FT World Maps

[Klokk]

Here are a couple of different versions of the world map I made last winter and have been using for my Evil PC campaign.

The first one is the Gia Map that I have been using for my guys this past year.
The second one is the climate version of the above map.
The third one is the elevation version of the above map.

These were all made a year ago, tweaked a little bit from some smoothing/filling stuff i picked up here the past few weeks.

I would appriceate any feedback good or negative about this world as well its all mine and i love it

[Master TMO]

As a general guide for a planet it's not too bad. It shows where the mountain ranges are, and the rivers. The terrain is very smooth though - I assume that when you play you just use it to tell you the type of environment you're in, and not for low-level details like hills or such?

It's got one, not really a problem, but more something you just have to keep in mind - those continents are Very Large. I always have to stop myself when working on my worlds too and compare it to an atlas view of the whole Earth, so that I can compare my continents' size to the real ones. Your tall continent is roughly comparable to North and South America, and some Antarctica as well. The other continent is Africa+Europe together, at a guess. (Those are both eyeball guesses - I do not guarantee accuracy. ) It's not so much that it's a problem or inaccurate, but for your campaign you have to keep the scale in mind. That inner sea in the left continent is nearly as big as the Gulf of Mexico, and would take a few days to cross by boat, longer to hike around it. But in these small maps, it's easy to think of it as a lake.

But it's definitely a good start at mapping! Feel free to look around here and see if you can find any tips or tricks you can use, or ask any questions of any of us.

[Hai-Etlik]

Well, it has the usual problems of fractal height fields. The fractal dimension is too consistent, the continents aren't the fairly solid lumps they are on Earth, and the mountains are all huge, centred on the land masses, and with smooth gradients to the coasts. Real mountains tend to be along the edges of continents, and are far more complex, often with multiple, parallel chains. The bathymetry isn't remotely realistic, there are no ridges or trenches. If those odd circular structures are meant to be volcanoes, they seem to be bigger than Olympus Mons.

[Klokk]

I keep FT running with the world map up on it as it has a measurement ruler thingy built in that shows miles.. It is rather handy for computing how far something is from somewhere else. the small little sub-continent on the right of the gia map is where the pc's started.. its was sealed for years with magic.. the campaign started with them having recently discovered the ability to bind elemental s to make ships like the flying ones in eberron. I wanted a huge world for them to have to explore/discover/colonize/have world wide wars in it.

Was not sure how to add scale to FT maps.

The Tall continent is 5000 miles N-S and 2200 miles e-w on the northern portion.
the Sub-continent is 1500 miles NW-SE and 1700 miles e-w

The big continent is 4500 NW - SE and 3100 E - W on the northern portion.
the part that juts out from it is 1500 miles x 500 miles roughly
The sea in there is 1200 miles N - S and 800 Miles E - W

[Klokk]

I must have looked through a few hundred worlds before i found this random one and tweaked it a tad bit.

The odd circular structures are not volcanoes, i hit the world with 100 metors @ 100 miles radius before i did anything else and alot of smoothing by hand. that cross shaped cluster was totally by random.

I have no clue what bathymetry is..

[Master TMO]

Looking a little closer at the rivers, and I see you have a common issue there too - you have rivers flowing into lakes, with out outflow. FT runs a river until it hits water. I have found a quick workaround is to lower your water level to -1000, run the rivers, and then restore the water level to 0. If your rivers and water are the same color, the rivers will be invisible as they go across the lake's location. It is hardly topographically accurate, but making accurate rivers is a major undertaking even for advanced users.