world creation

[Alfafrost]

Hello, I want to create a new world, but my knowledge in creating maps is quite basic and I had trouble adding details to my continent, I have a tentative form of the continent and its islands and cities where they could be located, but could not achieve the level that I would like to map.

I am working with Fractal Mapper 8.1, if someone wants to help me, I can pass the archive.

An image:

Mundo.jpg

the yellow points are cities

If someone help me to give a better finish, I would appreciate greatly.

Thank you very much in advance and sorry if my English is not very good.

[Korash]

Looks like you have a nice form to your land mass, but would like to have some idea of scale, 'cause that is one HUGE city in the middle if the scale that first came to mind is aywhere near correct. Or is that a desert? I am not familiar with Fractal Mapper, so can not help you on the actual prog, but I can think of a few things that might help with the map itself. But first it would be nice if you could show an example of what sort of style you were aiming for.

Firstly, I would try to vary the colors a bit more for the land, and water areas....and/or add some textures/noise if the prog can do that

secondly, I am not sure what you are planning to use the grid for....

Using city symbols would also go a long way to making the map look better. Roads used for the major trade routes would also help break up the land into regions of common interest.....how many roads you could put in would depend on the scale of the map.

I believe that this belongs over at the WIP (Work In Progress) forums, and I am sure that a CL will be along shortly to correct that so don't worry. And your English is more that good enough

and last but not least...Welcome to the Guild, The Mappiest Place on the Web, and have some rep for posting a map in your first post

[Alfafrost]

Thanks for the welcome and some things that might clarify my project:

The size of the continent is large as 12,000 by 10,000 km ^ 2 and I have designed another unknown continent but in less detail.

Within the idea of this new world, beliefs specify that the world has a diamond shape and get closer to the edges are creatures descendants of the gods who guard the gates of exile, where he falls to the underworld (as was believed in old age), a bit out of reality.

Only the points are cities and as you say it is a desert.

I do not want a very large map, with a scale of 500-1000 km: 1 cm (which does not exceed the size of a sheet of letter).

some examples of how I like (I prefer the one marked):

Ideas.jpg

(obtained from: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...Abandoned-Maps)

and some possible routes:

Rutas.jpg

[Alfafrost]

otherwise black spots and blue are dwarfs hidden cities in the mountains and the red dot is a human hidden city.
To get to the desert city is only by boat traveling the river or along the river, and unconnected cities is because they not have a lot of communication or are unknow for the most people.

[loogie]

The landmass looks quite good, I do see some odd river stuff going on, mainly 2 instances of a "river island" that is a river that splits then joins again.. which is basically nonexsistant in the natural world except for river deltas, which are a special concept... they could easily be changed into lakes and make complete sense... there is also one river on the south coast that branches out to sea (starting with one river, and splitting to the sea) which is kinda the opposite of what rivers do, they're like trees, growing from the ocean inland.. so they start out with one large "trunk" on the coastline, the main river, then split off into "branches" as they go inland... obviously if these things are imperative to the story, then you can just make em so... but if you looking for a bit more of a geographically sound world, then they should probably be changed. Also, lakes could be a good addition... need not be of huge size.. but lakes are pretty common, so in a continent there should be any number of them.

Something to remember with cities is that they really need a purpose as to why they are at a location, a city makes a lot more sense when you can justify it's exsistance... rivers are probably the most common way to locate a city since it is so vital to life... but other such things are resources (lumber, farming, ore, etc), defenseive locations, strategic locations (an outfitter city at the edge of a mt pass)... There's nothing in your map that looks off, but in the long run, it's surprizing how much planning in the beginning can help out in the end... for instance, city names can come about from the use they were founded.. Bournemouth, an city on the south coast of england literally means river's mouth... A river fjord, port, pass are all good starting points for city names... say them in "native tongue" and you can get more colourful names in themselves... but knowing a cities imports/exports can help out quite a bit too.. if i city needs lumber where does it come from? the closest city that exports lumber... so thats a good indications of decent trade relations between those cities... fair-to-large sized caravans will be travelling that route, therefor a decently upkept road would be in their interest... cities who must go through a mt pass to do trade are going to need to be fairly self reliant, and only import luxury goods or other things that aren't life or death...

World building is in many ways a huge project... for many of us it's a labour of love... and it can give you some fresh insights on history and other things you've never thought about...

You can go as detailed or as generic as you want with a world, but as a general rule the more detail you put into the world, the more it can contribue to your story... world histories, factions, riches and locals are all great initiators for a players adventure, and the more work you put in before hand becomes less work and improv you need to do just before or even during a gaming session.

[Alfafrost]

ok, I understand most of what you said, some cities that interest me:

roads and rivers are only tentative, even the mountains and desert, but I have thought something about some cities.

orange, "the lost city of the rivers" a citadel in the mountains, the only way to enter, is by the river. give an outline of the city at the end in attachments.

red, "the city hidden in plain sight" a secret society (like the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings) the idea is a series of caverns that serve as homes and at the top are cultivated farms, self-sufficient.

Blue: empire belonging to the depths of the desert, the idea is placed between the river and an oasis that allows them to cultivate farms and import whatever it takes. in case of attack the flanks to protect are the rivers since the arrival of other troops weakened sides in the heat (hence have checkpoints in the river, the desert is most arid).

black: the cities of the caves, metal workers for excellence.

white: the owners of the gulfs, maritime civilizations warriors allied with the pink city, her's interest is to expand the territory and trade.

Pink: city exporter of spices and exotic animals, they use the protection of white cities

Purple: two civilizations that are currently in political peace, but have a long history of war, the interests of the left are similar to whites, the expancion over all the earth, to dominate all trade routes, both are powers of the smaller towns around (strikeout).

brown: City of step with many cultures and good trade, because they are on the main route of trade.

green "black forest city" known for a few lucky passengers. independent of the outside world, live by hunting and collecting, in peace whit the earth and nature.

gray: naturally fortified city on the island, has endured constant attacks by white civilization, its trade is low, but keep a relationship with the city of rivers, their main source is fishing and the extraction of precious metals from a permanent volcanic vein (only source of income) [I just thought it ].

ending with the cities of interest.

marked areas at sea:

Left: meteorite crater called "the circle of death", no one dares to cross these waters.

right: the deeper hole, was a volcanic crater, now inactive, is speech that are the gates of hell itself, as sometimes seen creatures from hell (vapors emanating from the old volcano)

Rutas 2.jpg
ciudad de los rios.jpg

the black lines mean the caves where water flows in or out, these are caverns that were adapted so that foreigners do not try to enter.
the orange block is a gate to direct out the water in case of rain.
have an irrigation system and a reservoir with a mill where the dock.
can only enter or leave swimming.

Sorry if you do not understand something, but ask for that...

Thank you very much, because I have been going on ideas to enrich the world..

Sorry if repost this, but i can't post...