WIP - Space Archaeology Mission Map

[Korash]

...
The archeological mission in the Boas System is led by the late Prof. Dr. Dr. Klaus Bohrenheimer. ... but he's sure he will find there something of enormous importance for the whole universe...

I like what you got going here, and having a story to go with is even better, so I hope you take a little English lesson in the way that it is intended: helpful c&c. When you put "late" before a persons name, it generally means that that person is dead.

I am trying to get a decent workflow to create some planets of my own so I am really interested in your progress. I do have a thought about the clouds, If there is an atmosphere and rotation, there could very well be some sand storms, and quite big ones at that, that could soften up/obscure some of the features on the planet.

[Ilanthar]

Nice improvements! The labels are perfectly legible now.

[Abu Lafia]

I like what you got going here, and having a story to go with is even better, so I hope you take a little English lesson in the way that it is intended: helpful c&c. When you put "late" before a persons name, it generally means that that person is dead.

Thank you Korash, this is really helpful! I know that it is normally used "in retrospect" but thought it might work on living persons too... But yeah, Bohrenheimer is still very lively in testing the nerves of the other crew-members on the long flight to the Malinowski Sector...^^ (a typical quote while "arguing" with some crew members: "... all of the sudden there seems to be another person in this §$%! spaceship who recieved a honorary doctorate from Gagarin University on Mars!?!...").

I am trying to get a decent workflow to create some planets of my own so I am really interested in your progress. I do have a thought about the clouds, If there is an atmosphere and rotation, there could very well be some sand storms, and quite big ones at that, that could soften up/obscure some of the features on the planet.

You have a good point here. I tried to add some clouds/sand storms, but wasn't too happy with the result so far. I wanted to label some sites on the planet so i need at least some parts of the surface free from clouds that should be clearly distinct in grade of detail. I'l try to figure this out soon.

Edit:

Nice improvements! The labels are perfectly legible now.

Thanks Ilanthar, seems you posted while i was writing my post. I wanted some "retro-sci-fi" look and i'm quite happy with the results and think the colours fit somehow.

[Korash]

You have a good point here. I tried to add some clouds/sand storms, but wasn't too happy with the result so far. I wanted to label some sites on the planet so i need at least some parts of the surface free from clouds that should be clearly distinct in grade of detail. I'l try to figure this out soon.

In which case, don't bother with the clouds at all. Even now we have the tech to look through cloud cover as if it wasn't there, so I am quite sure that the future tech will be able to pierce sandstorms and such. It also explains why the features are so clean. Thanks for the info, it helps put a bit more polish on the story.

[Abu Lafia]

Update of recent changes. More detailed description and explanation of them will follow soon... What do you think?
Cheers,
AL
space_archaeology_wip4.jpg

[arsheesh]

Looking really nice Abu! Great colors, and I really like your regional map.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Ilanthar]

I agree with Arsheesh about the regional map. And I find the layout better too.

[Abu Lafia]

Damn, i'm sorry you guys, i knew it wasn't a good idea to upload in a hurry... no wonder the regional map pleases you the most...i uploaded the wrong version with this wonderful shaded relief map (only coloured by me) from an anonymous person, maybe somewhere in Virginia I only used it as a placeholder and an inspiration for my own (not yet finished) attempts to make a regional map and forgot to take it out before uploading
I focussed more on the other elements recently, like the depiction of the "Boas System", heavily inspired by Jim Burrows StarGen SVG Graphic File Output , and the revamping of the layout and border.

The next steps are the following:

- Replacing the black placeholder circles with various "proper" planets and after that, i'll finally write the "review" on Ilanthars Planet Tutorial as i promised

- I try to fit in detailed info about the different planets (and maybe the star itself), and add a legend

- Doing something with the border!?!

- Adding some light effects to some stars on the starfield-map

- Adding some sandstorms on the planet-map

- placing a logbook text from Prof. Bohrenheimer on the left side of the map for some background info on the mission

- last but not least the regional map with maybe two "zoomed-in-map-in-map" maps (don't know the right term) depicting the base camp and (one of) the dig site(s). This is the most artistically challenging part, so i decided to make it in the end. For the camp i was thinking about something like these nice hexagonal building-block containers.

Well that's it for now. I promise to take a second look on the map the next time i upload something... or preemptively quoting properly all the stuff that i didn't created myself

Cheers,
AL

Edit: totally forgot to say a proper "thank you" to arsheesh and Ilanthar...glad you like the colours and the layout!!!

[Abu Lafia]

So, here's another update:

space_archaeology_wip5.jpg

After my hamster couldn't handle the stress anymore, gimp crashed while saving and ate roughly the half of my layers 8( . Fortunately i had some Elements saved in other projects but it needed some time to bring them back together and rework some other stuff. The freshly done small planets in the Star-System-Map were still alive, only had to redid the main planet (version 3 or 4 now i guess, and still without sandstorms ), the "Sector-Map" on the starfield (the latter was saved in another project too...phew... ), and the labeling. I also tweaked the border and the windows a bit.
Would love to hear what you think about the changes. And ofc any kind of C&C is very welcome!
Cheers,
AL

[Chick]

Sounds like a bad day I like the look of your map, especially the border really does it justice! Are you going to expand the map of the sectors, because otherwise it looks like a lot of open empty space.