The Western Kingdoms - by Greason Wolfe

[Diamond]

I'm leaning towards bottom left. I'm guessing you'll blend in the edges a bit, right?

[Wingshaw]

I also prefer the lower left, and I think blending the edges is a good idea (although it might give your maps a very unique look if you leave them unblended).

It seems like Diamond and I have similar tastes, because I've been agreeing with him on a lot of things lately.

[Raptori]

I agree with THW and Diamond

[Greason Wolfe]

Interesting. I was actually leaning towards the upper-left version, but I can see where the lower-left version would work well. Blending them in might be a bit of a chore, but I'll take a look at a few options and see what I can come up with. I do have a second idea of how to use the upper-left version that I will attempt to preview with my next image posting. Thanks for the input.

GW

[madcowchef]

Put me down for the lower left too.

[Ilanthar]

Same for me... even if I find the upper right interesting.

[Lingon]

I agree with the majority here. The bottom left is the most coherent with the coastline in terms of sharpness and contrast. And I definitely think blending them would be worth it.

[Greason Wolfe]

Well, it seems we have a majority vote for the lower left mountains, which, I will admit, I was somewhat partial to as well. As for blending them in, I've tried a few things so far and the results have been less than stellar. I suspect that I will have to change the render settings in Terragen to get a good blend, and even then, there might still be a somewhat obvious edge around the base of each mountain. Give me a day or two, and I'll see what I can come up with.

I really appreciate all the input, and think it is going to help me make this one of the best maps I've ever done.

GW

[Greason Wolfe]

So I tried tweaking the rendering process with two goals in mind, those being; cleaner edges to work the blending on, and a better shading transition from mountain base to peak. I'm pretty close, I think, at least when it comes to the edges. These should be much easier to work with in terms of blending them in, and/or covering them with some of the other terrain features I'm planning. It's a little frustrating that it's taking me more time than I planned for this, but not nearly as frustrating as it would have been if I was working with larger chains and what not. I'm no where near that "burn-out" stage at this point, so I expect to continue working on this map. I suppose it all comes down to being a bit of a perfectionist at heart.

GW

[Greason Wolfe]

Before letting myself get too deep into re-rendering the mountains, I took a couple more shots at trying to blend in the existing mountain brushes. At full size, I think the results aren't bad, but as I shrink the scale on the brushes, things seem to be getting a little more harsh. That could be, I think, a problem as, at full size, the mountains seem awfully big when compared to the rest of the map. But that could just be me. The flip side of that coin is that enlarging the base map wouldn't be that difficult. Still, up for input on this as I'm a bit "iffy" on which way to go.

GW