Nightstar - New novel map

[Crymson]

Hi folks, this is the map for a series of young adult adventure novels I am writing called Nightstar. The first one, Defenders of Nightstar, will be out in a few months. Thought I would show off the map, which was done in CC3.

Nightstar.JPG

[jbgibson]

Well, it's a cool look. Do you figure to publish it in the books? If so, are you going to need a B&W version? Or is full color fine, and it'll be eBooks?

Youve got two seriously unbelievable rivers - the far SW one that divides on its way to the sea, and the one(s) spawned from that big lake. The dividing doesn't happen. Water being pretty stubborn about seeking THE lowest course, all the water would flow one way or the other. You see little divisions that rejoin, yes - they'd be barely visible at this scale - think of those as big bumps midstream rather than two real separate paths. In seriously flat terrain you can get threaded rivers - branch and rejoin over and over, overlapping, but again that would be within the width of your river lines at this scale. As for the lake - well, one outlet would be lower than the other, even if just by inches. That one, or the one with softer surface to cut through, would prevail, and the other would be left dry.

Why don't you take a look at Redrobes' excellent tutorial on How To Get Your Rivers In the Right Place.? It'll clear up what would work and what wouldn't.

The details of your mountain wrinkles are far finer than your other rivers' upper reaches. It's not blatant enough to scream "water flowing uphill, and across ridges", but it still looks off a bit. Try zooming in and ensuring any river runs down a valley. I don't know much CC3 - is it possible to taper rivers? The blunt ends would be improved with a taper. If not an outright taper can you do a one pixel width, switch to two pixel, then three pixel, and so forth? Even stepped, you'd convey the impression the watercourses are skinnier up in the mountains than down in the flatlands.

Got any political features up your sleeve? Or will those be filled in as you write?

[Crymson]

Hey, thanks for the feedback. The map won't be published in the print book, but will in the ebook, according to the publisher. Also the full colour one will be available online.

I'll have a read of the tutorial: thanks for pointing it out.

You absolutely can taper rivers in CC3, and I'm not sure why I didn't do that in the first place.

The world is somewhat unique in that most of the world is feral and wild, with only small bastions of civilization. Political features are rather redundant on this world