Imperium Saerdastim

[Gregorus Prime]

Yet another crack at mountaineering. The problem mountain chain bordering the southern wetlands might have to be taken care of on its own. I'll have to make some adjustments to the forest mask as well, but I think this is better than what I've had before. I do think the height map for the terrain makes a difference.

Looking at the mountains now I think it's awesome how far I've come from my first map. I might have to go back and re-do that one using the techniques I've taught myself.

[Steel General]

Looking at the mountains now I think it's awesome how far I've come from my first map. I might have to go back and re-do that one using the techniques I've taught myself.

That in and of itself is part of the reason I enjoy this place so much.

[Gidde]

They're looking pretty good!

The only thing I'd suggest is to make your spurs less even. They tend to come out from each side of the main range at the same point and to the same length, which makes the ranges kinda look like big centipedes.

[Gregorus Prime]

Luckily I was smart enough to keep the jagged shapes I based the mask off of this time, so it shouldn't take too long to do just that.

I'm thinking I should also add some brownish-yellow patches to what I want to be the warmer or drier parts of the plains, just for variety's sake.

[Gregorus Prime]

I made some adjustments to the forest and mountain shapes/masks and added some noise, discoloration, and semi-transparent mask areas to the plains layer. I think the map looks much better for it. I'm mostly satisfied with it now and can start on lakes and rivers soon.

[Gregorus Prime]

Hey how about that I'm not dead at all.

Been a bit sidetracked recently. I did finally make the time to put in rivers, and they look terrible, but damned if I know how to make them look better. Luckily during this bit of downtime I've had plenty of time to get some more ideas for my campaign and even roughly pencil out the skeleton of an adventure.

[Steel General]

Your rivers may be a bit to wide, and it appears that your ocean texture is 'taking over'. You might consider doing the rivers in a solid color on their own layer (above the ocean but below the land so they don't appear to float.)

Also, this may just be me but when I zoom in to full resolution the map appears very fuzzy/blurry.

Overall it looks pretty nice.

[Gregorus Prime]

The rivers are their own layer with their own noise effect. Just having a flat sky blue looks absolutely terrible. But when you say below the land, do you mean below the mountains and forests? Also, I'm afraid that if I make them any thinner they would be too hard to see.

ANd yes, I know about the blurriness. I'll have to redefine the masks a bit, reduce the blur effect on them and such.

[Gregorus Prime]

Bumping yet again, I really need some advice.

I've sharpened up the masks on the forest and mountain layers to make them stand out a bit more, but I'm completely lost on the rivers. I need a way to make them show up through the forests (hopefully without redoing the forests themselves) and to stand out against the background without making them look like they're floating, which is all that adding a shore stroke does even if I ensure it doesn't show up on the mountains and forests.

Any ideas?

[Ascension]

What I do for my rivers is to put them just above the basic terrain but below all other terrain like mountains and forests. I then erase where these features go over the river with a very low opacity eraser. This allows the water to just peak through a little bit while maintaining some integrity to the forest. You could use the same principle on a mask but instead use a very low opacity brush with white.