World Map of Eleborn : looking for advice

[thebaptist]

This map is generated through a combination of automated and manual labor. Looking for any advice on how to make it better.

[Arimel]

First, welcome to the guild (this is your first post, right?).
Second, the map looks nice but could probably be improved depending on what its purpose is and who would be looking at the map.

1st. From a realistic point of view, there are several lakes in there that don't seem to have exits/rivers to the ocean, which is, at least on earth, rather abnormal.
2nd. A key/legend showing what each symbol on the map means might help (red dot=city or capital, black=town, white dash=state?, black dash=country?, etc). A compass might also make it look nicer.
3rd. Quite a few of the labels are a bit blurry and could be made clearer.
4th. Without zooming in, it is difficult to tell where the mountain ranges are. This could be on purpose but for me it is something that I think should be visible from the distance.
5th. Again for realistic maps, if you really want to go crazy, you can try fitting your map to a projection. This would alter that shape of the map itself to fit on a globe world and can cause real headaches to do (at least for me) but it is a possibility if realism is what you are going for.

I must also add that I do not normally do this type of map so if my comments clash with your ideas or what others may say, they (the others/you) would probably be correct.

Finally, in the future if you are posting a map that you would like to improve later, this is probably the incorrect forum section to post it under seeing as this section is for finished maps (unless you were just looking for ideas to improve future maps, than it is ok I think).

[ChickPea]

Firstly, hello, and welcome to the Guild.

I agree with Arimel's comments above, and one other point I'd add is regarding the roads (at least, I assume with the white dashed routes are roads). So many of your roads seem to just stop and they don't connect to other routes nearby. For example, in the large island to the right, I assume the main city is Beren? Yet there's only one road there. If I want to leave Beren and go to the south part of the island, I've got to go north, then circle round before I can head south. Now possibly there's a geographical barrier in the way, though it doesn't look like it on the map, but there are quite a number of places where two towns are relatively close to each other, but to get to travel from one to the other involves a huge detour. It doesn't feel entirely realistic.

With that aside, I like your colours and the coastlines look good. With a few tweaks, this can be a great map.

PS if you are still working on this map, rather than looking for feedback for your next work, we can move the thread to Regional WIP mapping. If you'd like the thread moved, let us know.