A spot of mankind

[Maraxus_]

Current map:


(Right click - open for full size)
If this does not work: Link

I'm sure, that I'll abandon the icon trees and mountains. It's not just a matter of size and density.
Size will still be a bit bigger, I shrinked it down to 33% this time, I think 50% is even better and allows the names to be read. Also, the "mapdirt" plus small text plus jpg compression is not good, I guess I'll take the extra size of png.






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Previously:

Hi, I'm Maraxus, amateur Mapmaker from the great site of NationStaates and I came here to develop my mapmaking skills to the next level.

The maps here are quite inspiring and I aim for a similar style, though I'm not exactly sure about the details.
Plus, if somehow possible, I still like to add some colour -> political map equation. I'm looking mostly at crusader Kings 2 maps here.

So, here's a first...ish map. It's going to be a fantasy map for a setting where there are only a few early/high medieval human nations surrounded by barbarian tribes and beyond that - weired fey and giant and strange creature lands. The map is supposed to represent, that the civil human knows the few nations and has a vague idea about the barbarians and the lands beyond those are still unexplored.

Oh, one important thing first: The names are mostly just placeholders for the closest real-world inspiration in some aspects so don't mind them.

gyWH7kI.jpg
(if this does not work: Link)

I am using an old Photoshop version and I don't think this one knows what a cloud layer is - so I use Auto-Realm for the coastlines (I like that better anyway).

As you see, I have not yet found my "style" in this one. I especially find the mountain and trees clip art rather unpleasant to the eye, though the forms seam okay. But size, density and most of all colour needs some fine tuning, I'm not exactly sure where I should be going there.
(Also, there will be more mountains and forests)


Texture: I found this nice looking map paper you see there, changed hue/satuation/brightness for the water and really like that as the base but as I am putting stuff over it, I wonder, whether I should better apply map-texture last.
I think this should be possible, desaturating the paper and using it a mask layer on all other layers merged in front of a black background - or something. Maybe. And I'm a little hesitating to now make the map textureless and trust that I can just add it in the end.
How do you do that? Texture at the bottom and blending the stuff you add into it, or textureless map and laying it over it the end.

ToDos that I know about:
- Borders: I think about colourful borders like in the aforementioned Crusader Kings 2 here, since I want to subdevision for example the big Empire into Kingdoms, Duchies and Counties often skipping levels (There should be independant Dukes and Counts directly below the Emperor, as well as below Kings (and counts below Dukes) - and making this all intuitively visible sounds like a challenge.)
And there would need to be another kind of blurred border for the barbarien tribes, to represent, that nobody is exactly sure, where their territory ends.
- Rivers: I'm somewhat uncertain here, too. Usually I just take another few fractal lines from AutoRealm. and make them end at the sea. However after reading those tutorials on rivers, I feel challenged. So this will have to wait until after the mountains. Since this is a rather continental map, I guess I should focus on only mayor rivers
- Terrain structure: Somehow, the bases of the mountains should better mend into the map, to show rough terrain. Then I would like to add some subtle indication for lush grassland, compared to average pains and the desert of the east.
- Text: I already have ideas about the fonts for geographical features and lands and such, I will try them out, once I have some good names.

[Eilathen]

Hi there,

Maybe it is just me, but i do not see a map in your post. It's just a wall of text so far

[Maraxus_]

Strange I could see it. Anyway I attached it anew.

[Maraxus_]

Updated the map, smaller political sub-entities, random names (mostly), rivers.

[Falconius]

Personally I prefer the subdued colours you had before for the political entries. With this intensity they tend to overbear other information like the roads and labels.

[General Brewster]

This is awesome seriously dude. Jealous.