Extrasolar colony world

[jshoer]

Some minor changes here, but they make a big stylistic difference:

Colony8.png

Also working on some of the mountain shadows.

[Tiluchi]

Wow! Colors! Definitely a big change. Stylistically, I think you're well on track for a good sci-fi-ish map. I think your current style of mountains fits well with the map, and I like the way the borders go along the mountain ridgelines. A couple of minor thoughts I have on this:

• I like your way of coloring the various... provinces? Municipalities? Kingdoms?... but I'd say some of the colors are a bit strong. I'm looking particularly at the big purple bit in the center of the map. Maybe decrease the saturation a little?

• I'm not sure if you have bigger plans for the oceans, but at the moment the color and lack of shading or any other details on the bodies of water is rather jarring. If nothing else I'd desaturate them a bit, and perhaps change the color a little. Or perhaps add some shading along the coastlines, and other maritime features if you plan to do that.

• I like the way you did the compass! It really fits the scifi style of the map. Do you plan to add any other modern mapping features, like graticules or a scale? I think those would also fit very well here.

Overall it's great! Those were the only comments I could think of at the moment, after trying really hard to think of criticisms! Keep up the good work!

[jshoer]

Thanks, Tiluchi!

I decreased the opacity on the national borders a little. I also got the idea to punch up the forest color a little, and add a bit of tan tint to the land.

I added a little shading to the oceans, just to start giving me ideas to work from. It's definitely NOT FINAL like this!

Finally, I put a scale on there. I think graticules also make a lot of sense, but those will some another time.

Colony9.png

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The Third Great Ark traveled over a hundred light-years, carrying a manifest of 8000 passengers in suspended animation. The journey took many centuries, and the colonists knew that they would be starting a civilization from scratch when they arrived.

The Ark went into orbit around the New World, using the last of its gargantuan power reserves, and automated systems woke the advance crew. This dedicated group of 100 men and women spent the next decade of their lives observing and mapping the New World - followed by, once suitable sites were identified, exploring, testing, and cataloging. By 16 After Arrival, the advance crew had established enough infrastructure to begin settling the rest of the passengers.

The first settlement founded was simply called The Colony, located in a place with fields, forests, stone, and minerals. Shuttles from orbit landed in a field a short distance outside of the new town, and soon, 4000 settlers called it home. A similar group of 4000 settlers later landed in a northern region of the continent that promised bountiful seas and plentiful game and crops. By 20 AA, Colony and Weilai were incorporated as towns, along with Transceiver Tower, which 500 settlers from Colony set up at a prominent site to maintain communications worldwide and with the empty orbiting Ark.

However, within a few years, ailing systems on the Ark began to fail and the great ship could no longer maintain its orbit. It crashed onto a different continent of the New World.

[jshoer]

Well, now that the dust settled from the last challenge, I'm trying to get this guy going again. I've added a grid at roughly 5 degree increments, and worked a bit on the mountain shading. I plan to work on some details to the mountains next.

Colony10.png

[elboe]

I just found this thread. I really like your progress and style, I hope you have time to keep at it.

You asked earlier in the thread about the glow around the text over the water. I see now you have eliminated it. I think it looks a little odd, especially at Xeno Station. I would suggest trying to put the ocean layer on top and applying a layer effect to color the glow somewhat. I don't know how easy this will be now since you lost most of your layers but it may help.

[jshoer]

Good idea, elboe. I have mostly recreated the ocean layer to achieve some other effects, so I will see what I can do - at the very least, I can insert a layer right over the labels. I've done that in other places on this map.

[jshoer]

I had a chance to go after some of the more...meditative work on this map recently - I've been working on detailing the mountain shading and highlights. Here's an export without a lot of the label and graphic layers. Check out the mountains on the southeastern continent and let me know what you think!

Colony11.png

I suspect I should go over it all again with a smudge brush to even out the shading. I should probably also resist the temptation to go too tiny!

[jshoer]

...any thoughts or suggestions? I added all that secondary ridge shading at high zoom, and I'm not sure that it really makes much of a difference at 100%. I'd like to make sure it blends in smoothly with the existing larger scale shading. Do you think it would look better smudged into wider swaths?

[jshoer]

I have been quietly working away at adding shading to the mountains on this map - and I have reached a milestone! All the ranges now have secondary and tertiary ridges, with added shadows and highlights. Whew!

Here is a view with all the overlay layers turned off:
ColonyMountainPreview.png

And here, again, with everything visible so you can see the full effect:
Colony12.png

Some things I am considering for future development...
- I think those rivers need more tributaries now, don't you?
- I'm not convinced the forests really match with the style of the rest of the geographic features now. I'm thinking of maintaining the same green overlay, but adding rounded edges and a lot more wiggliness to follow the details in the terrain.
- I miiiiiiight add some extra shading under the water to hint at topography there, but I think I like it better with the more flat appearance on the oceans

[Zemurray]

Wow! As a relatively new member of this forum, the majority of the works posted here are dumbfounding to me, but this in particular is a great concept and it looks really good. I am a fan of science fiction maps, especially the terrestrial ones, so this kind of map is one of my favorites. I don't know what more needs to be done, but keep on it!

I'd like to know if there's any similar maps to this, in the vein of science fiction terrestrial maps, that anyone would particularly recommend looking at. Also, if you feel the need to put down a few more settlements on this globe and want a few more cultural names, I know a bit about Yiddish place names. Of course, there's almost certainly not going to be many interstellar colonists speaking Yiddish, but you never know. Perhaps the mameloshn (mother language) can spread to the stars!