WIP - (ambitious) World Map of fictious earth-like planet

[Naima]

This is a really old thread to ressurrect, but the fact is that work on this map is a never finished task.

It's now just over 3 and 1/2 years since I started this. That's 42 months of "often interrupted work". I can't count the hours spent on this project, and while it's incredibly difficult for a sane adult to justify this investment, I can't help feeling proud of the direction it's taking. I say it's taking a certain direction because it's very much a Work In Progress. It's far from finished. In fact, some areas might be up for complete devastation and remake, as I grow increasingly unsatisfied with some tectonic aspects in the background.

In the meanwhile, this project has generated a number of spinoffs:
A joint work with Azelor and others on climates for a conworld. Interesting discussions with several members on culture and technology diffusion. Daunting (pointless?) exercises on tectonics with so many newcomers. A couple of tutorials for the Guild. A starting-to-become-detailed history of the world, from Neolithic to Present (although I didn't even reach the Iron Age). A series of detailed modern atlas maps.

Ramblings aside, I'm writing this post, basically, to share the current state of the world map.
Attachment 96591
(Yay, long live large attachments! - click to enlarge and have a look at it further zoomed in)

Like I said, I am truly pround of this, and yet, I know it has so many faults and improvements to be made. May I ask for thoughtful feedback, fellow guilders? I know some of you don't care for realism that much, or prefer pictographic maps to heightmaps, or are here for the dungeon stuff only.... but, if you can, could you have a look at this and tell me - which parts look realistic and which parts just unnatural? where does your imagination take you when looking at this map?

Lastly, some time ago we discussed here at the guild about using a part of this map for the monthly competition. Which part would you like to map? (and why?)

Many many thanks for the feedback!!
Cheers

I personally think it looks awesome and its been my main source of inspiration and teaching for my own world , the only thing that I would say doesn't look very realistic to me are the twirls and spins that some mountains are doing , I understand its geologicial twists made by continent collisions and movements, but somehow seem too accentuated like if it wasn't solid rock but more of a fluid , eventually I would refine that, also on the Hypsographic map I would add more layers of color for mountain heights as so far its all very green and yellow , also I would add a Batymetric map to represent also undersurface continental drift as I did for example in my latest map.
I also would add a triple height distinction based on temperature or on rain , so for example dry hot areas would have a desert like tone , a cold dry area would have a cold icey tone etc...
For the rest the shapes of the Continents are extremely belieaveable and realistic.
I am a fun of realistic maps though .

[Azélor]

This particular image looks to me like it might be a map of the world's watersheds. Is that its intent?

It's an elevation map.

Pixie:
It looks very convincing, I like the colours.

[Pixie]

However, it might be helpful if you put the elevation key in the map itself, since that would make it easier to compare the elevations to Earth (and identify possibly problematic areas).

You are right and you just posted a great color scheme recently with a matching map of Earth, so I will leave a version of this map with those colors/elevation scheme at the end of this post.

None of it looks unnatural to me, but I'm not an expert! I really like all of the fiddly little islands - especially the long ridges of islands on the far left! It would be neat to think about the different cultures which might develop - so close and yet divided by water.

That area is under major revision right now.. Sorry for that.

I personally think it looks awesome and its been my main source of inspiration and teaching for my own world , the only thing that I would say doesn't look very realistic to me are the twirls and spins that some mountains are doing , I understand its geologicial twists made by continent collisions and movements, but somehow seem too accentuated like if it wasn't solid rock but more of a fluid , eventually I would refine that, also on the Hypsographic map I would add more layers of color for mountain heights as so far its all very green and yellow , also I would add a Batymetric map to represent also undersurface continental drift as I did for example in my latest map.
I also would add a triple height distinction based on temperature or on rain , so for example dry hot areas would have a desert like tone , a cold dry area would have a cold icey tone etc...

Thank you Naima, for the kind words and advice.
I have toyed with the idea of using "natural colors" for a map. But I didn't still manage to produce anything worthy and for sure I haven't invested enough time. The same with batymetry - no time invested on that yet.

I am very curious about the places where the twirls and spins put you off. I'm not so happy with some places either. Can you point out those you noted, please.

It looks very convincing, I like the colours.

Thank you Azelor. And don't you go anywhere... I plan to have a good look at the climates of Maward not so far ahead.


And last in this post, a slightly updated map, this time colored with the same elevation key that Charerg just used in this thread.
currentstate_201706_comparablecolor.jpg
(I'm quite unhappy with the comparison, right now... must think...)

[Azélor]

Good coincidence, I'm currently working on an elevation and climate map for my Guild world country.

[Naima]

You are right and you just posted a great color scheme recently with a matching map of Earth, so I will leave a version of this map with those colors/elevation scheme at the end of this post.
That area is under major revision right now.. Sorry for that.
Thank you Naima, for the kind words and advice.
I have toyed with the idea of using "natural colors" for a map. But I didn't still manage to produce anything worthy and for sure I haven't invested enough time. The same with batymetry - no time invested on that yet.
I am very curious about the places where the twirls and spins put you off. I'm not so happy with some places either. Can you point out those you noted, please.







Thank you Azelor. And don't you go anywhere... I plan to have a good look at the climates of Maward not so far ahead.


And last in this post, a slightly updated map, this time colored with the same elevation key that Charerg just used in this thread.
currentstate_201706_comparablecolor.jpg
(I'm quite unhappy with the comparison, right now... must think...)

Hello Pixie , first let me tell that mine is just a very minor nitpicking sugestion and its based purely on a eye quick comparison between Earth and your world , I personally think that your elevation map shapes are perfect and especially good are the coastline fragmentation and archipelagos as well the mountain positionings etc ...

So here is an image about what I was meaning .

Wsc45w0.jpg

I have only highlighted the twirls that come noticeable to my eyes at a quick survey , I am not saying though that are not right or not possible as I am not a geologist or an expert on tectonic movements , I think you have a much deeper knowledge here so mine are explusively comparisons with the Earth .

I have attached also in the pic the max twirls you can see and notice on earth . What I seem to notice is that those twirls are more subtle to see and seem to have formed over long long time and probably subject to a lot of erosion and breakups that make those little twirls more irregular and less evident, but againits just an observation from an outside perspective and not at all a criticism on the "realism" wich for as much as I know can be totally realistic and plausible.

The new hypsographic map you used above looks good to me and makes the twirls indeed a little less evident .
Your world shapes are extremely realistic and very belieaveable and have nothing to envy to the Chareg one that in my opinion is also great but has some less realistic coastlines due to the almoust similar fragmentation of the shores on the different tectonic plaques sides.
In your map instead I can imediatly see , even without checking the tectonic plaques map what are the movements.

In my map I took a different approach only for time reasons , I do not have lot of time to work on coastlines forever and make also bathymetry and precise mountain drawings, so my approach was the one of FT - Wilbur - Photoshop wich many elements from Real Earth copied and reworked in PS readapted to my needs.
As for the Hypsographic map I used a different approach wich is the one that takes into consideration precipitation and humidity .

so my approach is the one to use Cross-blended Hypsometric Tints for Generalized Environmental Mapping

setup.jpg

Further informations here ...

To make them I created different outputs in wilbur with the custom made hipsographics for biomes as Ialso wanted to represent vegetation so I did sea, Grassland, rainforests, forests, desert and arctic layers and I selectively deleted parts of one or the others to make a see throught result overlays.

[Charerg]

(I'm quite unhappy with the comparison, right now... must think...)

Nice to see someone is making use of that colour scheme I posted (which is still a bit WIP, btw, so any feedback is welcome if there are some weak transitions, for example). Your map may suffer from having originally used different elevation levels than the ones I used (unless you created an actual black-and-white heightmap for it, allowing you to switch elevation levels easily). If you want, I can generate an Earth map with different elevation levels from the ETOPO1 model, if you wish to have a more matching map of Earth for purposes of comparison (although I should warn that my 2-month free license for ArcMap expires in about a week, and after that I'll probably not be able to).

That said, I don't think it's all that bad even in it's present shape. A bit of touch-up here and there, ramping up the elevations in the Acuran interior (since you seem to going for a bit African-ish look for central Acur), and reducing the area covered by the 0-50 level, and it would already be very close to Earth. I guess the mountains in Palamb are a bit on the high side, but that's not necessarily wrong since those are continent-continent collision zones, and surely a touch of exaggeration is acceptable in fantasy (after all, it doesn't have to be exactly like Earth in every detail ).

[Pixie]

Thanks for your pointers, Naima, some of those areas are already being revised. One issue though, is that my map is far more limited than the one you are comparing it to. I have a limited set of altitude levels (20), less pixels to work (it's roughly a 4000x2000 map) and it has no relief shading.

I used your color scheme, Charerg, because I wanted a better comparison to Earth. That comparison allowed me to improve my altitude distribution, resulting in this:
currentstate_201707_comparablecolor.jpg

Since we're on the same page here, I'll take you for my audience and write a bit more about Acur and Palamb. (But don't feel obliged to read, I will never know )
I don't see the parallel between Acur and Africa. Present day Acur is a huge continent composed of four independent plates, two are grinding each other as they move west at slightly differnet velocities and directions. The other one had been collinding with Acur plate proper, but is now rotating, diverging again. So there is, indeed, a large rift forming, but it's of a different nature. In the southwest, there is another plate that was converging and isn't any longer: Kane is rotating clockwise, slowly, easing the pressure on the northern boundary (which is creating a depressional plain) and forcing orography in a new area - I could go into detail with this, since it's in the area I have worked the most - there's fossilized river beds and everything.

Palamb is a much poorer work as I look into it, nowadays. It has had some revision and more is planned. Indeed, the huge continent-continent collision between the two main blocks (east and west) is, in my last version, a past event. I'm working on some of Palamb's areas now, and if you look closely at the above map, there has been changes already, which are unfinished. The higher-than-plausible areas of Palamb make me sigh now, but it was so much work that I have been delaying getting back to them...

[Charerg]

Since we're on the same page here, I'll take you for my audience and write a bit more about Acur and Palamb. (But don't feel obliged to read, I will never know )
I don't see the parallel between Acur and Africa. Present day Acur is a huge continent composed of four independent plates, two are grinding each other as they move west at slightly differnet velocities and directions. The other one had been collinding with Acur plate proper, but is now rotating, diverging again. So there is, indeed, a large rift forming, but it's of a different nature. In the southwest, there is another plate that was converging and isn't any longer: Kane is rotating clockwise, slowly, easing the pressure on the northern boundary (which is creating a depressional plain) and forcing orography in a new area - I could go into detail with this, since it's in the area I have worked the most - there's fossilized river beds and everything.

Ah, I guess I was thrown off by the large plateau in southern Acur (which reminds me of the Kalahari plateau, since this is presumably also a passive margin like southern Africa). Interesting to hear that you're redoing Palamb. I'm curious about how do you plan to handle the mountains there, if the continent-continent collision is a past event. A new subduction zone to the east of the continent, omaybe a direction shift?

Btw, I wouldn't necessarily describe Palamb as poorer work. It's definitely high quality, at least to my eyes. The only really implausible thing that pops out is the extreme height of those mountains, but in the most recent map (which is awesome, btw ), they're already looking pretty good.

[davoush]

I can only admire the work - It is fantastic. I am also enjoying reading the geological history of the regions. I will have to settle for a much more vague and 'painterly' style for my own elevation map...

[PaGaN]

WOW Pixie, just WOW! can I have some more please?