Valorpoint Island

[Robbie]

Hi all...haven't been mapping much lately, but I got to sit down last night and spend some time. Its still amazing to me how easy it is to whip out an attractive map in CC3.

This map isn't attempting to break any ground or anything, but I do want it to look nice. So I'm asking for feedback. What's it missing?

The island itself looks good to me...but I think the rest of the map needs something.

The big town on the hill is called Valorpoint, and all the villages around it don't warrant names according to the locals. They're just farming or fishing villages to help the island support itself. The huts on the west side of the island are where a nomadic peoples make their homes. They trade with the valorpoints, but are not considered the same people, even though they are all human.

If you want to get a feel for this map's setting in the surrounding area. Go here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/viewtopic.php?t=59 and look at Valorpoint in the northeast. Thats the island.

[Uthoroc]

First, I'd change the scaling of the sea background. Go into the fill styles and uncheck the "Scaled" option of the respective Bitmap Fill. You'll see that the actual sea pattern is much nicer that the tiny scaling you have at the moment.

And I don't think the enlarged village as the centerpiece works. Instead I would use the walled city or town symbol at the same scale as the other structure symbols.

Apart from that, nice work. I especially like the way you've done the vegetation and hills on the island.

You could try to put a 'beach' type border around the island. Draw an offset copy of the island with a desert fill or something like that.

Ciao, Ralf

[Robbie]

Thanks!

I've decided on a couple of things...for one...I decided to name everything after all...and I've decided the huts will be an Orc settlement, and I've decided that Orcs are friendly on this world.

So with that in mind. Before I show an update do you have an example of doing the beach thing? I'd like to see what you're talking about.

[Robbie]

I change my mind...here's an update using the suggestions you made...AND I used inner glow to get a beach effect...I still want to see what you're talking about though with an offset desert fill copy.

[Uthoroc]

Here is an example, but I think your way is actually better. Looks very nice now!

[Talamar]

arcana:

I like the last version of the map. It looks pretty nice. Gratz!

Tell us the trick, how you did your version of that offshore beach, Uthoroc gave you a hint of?
Thanks.

[Robbie]

Heh...it was easy really...all sheet effects. I used a glow sheet effect on the land with a light blue to give me the shallow shore water effect. Then I applied an outer glow sheet effect on the same land sheet with a light tan color to represent the fading of sand into green land. Combined together it looks great I think.

[RPMiller]

Effects and such are spot on. Feature wise you may want to add a port on the west or north side. The island is close enough to the mainland that there could easily be a trade route of some sort set up. Even if it is just a stopping point or raiders town.

[ravells]

Really nice map, Arcana,

I have the following small suggestions which are based on trying to give the map a consistent feel (realistic man made objects (houses etc) of all the elements you are using. I kind of like the exaggerated scale of the settlements. If they are important elements to the map-maker then it makes sense to me that their size is exaggerted to draw attention to them.

Roads
If it 'twere me, I would change the roads, as I see the style as out of keeping with the rest of the map. I don't have CC3 (yet!) but I guess it wouldn't be difficult to make the roads look more realistic rather than figurative. making them into a solid path with perhaps a duplicate on top which has a smaller stroke width and a different colour might look good. All the other elements in the map are solid, but the roads are skimpy.

Beach
I guess with the offset / add glow option your choice is to either have beaches all around the Island or not at all rather than beaches in bays and not headlands. I'd do a photoshop job to manually add the beaches in the bays and not the headlands to make the Island look more realistic, but this will take time and be a bit of a faff.

Cheers

Ravs