[WIP] Estreoth

[AnimaRytak]

Ello Folks.

This is a work in progress of a land called Estreoth. This is actually an expansion of a once finished map, so the older areas already have a lot of cities defined. Also, the entire western area (west of the Vehra) is completely new, so it's lacking definition at the moment. However, the actual landscape texture isn't complete yet. Additionally most of the mountains are still lacking, mainly since I've yet to find a technique that gives satisfactory results.

Well with that disclaimer aside, this is the current alpha version of Estreoth.

[AnimaRytak]

Still no reply? I was hoping to get some feedback on this and get some advice on adding some long mountain chains. If anyone wants to compare this version to the older one, here's the older map Click here. (Fixed URL)

Also, uploaded a more recent version.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Hey there! Your link to the older map didn't work for me but the new one is looking really nice. I especially like coloring, which is pleasantly subtle. As for the mountains, I am more a encounter-scale-map-guy, so I can't help you there but I know there are some super tutorials for mountain creation in the how-to section.

I haven't really done any continent-scale stuff, but I'll give the criticism thang a shot since you're looking for it and no one else has tried yet:

--My eyes really want to see something more than flat blue for the water. There is a lot of blank blue space, and I am eager to see it filled--not sure if texturing it would ruin the nice soft-on-the-eyes scheme you have going or not though. Maybe you plan to add more continents in that big area to the left though. If so, feel free to ignore this.
--The snow seems to start pretty abruptly, fading from a nice lush green or brown arid planes in a really short distance. Not sure what to do about it, though. Maybe an area of really dark, cold green would make me think of pine forests, rather than warm maple-filled forests and spring-time grasslands that the current greens reminds me of.
--Also, is this a pangea-style world map, or a single continent? The labeling, textures, and shapes of the landmass makes me think the latter is true, in which case having desert, forest, highlands, and tundra all packed so close together seems unlikely.
--I am not sure exactly how mountain ranges work, but (to my untrained eye) the Dyorian mountain range seems like it might be too be too close to the sea/ocean--like the two should be separated by a nice Californian area. Rainshadows do provide a reason why a desert would exist the same latitude as what looks like a lush forest, though the desert does seem really big, considering how well off the rest of the continent seems to look, vegetation-wise.

Anyhow, great map you have going here. Keep up the good work, I look forward to seeing how this develops.

[AnimaRytak]

--My eyes really want to see something more than flat blue for the water. There is a lot of blank blue space, and I am eager to see it filled--not sure if texturing it would ruin the nice soft-on-the-eyes scheme you have going or not though. Maybe you plan to add more continents in that big area to the left though. If so, feel free to ignore this.

Yeah it hadn't occurred to me yet to vary the ocean color. I was going to add another region to the south west, but I decided to hold off for now since the continent I was going to put in would've been larger then the available space.

--The snow seems to start pretty abruptly, fading from a nice lush green or brown arid planes in a really short distance. Not sure what to do about it, though. Maybe an area of really dark, cold green would make me think of pine forests, rather than warm maple-filled forests and spring-time grasslands that the current greens reminds me of.

I just checked a satellite map of Canada. Before the arctic region kicks in, there's a subtle browning of the landscape. Link here. I think mixing dark green with spots of a light brown should do the trick. Although I might end up creating another northern continent for some arctic goodness.

--Also, is this a pangea-style world map, or a single continent? The labeling, textures, and shapes of the landmass makes me think the latter is true, in which case having desert, forest, highlands, and tundra all packed so close together seems unlikely.

Well, the tundra is off, primarily since latitude hasn't ever been estimated. (I'll probably try to do that shortly.) However the desert is the result of a very large rain shadow (combined with an ancient cataclysm or two).

--I am not sure exactly how mountain ranges work, but (to my untrained eye) the Dyorian mountain range seems like it might be too be too close to the sea/ocean--like the two should be separated by a nice Californian area. Rainshadows do provide a reason why a desert would exist the same latitude as what looks like a lush forest, though the desert does seem really big, considering how well off the rest of the continent seems to look, vegetation-wise.

The mountains start between 30 and 100 miles inland. It's fairly narrow, but i don't think it'll be too extreme.

Anyhow, great map you have going here. Keep up the good work, I look forward to seeing how this develops.

Thanks Also i fixed the old map link.

On a side note, my shoddy math work finally fixed itself. I had been thinking the total size of this map had been 34,406,400 square km. Turns out it's probably closer to 155,946,292 square km. Horrah for my lousy math, lol.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Nice, is your map meant to be at that same kind of scale? Am I looking at an area roughly the size of Canada?

Glad to try and help. Be sure to post your progress as you go!

[AnimaRytak]

Nice, is your map meant to be at that same kind of scale? Am I looking at an area roughly the size of Canada?

Glad to try and help. Be sure to post your progress as you go!

Actually, including the oceans, the area of the map is 3.5 times that of Asia. But that's total area, I'm not sure what just the land area is at the moment. It's still safe to say the land itself is the roughly the size of Asia. (Assuming my math isn't way off this time.)

[Diamond]

I really like the color scheme you've got going there; everything blends really well, and the pattern in the desert looks especially good. If I had to pick one thing that bugs me, I'd say it's the massive amount of ocean; having that much open space around the landmass makes the whole map look unbalanced somehow. If you were to cut off that entire western ocean and move the scale bar and title graphic over, I think it might balance out better.

Also, your rivers appear to be different colors from place to place (although that might be intentional), and they're hard to see in the Jenam Valley region.

As for mountains, you might try Pasis' mountain tutorial; that might be just the ticket for this map.

Overall, it looks very good though. Have some rep!

[AnimaRytak]

I really like the color scheme you've got going there; everything blends really well, and the pattern in the desert looks especially good. If I had to pick one thing that bugs me, I'd say it's the massive amount of ocean; having that much open space around the landmass makes the whole map look unbalanced somehow. If you were to cut off that entire western ocean and move the scale bar and title graphic over, I think it might balance out better.

Also, your rivers appear to be different colors from place to place (although that might be intentional), and they're hard to see in the Jenam Valley region.

Yeah I might end up cutting off some ocean. I just enlarged the map and made a new outline without much of a plan. Course I'll end up expanding this one last time when I decided to change this to a global map.

And your right about the rivers. Turns out I had a slight bug with the river layers, the Jenam Valley's rivers were all on the Jurasha's group, which was beneath some detail brushing. Although the river colors are still a tad off with their base colors (thank you Eyedropper tool). One note though, the Vehra's rivers are intentional, since they're dried up.

As for mountains, you might try Pasis' mountain tutorial; that might be just the ticket for this map.

Overall, it looks very good though. Have some rep!

I'll be sure to check it out. I made a small patch of mountains with a technique I pulled from no where, but the effect was pretty bad over the central regions.

Thanks for the feedback

[AnimaRytak]

I rather like how the mountains turned out, although against the flat looking landscape it sticks out a tad too much. I'll have to fix that with some later painting. This version fixes some of the rivers (I placed them above the mountain layers in their own group). Also removes the frozen beaches from the northern area. Lastly I added some subtle ocean texture along with some base land texture for variety.

It's getting hard to work on though. The PSD size is 122mb.

[tilt]

very nice mountains you ended up with.. I'm not sure if it would be to much, but a down bevel of "0" on the rivers might give the impression of being lowered into the land. Love the legend, but as several have said, move i over a bit and cut of some of all that ocean for a more balanced map