Relatively Finished WIP - An unnamed medieval map

[EdiblePixels]

Hey all. I made this map using Pyrandon's Medieval Map tutorial. God, is that tutorial amazing. It deserves every bit of praise it gets.
I did modify a fair amount of the tutorial, such as doing my roads slightly differently, removing some settings I didn't like on the trees, and, the most substantial, using an almost entirely different process for the ground with far less hand shading. Aside from those modifications, though, this map owes its creation mostly to the tutorial and the Roleplaying Map Generator.

As you may have seen in the title, it doesn't have a name yet. I was actually making the map for a MUD I'm currently writing, but I decided it wasn't really crowded enough, and was a bit too 'earthy' to be the steampunk city I'm envisaging. So, for now, I guess it's just a map of its own without any specific areas or a name.

The only thing I'm not entirely happy with is the water in the lake. It doesn't come off as realistic as the other elements, but I'm not entirely sure what to do there...

Anyway, here it is!

[Piscivorous]

Nice start! The water does look out of place. It also looks like it has a weird drop shadow and is floating.

[EdiblePixels]

Well, it definitely doesn't have any drop shadows applied to it. I didn't think it looked like it was floating but things look different to everyone, so I won't try to flatly deny it.
Thanks for the praise, though...

[Elpolloloco52]

I have to agree with Piscivorous about the water; also, there appear to be some really blocky, pixely sections near the bottom mountains. Other than that, it looks pretty good.

[Piscivorous]

What are you working in?

[dangerdog15]

You have a really good start, but there are always finishing touches. If the shadow were placed on the other side of the water, it might make it look indented instead of protruded.

The tutorial you used is obviously a good one. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for sharing, and good work.

[Elzevir]

Good map overall, but i have to agree about the lake who seems to be protruding...

Keep in view that, without indication about the origin of the lightsource, the mind will pretend that light comes from top, and in the case of your map, this places the lake above the ground. I made a quick example of what everybody (including me) expected to see.

shadow_drop.JPG

Light from top cast shadows on the rims that dive into the lake. Your river seems affected by the same problem (water above the ground), because shadows seems casted randomly ; if your lightsource comes from the bottom of the image, we need some indication of that to fully apprehend your map.