Although I haven't gotten as far as I'd like, I've made, what I consider satisfactory, progress in regards to the elevation build at this point, again, most of it being in the southern portion of the map. Like the last render, this one is approximately 1/3rd full size. The surface texturing is pretty basic and applied only to those elevations that have been completely contoured so far. The surface, itself, hasn't been through any tweaking and, in some areas, appears terraced. I'll work on that once I've finished building the elevations, and probably cycle through some erosion sequences to add a little more variation.
As things go along, I've been thinking about how I want the final version of this map to look and find myself torn between the satellite-like appearance that most of my maps have and the pseudo-isometric/hand-drawn approach I was taking with my Well of the Golden Maiden Challenge map. There are, I think, benefits to both styles.
With the satellite-like appearance, there is lots of color, and it gives a sense of a bird's-eye view of the terrain. It also allows for a fairly clear definition of water, vegetation, soil and/or bare rock, and snowy areas. The drawback is that things become exceptionally cluttered and complicated in terms of creating the surface textures such that they don't look overly tiled. And labeling becomes a bear in terms of trying to set the text apart from the rest of the map.
Conversely, with the pseudo-isometric/hand-drawn approach, things tend to look a bit cleaner and the surface texturing is far less complicated. In addition to this, the defining of cities, towns and villages is much easier along with the fact that the labeling isn't so color dependent. The drawback is that some areas, particularly snowy areas, are much more difficult to define in terms of being visibly obvious. That, however, I might be able to solve with a bit of post-render editing.
Maybe what I can do is render the map in both styles, using the satellite-like style for the sake of artistic value while the pseudo-isometric/hand-drawn style can be used as a hand-out/player's kind of map. Of course, that'll mean significantly more work when it comes to setting up the final renders, but given the idea that I'll be using this map as a setting for both a series of stories and, possibly, the development of an RPG, it's work I'm willing to take on.
The other issue I'm still struggling with is just how much "larger than life" I want to scale this map. My inclination is to measure the feet as meters which will result in an area of approximately 2262 square miles in all (47.6 x 47.6 miles), and elevations ranging upwards of 6850 feet. I'm not sure, however, if this will give me enough spread to space things out decently. At maximum, while still maintaining a fair amount of detail, I figure I can go up to 5822 square miles (76.3 x 76.3 miles) with an elevation ranging to somewhere near 11000 feet at the highest point. This will give me more spread for spacing things out at the expense of detail. At this point, I'm not sure exactly what I'll do in regards to that, but I'll have to make a decision eventually.
So anyways, here's the latest render. Thoughts and suggestions, as always, are more than welcome.
GW
Himinreica - Latest WIP Render
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