First map for my first fantasy novel - Advice and tips appreciated

[WobblyTable]

This is the current version of the map I'm working on. So far I've mostly roughed out my coasts and elevations, currently trying to figure out weather systems/climates. Any advice, critiques, and links to good guides/info about this would be greatly appreciated as well. My goal with this is to build a fully fleshed out world that is accurate and believable. So no outwardly impossible features.

This is my first time doing any kind of world building or cartography but I want this the most detailed I can make it. At the time of the map the world is currently in a global flood, the polar ice caps have melted due to a catastrophic global warming event roughly 10,000 years prior. Mainly using GIMP and GPlates, would love recommendations for better programs to utilize. Already considering switching to something like inkscape instead of GIMP to get greater detail. Thank you in advance for any input.

World map master.png

[Batat]

It's a very nice draft! I would like to only point out that the polar islands are in an area of very heavy distortion (of course that's assuming it's equirectangular) and become very zigzag-y on a globe:

Screenshot 2023-07-09 203855.png

[WobblyTable]

Thank you, its been a journey making this far that's for sure lol

Yeah I've noticed them being a little wonky too and have been meaning to sort it out to make it look nicer or potentially removing them all together.

[BSP3]

I like the attention paid to weather patterns. Very cool.

[Peter Toth]

Hello WobblyTable,

Excellent start to your world map!

Your continent layout allows ocean currents to circulate all the way to both poles rather easily (at least on the western portion of the map), so perhaps that could justify your lack of an ice cap on the northern continent, and hence the warm spell. Or you could attribute it to other factors such as the aftermath of a bolide impact or a brief intensification in your planet's volcanism.

The only recommendation I'd make is to use Photoshop and work with a grayscale altitude map so that when the project is complete, you could easily experiment with different colour schemes. I always have a grayscale layer on the bottom of every project, a posterize adjustment layer over it, and a gradient map adjustment layer on top. That way, if I want to quickly change the gradient / colour scheme, I wouldn't have to redraw the entire map.

Gplates is one complicated program. I don't know if you intend to model the tectonic history of your conworld, but if you do, don't expect instant results. I've been tweaking my results for over a month now on Gplates (trying to get some decent oceanic plates and subduction), yet I still see no end in sight!

ClimaSim and ExoPlaSim are also wonderful programs to model your climates. I always do a trial run in Clima-Sim because it only takes a minute, then I finish it off with ExoPlaSim, which can take hours depending on your computer.

Anyways, hope this helps. Looking forward to seeing the completed project!

Peter

[WobblyTable]

Hey Peter,

Thank you, I've started to look into ExoPlaSim/Clima-sim and they definitely seem to be exactly what I was looking for.

As for Gplates though, I only use it for roughing out everything on a sphere and using it to project the map to a sphere. I like the idea of doing the tectonic history but that is still far too daunting for me to delve into. Perhaps in the future I'll reverse engineer that whole timeline and ****.

It being a fantasy world of course I have to give my shot at writing dragons so, the king of dragons is both the direct and indirect cause for the global warming event. I'm planning for him to scorch one of continents clean in a matter of days; I'm talking the river and lakes boiling, sand turned to glass, entire mountain ranges reduced to heaps of molten slag, once fertile plains and valleys becoming boiling lakes of lava, a scouring so thorough not even ash remains. Didn't plan to cause hyper global warming, doesn't care about it as he was dealing with a lich that elicited his ire (it also threatened all mortal life but dragons don't care about that too much)