Building a World (once the Terrain is done)

[jswa]

I definitely like the larger version a lot better.

[Revivalofhonor]

Alright, I've known from the beginning that this world was going to be a warmer/tropical world for the most part. Meaning that there will be no north/south pole ice caps, etc. Because of the Continents shape, 3 major currents have developed over time, interacting with each other to bring a good amount of rainfall to all except the Western section of the North Continent.

Red/Blue are somewhat warm/cold currents indicators, although with the average temperature world wide in the 70-80's most of the year(maybe dropping to 70's in the north/south), the difference is not extreme.




Ocean Currents Reference
http://www.abc.net.au/hobart/stories/m923182.gif



**Edit** oh and this also reflects the lake color changes

[Revivalofhonor]

Historically speaking, most nation's borders followed some sort of natural landmark. This made it not only easier to define what land was yours and what land was your neighbors, but also gave some forms of natural defense (if in the case of a forest or mountain) or source of trade (if in the case of a river, lake or ocean).

Nations in more inhospitable areas, also tended to be larger, take Russia and China, both with well over 50% of their land being areas few people would care to live in. This area also tends to be area that other nations would not overly be eying and going "Oh yeah! i want that desert!" and thus not generally fought over.

Most nations will tend to be in contact with one form of water, whether it be a river, lake or ocean, both for irrigation and drinking supplies, but mostly for trade. These areas of land connecting important water ways are very valuable and unless a country is well settled there, generally a place of conflict.

In medieval times "grey areas" or undisputed territory was not uncommon in Mountainous areas, deep deserts, tundra or other areas that could not feasibly be defended/patrolled (despite some countries "claiming" it's theirs)

Nations that control key trading locations do not necessarily have to be big, as they can be dependent on other countries for goods, and not have to produce any themselves.

While most nations will follow these guidelines, there is always exceptions, depending on the size of the landmass, many countries may become landlocked. These countries will generally come to rely on one or more surrounding countries as a a source of trade, unless the country is completely self sufficient (a rarity) without some sort of partnership between countries it will begin to crumble economically. On the world that i am creating, one of the things that throws off alot of borders, is the fact that much of the world is covered in forests, this makes it harder to find "natural borders" upon which to put the country borders.


mmmm haha ok i think thats most of the basics for countries at the moment.

The map below shows the borders, with countries lightly shaded to define them a little more, I realized after i exported it that i need to make the borders of the countries a little more transparent so you can see the rivers that they run on, I may actually remove the borders along rivers altogether in a future render if I can get it to were the countries are still recognizable.


the countries are still subject to change at this moment, but here's what i've got

http://homepage.mac.com/alexwhisenhu...dCountries.jpg

[Revivalofhonor]

The last post of the countries has an temporary scale in the north part of the map, the first number appears to be a 7 but is actually a 2, making the planet about half the size of earth. this may be subject to change though

[pyrandon]

This map is looking (to quote that philosopher & statesman Tony the Tiger) Grrrrrreat!

One thing about this map is odd to me: I really like the color scheme, but for some reason to my eye the water looks higher in elevation than the land. I can't explain it & can't think of a reason for it. May just be an odd optical illusion based upon the colors or layout. Does anyone else notice that effect?

Anyway, great work & keep it up!

PS: I would move the text for Mountains of Tribulation outside the mountains themselves; they are both hard to spot & hard to read.

[Robbie]

I must say this map is coming along nicely and congrats on a 2 page thread pretty quickly too Hot subject I guess.

I'm guessing by the fact that you have now rotated the world, and also consider it a warmer tropical world you may want to consider having the poles different? I notice there is no land where the poles would be considered, and most of the land is now concentrated near what would normally considered colder climates. Does this mean that you're considering the strip of water at the equator as really hot, and the closer to the poles are moderate to temperate, possibly due to the planets proximity to the sun or perhaps a different atmospheric makeup?

I know this may be thinking kinda overkill, but it often helps to have its planetary physics in mind when throwing down land because of the way climates form...You could almost explain any climate pattern on different planetary physics, for example, multiple poles or multiple axes of rotation.

The mapping STYLE is awesome though, and I LOVE the color scheme.

To address what Pyrandon mentioned about the water appearing higher in elevation...a good way to change that is to add more color to the water...the deeper the ocean, the darker the blue for example. I often use that trick even in closeups of land with water to show depth. Also don't forget your continental shelf when considering that.

[Revivalofhonor]

haha, the thinking isn't overkill at all in fact i've been trying to figure out how to incorporate it, i had it figured out before although now that I've rotated it, I'm having to go back and rethink everything haha, I'll post up some new steps later tonight

[RobA]

Historically speaking, most nation's borders followed some sort of natural landmark.

...which can lead to really funny things if the landmark moves (as in the case of a river) like this area at the the Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas border.

[Revivalofhonor]

haha thats awesome

[Revivalofhonor]

Alrighty, So I've added some of what i hope looks like water depth as well as dropped a slight shadow on the land mass to cause the continents to "pop" a little more. As for the poles, I've decide to leave them the way they are, opting instead for the idea that the landmasses have overtime collided and then moved apart in a way similar to pangea did millions of years ago. as for the temperature, as I had said, it's fairly equalized world wide, however, along the central equator temperatures will reach into high 80's 90's during summer months, while at the pole rarely will the temperature exceed the low 80's, yet because much of the world is near the ocean, it works as an equalizing agent, minimizing the max highs and lows of temperature around the world.

The planet is also located a tad closer to it's star than earth is, as well as only being around half it's size.

Next post we start on the internal country work, it'll come later tonight



** Edit ** I still don't know if i like the water, I'm just gonna have to play around with it more. suggestions?