World of Mahdran

[Eronakis]

I will probably get a lot of hate and bad feedback for this style of mapping but I'll post anyways. Plus it's in CC3 which also seems like it doesn't get a lot of good attention. Let me explain why I did this map.

The World of Mahdran is designed specifically for my mmorpg that I am designing. The focus is on the content of the environments inside the continents. Each environment is called a 'zone'; where players will level ect. So I apologize if it looks patchy from a distance. But when zoomed in you'll see a general jest of a theme for each environment.

I tried to make the rivers look realistically as possible. I also tried to have a good flow for each environment into each of the biomes with transition environments and mountain ranges.

I am limited in a way of what I could do since it's designed in CC3. I prominently used Herwin Wielinks symbol set with some added other symbols and textures. I decided to leave it as is and not put any photoshop effects yet. I am considering of doing a displacement with a wavy feel to it to seem like it has a cloth or a parchment effect. I am also trying to think of a border I could use as well. I also apologize for the lack of sea contours as well and style sheet effects. This is about an hour render time with no effects from CC3. With the sheet effects it crashes. So for now, it's just going to be as is.

I hope some of you will understand where I am coming from with this style of mapping.

Does any of the environments intrigue you to explore? If so which ones?

I guess the file size is too large for an attachment. It's nearly 8 MB's.

World of Mahdran

Thanks for taking a look.

[madcowchef]

The link isn't working for me at least.

[Azélor]

the link is not working for me neither

what file type did you used for your map (png,bmp,jpeg...) ?
I don't want to sound too insistent since I'm a lobbyist but JPEG offers many advantages over it's competitors. It is certified space-efficient, which mean that your file will take up to 10 times less space than a PNG for example. The basic settings offers a great compression with minimal losses of quality but you can squeeze it even more if you choose to reduce quality. Reducing the quality reduce the size by a good margin and usually offers better results than making the map smaller.

[Eronakis]

Try now. Used a different hosting site.

It is a jpeg. And it's almost 8 MB's.

[Ghostman]

The map has a very old school RPG fantasy kind of feel to it. I think most of the mapped environments look interesting and natural enough, but the Jacal Barrens area looks both rather dull and also blatantly generic. The repeating square texture used there is probably the primary reason for that - while all parts of the map make use of tiling, most of them don't come across nearly as bad as this one area.

[Eronakis]

The map has a very old school RPG fantasy kind of feel to it. I think most of the mapped environments look interesting and natural enough, but the Jacal Barrens area looks both rather dull and also blatantly generic. The repeating square texture used there is probably the primary reason for that - while all parts of the map make use of tiling, most of them don't come across nearly as bad as this one area.

I understand completely where you're coming from. I couldn't figure out a good way to mask the tiles for the Jacal Barrens texture or the Rimewind Tundra texture. If I added more symbols to it would take away from the flatlands/plains feel to them of what they are. Then it wouldn't be a tundra or a barren I suppose. Any suggestions?

[Ilanthar]

I agree with Ghostman here, the repeated square texture is your main problem here. I don't know CC3 at all, but here's the two solutions that came to me : work with a bigger square texture (if available or, by "expanding it" with work), or rework what you have and "break the repetition" with a blur or cloning tool (filling the gaps between some of the square, moving or changing a little things, randomly).

[epson]

In my experience square Textures work better, if the eye can't fix to a structure. In the Jakal Barrens there is a relatively high contrast between light and dark which helps the eye to find repetitions. Maybe you can find another fitting texture with less contrast.

[acrosome]

Couple of River Police violations, too.

Cothtrak Gorge seems unlikely (though not impossible) since the rivers are flowing to and through the mountains. I guess if the Iron Mountains and Eth Gara Mountains represent some sort of escarpment so that the Riverlands, Weeping Fens, and Malderook are all highlands it would work well. Or Cothtrak Gorge is some pseudomysterious process like the Grand Canyon.

More egregious is the river splitting into three to drain into both the Cerulean Ocean (twice) and the Thalasstic Sea. I'd say disconnect the river that separates Jacal/Arache and the river that drains into westward into the Ithician region- have them originate in the Cothtrak mountains, but not connect to the large river running through the gorge that forms the Typhonnadon. But have them close, so that there are (relatively) short portages, and Cothtrak can still be a major travel hub.

But I have no idea just how "fantastic" your mmorpg will be- this is all doubtless overly persnickety for your purposes. You can always just wave your hands and mutter about magic...