WIP - Batai

[Master TMO]

I've thought a little bit about how the tectonics plates are laid out on this map. It looks to me like a Pangaea-style super continent (sp?) in the process of splitting up. The southern landmass is swinging south and east away from the main continent with a counter-clockwise twist, opening up that sea. Eventually it will split off completely. I'm not sure what's happening with the northwestern landmass, since it's connected to the main one over the north pole. Maybe it's splitting off, maybe not. That peninsula right in the center of the map is probably splitting off too, only remaining connected by a narrow neck of land.

Hard to say for sure, though. I haven't done any geology since college, and that was only an entry-level course.

I should plot that out more though, as that will tell me where the volcanoes are. That southern mountain range is probably volcanic. Actually, that north-western sea has mountains almost all the way around it. Perhaps its in the process of closing up, which would make all those ranges volcanic also. That small range of mountains on the western edge of the peninsula is probably also mildly volcanic, as it doesn't appear to be too large yet.

[rdanhenry]

A major river starting in the mountains and flowing through a desert? Hey, you've got your world's Nile.

[Master TMO]

A major river starting in the mountains and flowing through a desert? Hey, you've got your world's Nile.

Good point. I've lived in the central US most of my life. The Missouri and Mississippi are the rivers I'm most familiar with. But both the Nile and the Colorado go through desert areas. Thanks for pointing that out.

[alizarine]

Wow - tectonic plate shift? Man ... I tried thinking about that, but didn't spend much time on it for my own map. I did find a great e-book somewhere about tectonic shift and using it for created maps. It's called "A Magical Society: Guide to Mapping" from WWW.EXP.CITYMAX.COM - it does cost some money (like $15.00 I think?) but it's an absolutely fantastic resource. It outlines a lot of great info about axial tilt and seasons, tectonic plates, mountain creation and placement, and a whole lot of other stuff. There's some "fluff" (there's a story about some guy playing god and creating a world, which is where the creation info comes in) but the info presented is really helpful. Just if you want some reference. This is going really well, by the way tho'.

- Alizarine

[Diamond]

That link doesn't seem to work, alizarine...

[Steel General]

There appears to be several places it can be downloaded for free;

Here, here & here are a few.

[Master TMO]

Good stuff here. I've just scanned it so far, but it's already pointed out a few problems with my tectonic thinking above. Thanks for the links, all.

[Master TMO]

Another random notation/suggestion: When using Fractal Terrains, and you've selected the map you're going to modify, export world views of Altitude, Rainfall and Temperature into jpegs and stack them into layers in Photoshop. It let's you see what you have to work with without having to wait for redraws every time you change views.

Also, I've heard how FT doesn't take wind or water currents into account when doing the climates, but the boundaries I'm seeing here, while hardly perfect, look to me like they're taking at least some of that into account. Although I'm now working on the most recent beta version (they had to update it to work on my system), so one of the updates along the line may have involved improving those algorithms.

I created the Altitude shade map this way because FT lets you load Selection maps from B/W bmp files. If necessary, I can select a chunk of the map and save it to a BMP and use it for a feathered selection mask.

The attached maps are: Altitude, Rainfall, Temperature.

PS: I apologize for not checking first; should I be uploading smaller versions of these files? Loading 3 of them up at once made me realize I could be using more space than I should.

Edit: Updated the attachments to the new version of the world.

[waldronate]

FT doesn't take into account heat or moisture transfer due to air or water movement. It uses a static model based on axial tilt, latitude, altitude, and a random field in its temperature and rainfall computations.

The design goal for terrain, temperature, rainfall, and climate in FT was "here's something to start from and some tools to use; it's up to you to generate a plausible result."

[Master TMO]

Spent the day adjusting rainfall on Batai. I may be too detail oriented, working the base data to produce the climate I want in an area, rather than just painting in the climate directly. As I get practice, I'll get better at manipulating things right the first time, instead of painting, undoing and painting some more. Next step would be to modify temperatures.

Here is the adjusted rainfall and climate maps. To point out what I've done, the desert is the most obvious bit, but I've also increased the rainfall both NW and E of it, on the coastlines, where the prevailing winds would be bringing in water from the ocean and dumping it.