WIP Campaign Cartographer regional map of the Empire of Mincanti

[Tonnichiwa]

Hello everyone,

Today I started to make a new regional map to try to increase my skill at making islands and coastlines look more realistic than in my previous maps. This is a work in progress because I am not very good at doing this sort of thing yet with Campaign Cartographer, so if there are any of you out there who could give me any pointers to make it look better and how to go about doing it in CC3 that would be great.

To start with, I've decided to use the style created by Herwin Weilink to make this map. The idea is to sort of make it based off of Greece. So I've been trying to create little islands everywhere without it getting too far out of hand, but certainly enough to make it believable.

So this is as far as I've gotten today. For those of you who've never used Campaign Cartographer 3 before, the first picture is what my screen starts as, the second one is how far I've gotten in adding a land mass.

[Tonnichiwa]

Now I've added mountains. I tried to follow as natural of a progression as I could with those and I hope they turned out pleasing to the eye.

[DanielHasenbos]

The islands don't look quite natural to me. Perhaps make them less like a string of islands and more variety in sizes. If you need inspiration Greece is a good place to look at, also south east Asia has a large archipelago which you could draw inspiration from. Otherwise thuis map is looking good so far. I really like the maps you have posted before so I'm looking forward to seeing this develop!

-Dan

[Tonnichiwa]

Thanks Dan, I'm glad you enjoyed my previous maps.

Ok, I changed up the islands quite a bit, took away some of the areas where the ocean ran inland, and turned on the glow so it gives me an idea what it will look like. I plan on re-making those bits of inland water that I deleted because I didn't like the way they looked. I'll probably have to find a different way to do them. I also added some color to the land surrounding the mountains so they look a little more natural. I'm hoping to get some hills put in and some rivers soon.

[Tonnichiwa]

Today I have added a lava field and hills to my map. The first pic is with the sheets and effects off and the second one is with the sheets and effects on so you can get an idea of what it will look like when its done.

[Tonnichiwa]

Now I have added some volcanic rocks to the hills in the lava region, and I've added a large cliff face to the south. Then I added some rivers, and a few mesa's on the left. Then some farmland, forest, scrubland, marshes, tundra, and plains. These are all fills. The first picture is with no effects on. The second has all of the effects on so you can see what it looks like.

Enjoy

[Tonnichiwa]

Now I've added some grassland fill, and the buildings.

I hope you like it

[Ilanthar]

I'm not a fan of the sea, it looks too much like a repeated pattern. Maybe you can break it with a texture effect? I don't know anything about Campaign Cartographer. Those buildings are looking very good.

[Tonnichiwa]

Thanks for the critique Ilanthar. I'm pretty sure Campaign Cartographer has the ability to do that but I have to research how. Since it is based off of a fastcad program it isn't very intuitive. I think that ocean style was meant for larger areas of land where the sea would only be washing against the shore in small spots so you wouldn't really notice the repeating pattern. I could always put down more land and make the map much larger. I wasn't really sure how big I wanted it and wanted room for expansion anyway, that's why you see not much of the available space being used.

I may also change up the ocean style and just go with something completely different, then add coastlines where the ocean seems to get deeper the farther out you go. I'm not 100% certain which way to take it.

[Tonnichiwa]

I've got the buildings and vegetation done now. I added another Stonehenge in the north forest. Now if I wanted to finish it I would just have to add labels, maybe crop a lot of that ocean off.

Enjoy