CWBP 2 Deciding the map

[Azélor]

Cooperative Worldbuilding Project 2

Here is the thread to discuss about the map we would like to see for our world. The project is about building a setting as a community. A good setting needs a good map and to do that, everyone is welcome to participate by posting a map or sharing his opinion. Participation in this step of the project does not oblige anyone to participate in further steps of the project but it's highly encouraged.

New entries are welcome.

[Thurlor]

I'm not sure if anyone is interested but I have a couple of old world maps that I made and never used that I would be willing to present for use. Keep in mind that they are still unfinished (in terms of elevation data) and I won't bother finishing them unless they get shown some interest. I might also throw out some slightly modified worlds that are randomly generated.

Why the insistence on using the Mercator Projection? I've always considered it to be a butt ugly choice for world maps, however I quite like the Equirectangular Projection so maybe my opinion should be ignored. Anyway, because I am feeling exceptionally lazy at the moment my two entries will be remaining in Equirectangular Projection unless they get chosen or it turns out to be a real problem having them not be Mercator Projection. Sorry in advance if this is an issue.

Below I present my two 'designed' worlds. Please keep in mind that both are unfinished (the second more so than the first.

Entry 2:

Upload 001.jpg


Entry 3:

Upload 002.jpg

[Hai-Etlik]

Why the insistence on using the Mercator Projection? I've always considered it to be a butt ugly choice for world maps, however I quite like the Equirectangular Projection so maybe my opinion should be ignored.

Mercator allows you to chop out small sections and end up with something that has minimal distortion without reprojecting. All you need to do is apply a scale correction based on the latitude. That's why it's the projection used by zoomable web maps like Open Street Map and Google Maps. It does look horrible at the scale of continents though. Plate Carree/Equirectangular on the other hand looks ugly no matter what with the stretching it causes at the poles. About the only projection that's more ugly is Cylindrical Equal Area (Including Gall-Peters and Hobo-Dyers) which amplifies the stretching beyond that of Equidistant Cylindrical (Including Plate Carree/Equirectangular)

PS: Confused this with the other CWBP thread. In terms of prospective base maps, there's no particular reason to use Mercator. Plate Carree is probably the best choice as it's easy to reproject.

[Falconius]

I've taken the liberty to modify your map Azelor, I hope you don't mind. So here is a proposal, mangled into Equirectangular projection. It may require a bit of a fix where I tried to mangle it into the projection, but it looks alright on a globe.

Edit: Whoops I just realized (like days later ) this sounded like I was hijacking your proposal, which wasn't my intent. I was making another proposal here of my own (which was based on yours), so now I guess this is entry five considering DearCyrus' is #4.

Entry #5
Modified Azelor World:

[feanaaro]

If you start from fractal terrains, as it appears you are doing now, you should perhaps consider using the incise flow, and possible erosion, function to make the map more believable and interesting. This, I believe, is still the best tutorial for FT.
Also, even if it is none of my business, I am against Mercator too, it just looks bad.

[Falconius]

The goal behind the projection is for final plot choice. Right now it is not as important as when it is finalized. And it is your business too! Please feel free to contribute. I think the more maps we have to choose from at the end the better the end result will be.

[waldronate]

By starting with a Mercator projection, you've already decided that there's nothing interesting at the poles.

[Falconius]

There is no need to start at a Mercator projection, do whatever floats your boat or achieves your goal. This thread is merely for deciding the world map, if your world map is on a disk, or a Dyson sphere, or a ringworld, rather than a globe feel free to submit that too. Were are not starting off with any predefined set of rules for this place, it is ours to make of it what we will. The Mercator projection is being suggested for final copy simply for a way to manage mapping plots. Please don't limit yourself if you want to contribute, splat the map out in whatever form works. If major areas at the poles are of interest to you then we will work that out later. We can always snip out a pole continent and present it in reasonable projection.

[DearCyrus]

Entry 4:
newmap copy.jpg

Pretty rough, just tried some land shapes, really... any thoughts?

[Azélor]

About mercator: it gives the best results concernig the world as a whole (exept for the poles, yes it's awful for that and I did not thought about it since thre is noting on my map's poles). It's useful for navigation but it's not important here. But mercator is also aweful because it stretch the high latitudes. I don't like it either but I thought that it was somewhat more practical.

You people are right about projections and the fact that the world might not even by a globe. That is something I did not anticipate. So mercator and equirectangular are suggested projections only. I will change it right now. I will also put my map with the equirectangular projection because that is the one I am using normally.

Feeraano: it would be better but it's just a world map so it doesn't need that much detail.