Ascentia and Environs -- Newly Acquired Land

[Peter Toth]

Hello Guild,

This time around, I've decided to include a few more essential map features (scales and title), since overall I was relatively satisfied with the topography I'd created. (No satellite DEM was ever used; rather, the entire map's contours were shaped by hand and enhanced by Wilbur and Photoshop!) Unfortunately, I still haven't discovered how to tame the rivers; they seem to break away from the river basins in some select areas. I also realize the coast might not be entirely realistic.

Still, I'm hoping this one represents a slight improvement over my usual work.

Peter

Lower Ascentia.png

[waldronate]

The labels and other non-terrain elements help to set expectations for the rest of the map, so that's a significant improvement.
As you say, there are some places where the rivers are doing strange things like climbing out of unexpected blind valleys and there are lots of little pits along the bottom of river valleys (both are most likely due to use of Wilbur's Incise Flow feature, which tends to dig channels deeper near joins in rivers).
I'm still not sold on punching the terrain down to sea level in order to get lakes, though, because it gives thick edges around the lakes that aren't present along the coasts. The uniformity of depth showing for the lakes caused by lack of sub-surface topography in the lakes is a little unexpected as well.
Overall, it's a nicely plausible result for a quick glance, and has only a few technical issues to address before it would achieve your previously-stated goal of realism.

[Eowyn Cwper]

It definitely looks great at first glance though!