Tropan, Version umpteen million

[Diamond]

Hey all; I've been away for a while dealing with RL stuff and some strange photoshop bugs (which are finally resolved), so I thought I'd post a new map I just finished.

This is a completely revised and updated version of a fantasy setting I came up with years and years ago. It started life as a setting for an online RPG group, and then when that fell apart, I converted it into the world for a bunch of short stories (and maybe a novel eventually) that I've been writing off and on.

This map started out by using Ascension's awesome atlas-style tut, but diverged after about the 12th step. I went a different way with the lighting for the moutains and hills, then decided to add a pattern to the moutains to give them a more 'deserty' feel, in keeping with the fact that most of this world is barren desert or wasteland of one variety or another. I wanted the rivers to be highly visible without overwhelming everything else, so I went with a rich, vibrant blue color and just added a little bit of blur to that layer; nice and simple, but to good effect I think.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the end product.

Edit: Seeing as I will probably eventually publish (or try to publish) written work based in this setting, please don't use this for any commercialized work. Feel free to download it for personal use, though.

[Sigurd]

Very pretty.

My gut reaction is that some of your text is a little small. The mountain names could be a little bigger or more noticeable.

I love the colours your are using. I think the text sizes could be changed...


Sigurd

Thanks

[Diamond]

Thanks for the comments; I appreciate it.

I actually did try it first with bigger text, and to me anyway, it detracted too much from the actual landscape. It was too distracting. This seemed like the best compromise.

[vhailor27]

The coloring is great. I also love the mountains, but I would prefer more forests. However, if you're going for a desert continent it fits just fine.

[Eilathen]

Very nice style. I like it. But then your maps are always right up my alley

[Steel General]

This has turned out quite nicely.

My only little nit pick is that the mountains seem a bit 'flat' (but that may just be me). Maybe a bit of drop shadow on them might help to give them some more "depth" *shrugs*

[Karro]

Very nice. I don't really have very many complaints. The mountains do look a little flat, but in the real world so do real mountains from high above, and there are certain styles of mapping where mountains appear more like a rough texture (as here) than as something with depth.

So I like it.

[jfrazierjr]

Here is a somewhat quick example of what the others were talking about in terms of making the mountains not quite so flat looking. Granted, I was zoomed in quite far, so these might be a bit over exaggerated at normal size.. but it gives you an idea. I just put an overlay layer of 50% grey and used the dodge and burn tools to "paint" in some shadows/highlights. Works much better with a tablet instead of a mouse, but thats all I have here at work....

[Diamond]

Hmmm... let me do some playing around, but I kinda like things how they are on this one. That's a neat trick, jfrazier; I will try that out on my next map, which I am starting right... about... now.

[jfrazierjr]

Hmmm... let me do some playing around, but I kinda like things how they are on this one. That's a neat trick, jfrazier; I will try that out on my next map, which I am starting right... about... now.

Don't get me wrong... I love the map... it's a great color scheme and you can and should be very proud of this great work you have done. I was just illustrating the technique in case you did not know the details of how easy(easy as in easy to do... time consuming though...) it was to give mountain textures a bit more depth.