World or City maps... which is harder?

[Jaxilon]

Time consuming... hehe... that reminds me:

You know when an artwork is complete?

When you take it away from the artist.

[Yanarchist]

I find that I have a harder time doing general Maps than city maps... I suppose a urbanism course helps with city maps haha.

[Midgardsormr]

Some people find city maps easier to conceptualize because most of us live in urban environments. We know how streets work and have an intuitive understanding of where we'll find businesses and residences, and so forth. Overland maps, on the other hand, require us to design based on principles we probably aren't as directly familiar with: geology, climate, economics. That doesn't necessarily mean that the world maps are harder, because some people have an easier time creating based on things they think about deliberately, and trying to think your way through a city design can lead to a great deal of complexity.

That's all about design, though. There is also the matter of execution. As has been mentioned, you can make either kind of map as complex or as simple as you like. The tendency, though, is to try to make city maps very detailed, with every building shown. That can take ages, but it's not the only way to approach it. A simple district map with only a few points of interest highlighted can be quick and simple to create.

So, as with all things: It depends.

[Falconius]

Well another thing is people are often interested in doing major cities rather than less important ones, which generally means they are larger and more nuanced than would be. If you are doing a podonk hick town in the middle of nowhere it's easier to execute and design than a large city with a storied past like London or New York. World maps however don't have this issue, their complexity is dependent on the detail you wish to include. Also world maps tend to be more stratified, you have political maps, terrain maps, navigation maps excreta all separated out on their own sharing only the basics between them.

[Azélor]

I don't do city map as long as my world map is not finished. I guess I could aslo make the cities, (I already made some quick hand draw version of them) it's just not a priority. I only have 1 world so it's really important to map it, but I have many cities and I can't do all of them. Eventually, I'll try to make one.

[Prattl]

Imo city maps are harder to make because I usually want them to have a lot of small detail. That's not to say that world maps are easy or lack the necessity of detail but rather that city maps rely on detail to make them feel real. And if something is off by just a little bit it can ruin the whole thing.