The death fields

[Lyandra]

Seems that you got a lot of good tips from jfrazierjr.^^ I must agree with him that some of those "mistakes" (overlapping of the brushes and such) can look jarring at a closer look. The smoke coming from the Sulfursee looks odd. I also thought at first that it was a forest, only your post made clear what it was supposed to be.^^ Turning the opacity down might really help. I still very much like the atmosphere of the map though. The muted colors look way better but I'm glad that the map retained that sense of cheerfulness it previously possessed.

Also, whats with the checkerboard pattern in the bottom right with some low opacity mountains?

I would guess it indicates different lands? Lands beyond the wall, so I expect not very friendly ones?

[IdiotDogBrain]

Hi alltogether,

sorry for not attending this thread for such a long time. I had to divert my attention away from map making for some time- but should be back in force soon. So I just missed your tips...

The checkboard pattern is indeed a different land- a quite opressing kingdom to the south.

Thanks for all the advice, thats just the stuff I am looking for. I am an absolute beginner to Gimp and graphical design in general- so I do not really have an eye for the stuff you are pointing to. I will work on the water and smoke effects maybe something easy as the transparency can achieve something. I will also take a look at the mountains. I think the effect occured because I used different brush scales when entering them. Maybe I also added mountains in between of the creation process, thats where the different blurring effects might come from. I hope my layers are organized enough so I can adjust this without remaking the whole stuff (thats the problem with being a beginner, you never know when to add this kind of organization).

I think I will post an update of the map during the next week.

Thanks for all the advice, it is very appreciated.