Medieval map creation project, give me your thoughts

[Vandy]

Hello, Pasis.

I must say that you've created quite an interesting map. Enough so that it has made me post in your thread.

Overall, I can only hope that in time I'll be able to create a map half as beautiful as yours. I am quite taken by your terrain features and believe you have done a wonderful job with your mountains.

I don't have anything new to add to what others have alread said as their comments should be most useful to you in completing this map.

I do like th perspective you've chosen to view the map as it allows for the viewer to get not quite a birds eye view but more of a (my term) spacial 3D view. This allows the features to be seen in their entirerty.

I would be very interested in your posting a tutorial or some "short steps" as to how you placed the major features of your map.

I look forward to the continued progress on your beautiful map.

Regards,

Gary

[Talroth]

The only problem I really see with your rivers is the western exit on Pohjaton, and maybe the size of the larger island on the eastern exit. You also have some vanishing rivers in the mountains, how are those draining out? Are they dead seas gathering salt? (Possibly negated by the amount of fresh water from glacier melt not having much time to pick up many salts) or are they draining under ground?

However what was said about the lake draining to the west and east is 99.9% unlikely, it isn't 100% impossible. Personally I would get rid of the western drain because the other option is to explain how the lake straddling the edge of two watersheds and the erosion rates allow for flow change to be roughly the same in the east and west.

A bit of eraser action is easiest

(Or you can just make comments in your world about just how odd of a lake it is.)

[Midgardsormr]

Regarding your tree/hill interaction: It looks to me like the problem is a matter of a conflict in apparent scale between the hills and the forests. The tufty look of the forests makes them appear representational, but the mountains and hills look more like a satellite photo.

I think what I would do would be to either find a different texture or reduce the scale of the one you have, eliminate the shadow, and reduce the opacity or change the blending mode so that the underlying texture shows through and makes it look like the forests are actually lying on top of that terrain instead of towering above it.

[NymTevlyn]

I just want to know how the forests were done.

[pasis]

Improvements done so far:
-Vanishing rivers corrected. It was actually a test to hide part of the river behind the mountains. It didn't work that well and I had forgot to correct it. I have alos added new rivers to run the water to the sea from lakes at the wertern mountain.
-Roads curving corrected so that roads are straighter in grass plains and other flat surfaces. Corrected also the roads being on top of the forests.
-Corrected all terrains at the edges of the lakes and seas as in some areas the terrain pattern went slightly over the coastal line. This correction added more 3-D effect to the coastal line.
-Changed the desert color and made many other small adjustments...I will post a new example later when I get few more things finished.

[pasis]

I added some Icy waters near the norhernmost town Fangoth. I havn't drawn anythng like that before but I think they turned out alright. I also increased the contrast of the cities so that they would stand out better from the map. Fangoth is a small town, so you don't see much of the pattern it has but anyway it can be seen a bit easier now. Below is a sample picture...

[Hoel]

Looks nice.
I had a thought. Have you put the glacier(s) in a separate layer?
I think you could get a really nice effect by painting it on top of everything else. Also, you could get a natural ice flow between mountains and into the sea.

[Gandwarf]

Looking good Pasis, although you only gave us a teaser. Let us see some progress on the big map soon

[XiaoTie]

Damn. I mean, damn! I'm still new to this forum, but that is probably the most awesome map I have seen here. Great work man

[Ascension]

I'm with ya Xiao...it simply blows me away when I see the artistic maps and I beat myself about the head wishing I could that.