to the west border of Russia, or is it closer to the distance from east of Asia to the west of Europe?

Khazardia will be divided into about three maps so my comp doesn't crash from trying to run 9,200 x 11,600 pixels. Each map should be a little smaller than Adallia.

On a side note, would a landmass this big really be classified as a single continent? Should I break it down into more continents?

-D-

It looks like Russia is roughly 5,000 - 6,000 miles across at it's widest points, depending on how you define the widest points.

As for whether a continent this size could be one continent: that all depends. It could be a super-continent that consists of several smaller plates that have smashed and stuck together - kind of like the whole Eurasia continent has bits from a European plate, an Asian/Russian plate, and the Indian plate. It's potentially conceivable that it's all on one massive plate, but that seems somewhat less likely.

[LonewandererD]

No maps right now, but i do have some questions.

1) This isn't that important but it is something I would like some opinions on. To the east of the my southern continent I have a large island chain. This chain is very large, reaching about 2,000 Miles with the largest island about 1000x600 Miles. These islands are pretty close together so from space they appear to be almost one landmass and for the most part they all sit on the same tectonic plate. My question is would it be big enough to be classified as a continent or should I just keep calling it a very big archipelago?

2) This has to do with colouring. I'm trying to create a style for snow for my maps and I'm at a loss how to go about this. I tried to simply lightly paint on some white using a soft airbrush but this didn't give me a realistic enough look, this technique does work for mountains though, but it has to be used very lightly. Then I tried changing the colour of the land using a gradient to try and get some white that naturally fades into my base land colour but the transition didn't look right and the setting I use for land colour (Hard light) doesn't work so well with the white. Then I tried to paint straight white and try to break it up by fiddling with the fill/opacity or apply some sort of texture. The textures didn't work to well on the flat white, it didn't look realistic enough, and neither did the change in fill or opacity.

I say this alot and I'm going to say this again, I need help.

I need help not just wiht coming up with snow but with some other snow related problems. First I need to know what kind of mountains would look good in a tundra/snow environ and how to make these mountains look like they're covered in snow and how the transition from snow covered fields to snow mountains should look. Same goes for forests, i have a colour but no idea how to apply snow.

As always, any help would be great.

-D-

[Steel General]

Can't help you with the island chain -vs- continent question, I'm sure someone will be along to give you an answer.

Snow and ice can be tricky, I usually use a texture and/or pattern to do it. Plenty of good ones out there.

For snow caps on mountains, I usually use a medium opacity/flow, round airbrush and 'dot' the mountain peaks, I've also used pattern/textures to do it as well.

There really is no "right" way to do it.

You may want to look at some of the finished maps, find one with the right 'look' then check with the author to see how they did it.

[LonewandererD]

practice map updating

I've played around with the desert in the arid/dry area map. It can now be distinguished from arid wastelands, which had its own tweaking, but the transition is easy and clean from one to the other.

I've also done the map of tundra/snow areas. As is obvious the snow map is considerably colder and contrasts greatly with the warmer arid map, just the way it should be. The contrast may seem a little big now but on my actual maps the two area will never be right next to each other and will seperated by temperate zones that should make the transition from one to other a little cleaner.

How am I doing?

-D-

[Ascension]

I like the color schemes, very sweet. There is something about the brush that you are using for the forests...it kind of looks stereoscopic, like one of those posters where you have to unfocus your eyes to see something 3d.

[Gandwarf]

Very nice. The snow looks good and I love what you did to the river in the desert. Looks very convincing.

[LonewandererD]

Okay, here's a very basic plan of what I have planned for Khazardia. The map will be about 9000x9000 pics so I can assemble it all as one giant map and then break it down into two or three smaller maps when its done.

I have an idea of the land but not of who shall be upon it. I've roughy guessed where some of the realms will be (the numbers) but I need some inspiration as what to do with the leftovers. Here's what I have so far. 1) is the Tonrell States, several warriors nations comprised almost entirely of humans. They're highly religious and suspicious of the outside world yet highly mercantile. 2) The northern reaches of the Zephyrn Empire. 3) The Magocracies, several nations entirely devoted to pursuit of magical power and sorcery. 4) The Valesnan, a demi-empire comprised entirely of civilisation-hating beast races. 5) was put there by accident, I actually have no idea what goes here. 6) This hasn't been put in but is the High Wastes a desolate tundra land adjacent to 4 and 5, note that the islands in the southeast are also taken. In one of these realms I need to out a large desolate area known as the Dendigrothi Waste.

Any ideas would be great.

-D-