Thedd Estate (Numenera Map)

[wite_lance]

6 month lurker, first time poster...

I've been perusing the tutorials section for this site for about 6 months in preparation for starting to GM a Numenera campaign (Science Fantasy... more below). I've attached a map I'll be using on a VTT, that I made using Photoshop and a variety of tutorial provided techniques as well as just messing around with filters, later styles, and cumulative effects over multiple layers.

A bit more about the setting:

A billion years in the future, at least 8 intergalactic or interuniversal empires have left their imprint on Earth, before each falling by the wayside. Technologies that we of this age couldn't even begin to comprehend how or why it works have been left laying around the planet... sometimes not deactivated and doing who knows what. Humanity has regressed though... our ideals and abilities would be about that of a middle ages society, with the odd ray gun or flying thingamabob thrown in when someone got a thingamajig to do something that resembled shooting or flying...

The Map below is the Thedd Estate. Darson Thedd recently moved his estate (literally everything within the walls) up from the north onto a patch of land recently ravaged by the Iron Wind, and thus acquired rather cheaply. He's made his fortune by trading in the Numenera, technology left behind from epochs past. Some features of the estate:

• A force-dome to a pocket dimension much larger on the inside in the northwest of the estate. Currently in use for dangerous flora gathered from around the ninth world undergoing study.
• Along the northwest wall there are 4 Labs (green, pink, orange, yellow) for his cobblers to study new aquisitions and additions made by Darson
• 5 warehouses for storage of the technology Darson trades
• An indoor/outdoor ballroom (the purple slab) - It has an invisible roof made of the compressed energy that makes up the manor house
• 'Compressed Energy' Manor: Controlled by the will of Darson the walls and rooms can be moved around.
• Fountain - A pool of water with 3 orbs rotating slowly above it, changing heights and occasionally merging/splitting
• A slab of synth supported by 4 pillars, and with stalls for a stable in the southeast
• A Numenera 'Oddity' on the eastern lawn - this vortex of color is made up of 3 tiers of spinning rods that change color based on location.

Thedd-Dracogen-Estate.jpg

So that's that. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome. In particular I have difficulty with trees and other vegetation.
The trees inside the compound are made up of playing with a swirl brush on hue (greenish), rotation, and size jitter 5-7 times, adding a new layer with a smaller version of the same, then putting a drop and inner shadow on both, and finishing with a 3rd layer of a 50% overlay of 1 black on top.... I'd love a more realistic method.
The vegetation outside was done by playing with special effects brushes, then really messing with inner and outer glows, and overlay patterns with a cloud render. Ditto on better method.