WIP: World of Aethiir

[miinstrel]

First things first... I am absolutely in love with a lot of the mountains people make around here. They are STUNNING. Gotta work on my mountain technique on a later map since this one is mostly aquatic.

This is for my next D&D campaign. It's going to be ship based and set in a postdiluvian world after the elemental planes began to merge with the earth.

I just finished adding a lot of the island names and other labels. More to go, but this is where I'm at for now. Also darkened the base water color to bring out the shallower parts of the ocean where the continents used to be.

Aethiir.jpg 1st draft

Aethiir.jpg 2nd draft (label updates, add ports, unbevel islands)

Any C&C? Ideas for improvements? I want it to be simultaneously artistic and functional. The players will need to use this to navigate around the world and figure out how long it will take to travel between locations (hence the grid), so it can't be TOO busy. Is the text readable? It is to me, but I know what everything says xD

I'm planning to add a border once the map is finished. Maybe a legend along the bottom to note that the swirleys are whirlpools, etc. What color should I use for the border do you think? Overall I'd like to stick with the 'clean' style.

EDIT: The colors seem much more saturated in this attachment than they are in Photoshop... not sure how to fix that.

[Londonsmee]

Well done for getting to where your at. Are you printing it off or interactive image?

Think at the min your try to hit it with a sledge hammer, it's lacking finesse. I think your grid doesn't help, try a bigger scale grid every 1000miles with legend for smaller units. I feel that your labelling wrong. Every Feels like the same importance. Little islands maybe italic bended round the island.

Your right about the saturation seem very heavy. You embossing off all the islands doesn't help, it doesn't convey any information such as heights or places, dock. How about some current lines or wind lines.

Think you have a way to go, but your making good steps.

[miinstrel]

Good points, thanks for the feedback.

I will have things that I track digitally, but there will be a static copy printed for player reference once the base map is finished.

Names for major locations will be enlarged so they're more prominent.

I don't want them to have to measure when they need to travel (which will be frequently), so 1,000 mile squares is impractical for my intended use. Most of the islands are only 100-200 miles apart. Currently it has a 50 mile grid (a day's travel in a larger vessel). I'll think about increasing it to 100 mile squares. It's a tiny, little world; the whole thing is only 6400 miles around!

Hadn't thought about docking locations. For the smaller islands I'll probably hand wave it so they just arrive at their destination, but the larger islands could definitely use some ports. Good suggestion.

The grid is definitely staying in some form (maybe the same, maybe larger, not sure yet). I think extra lines for currents, wind, trade routes, etc. would jumble and confuse the oceans. Would you agree? If it won't look too messy I'll give it a go.

[Londonsmee]

check out


trakorien-argond Thread

He's using everything in the book and lots of skills. His use of subtle colours and varying font sizes make it easy to read and gain lots of information. To figure out how far between places i could see just putting my hand on the scale and then using hand width to figure our distances. His trakorien is a delight you can feel the distances.

your increasing the distance like you said even with a small world of 6400miles a grid of one every 100 is 64 lines which sounds much better.

happy creating

[leen]

are you working in CMYK mode in photoshop? i had a similar problem on facebook, and after changing to RGB mode it vanished, so maybe...
map looks good so far!
just wondering, whats up with the rainbow islands?
cheers

[miinstrel]

I'm working in RGB.

Backstory: An enormous head crash landed in the sea. Islands it floats near find themselves with an abundance of undead. Some members of the population also obtain mutations ranging from elongated tongues, to inverted knees like a horse, to ebony claws. There is a group called the Pureheart Trust hunting down these mutated folk.

The Rainbow Isles, also known as the Isles of Misfits, are home to a group attempting to preserve the lives of these unfortunate individuals. The rainbow is an enormous prismatic wall (for those unfamiliar with D&D, if you pass through the wall there's a chance you will take massive damage, turn to stone, etc.).

Major islands have had their label size increased. Natural world labels (Garlaush Sea, etc.) have been changed to small capitals (IE: Text is same size, but no lower case letters). Trakorien is a BEAUTIFUL map, 'tis true. It's also for a fully fleshed-out published world... my homebrew campaign doesn't have all the details worked out yet haha. I have the really major locations figured out, but I'm not sure yet which smaller islands will play prominent roles; those labels are going to all remain the same size. Still adding the ports for large islands though.

100 mile squares for the grid is as large as I think I want to go. 200 and larger look awkward to me, but I agree 50 was too small of an increment.

EDIT: 2nd draft added to first post.

[Londonsmee]

moving on a step, think that blues too deep try doing a lighter version. Its very primal colours at the present