The Great Divide - Fantasy Version

[Jalyha]

and that's why bigger, fellas... ain't always better. O:-)


It's good though.. just... overcompensating O:-)

@Lyrillies: I can't help but laugh everytime I see your sig

[ravells]

I'm trying to work out what factors my mind is subconsciously processing in coming to the conclusion that the mountains are too big - and I'm drawing a blank. The map has no scale, so what is it in the map that suggests the scale of it (my mind immediately thinks continental scale)? Perhaps it's the rivers? Or maybe the detailed coastlines and the concentric lines around them (what ARE they called??) as Lyrilles said. I really don't know but would be interested to hear what others think. (Sorry Diamond for potentially sending your thread on a slight diversion).

[Jalyha]

It's the size of the mountains compared to both the size of the islands AND the waves at the shoreline.

Your mind automatically finds the largest and smallest readily visible image in an object and compares them - part of how we perceive distances in the big wide world

EDIT: And it seems like a continent due to the range of ginormous mountains swathed across the center ^.^

[Diamond]

Yep, I think J just hit the nail on the head there. I've started to rework it with smaller mountains and it looks MUCH better.

@ravs: no worries. This board could do with more tangents, frankly. There's gotta be a proper name for them, but I always just call them coastal rings.

[Lingon]

I agree, smaller mountains will probably make it look even better. And I'm quite excited about seeing how you'll use my icons, if you do! It'll be a first for me

I've always thought of the coast rings as stylized waves… so I call them wave lines. Maybe that's crazy though

[- Max -]

I'm calling them waterlines Same, I think smaller mountains would work better regarding coastlines and stuff.

[Diamond]

Okay, these are half-size mountains. I think they work MUCH better. For one thing, I can fit more of them in now, giving greater detail to a region.

[Falconius]

The mountains fit in much better with the coasts now. Definitely looking much better, they look like they belong.

@ The coast lines topic: I've always assumed the outlined coasts were a stylized derivation of water depths from navigation maps. Didn't think of a good name for them like Waterlines or wavelines though... I really like wave-lines as a term for some reason.

[Llannagh]

It's the size of the mountains compared to both the size of the islands AND the waves at the shoreline.

Your mind automatically finds the largest and smallest readily visible image in an object and compares them - part of how we perceive distances in the big wide world

Aaaaand I've learned something again. The logic of it is so obvious it almost punches you, but I never really thought of it like that.

Those wave lines, as you call them, in my head are shelf lines. To me the represent the continental shelves, gradually descending into the ocean. That sentence made no geograpgical sense whatsoever, I'm afraid, but you know what I mean! ...You know what I mean, right?

As to the mountains: Smaller looks better to me too. And as you said, that way you can add more detail, like valleys and passes and such.

[Jalyha]

Pretty sure the lines are all of the above.

The waves cause the coast, which is usually a series of shelfs and the coast affects the waves. So they are coast-wave-water-shelf lines. Pretty sure that's not the official name for them, but I know that whatever you call them, everyone knows what you mean

@ Diamond - it looks a lot better now

I don't feel like the mountains are coming to get me

It DOES stilll look like *really* rocky country - makes me want to go on an ADVENTURE!