Map of the Kingdoms and Principalities in Aran & Ilan

[Caenwyr]

I noticed some islands seem to be coloured much brighter than most of the lands, the island south of Barann and the islands west of Sarand. I don't know if that's intentional of not but it looked kind of odd to me.

It sure looks that way, doesn't it? But I think that's an optical illusion, caused by the darker seas surrounding the islands. Did a quick test in GIMP desaturating the map (both in luminosity and lightness), and if anything, the islands are actually a bit darker than the mainland.

I did discover something odd though. If you desaturate based on lightness, the islands of Taeryn (Barann) and Vargyn (west of Sarand) appear much darker than the rest of the islands or the mainland. Odd! Will have to look into that...

I also noticed that in the names on the map you didn't use that long s. I don't know much about that letter and I was wondering why you chose not to use it in the names.

It's a question of readability, mainly. English words that suddenly have long esses (or how do you spell the plural of s?) will still be understandable - context will help - but I don't want anyone thinking the city of Caſanor is actually called *Cafanor, and Oſtwyc certainly isn't Oftwyc. Since context can't help here, I decided to use the short s only: Casanor and Ostwyc.

I also wanted to make a distinction between the information in the sidebar, and the map itself. Different fonts helped with that. I hadn't tested it until just now, but turns out the font I used in-map (Morris Roman) doesn't even have a long s. Dodged a bullet there!

[RigoIII]

Really? Long S? Huh... who knew xD

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[Caenwyr]

Okay, I believe I managed to get the edge off the mountain ridges. Also did a ton of teeny tiny tweaks to make the map more consistent with the story, and topped it all off with labels for the major water bodies (no rivers).

Not sure if the changes to the mountains are actually an improvement - what do you guys think?

Also, I'm worried the water body labels are rather distracting. Anyone else feeling the same way?

AWI_handdrawn_overhaul22.jpg

[Ilanthar]

Clearly, you've done a lot of work again on this map! I like the colors and the general view a lot, but I must confess that I somehow prefer the mountains of your previous map.
Concerning the labels, yeah, a bit distracting indeed. Your labels have a strong contrast with the sea, which is good for legibility but partly the reason they catch the eye, I think. Maybe reduce a bit the contrast?

[Caenwyr]

Clearly, you've done a lot of work again on this map! I like the colors and the general view a lot, but I must confess that I somehow prefer the mountains of your previous map.
Concerning the labels, yeah, a bit distracting indeed. Your labels have a strong contrast with the sea, which is good for legibility but partly the reason they catch the eye, I think. Maybe reduce a bit the contrast?

Thanks for your valuable feedback, Ilanthar! It's much appreciated.

I tried reworking the gradient beneath the mountains to give them this nice, brownish tinge that was missing in the last update.

Other minor changes: added two more "notable places", and gave the grid some latitude/longitude markers (they're barely visible, but they're there if you need them). This should also help convey the size of the continent: the northernmost tip of Hamadion is a bit north of Svalbard, while the southernmost tip of Faltorn (not counting the islands) is close to Sicily in terms of climate and latitude.

AWI_handdrawn_overhaul24.jpg

I believe I'm on the home stretch here, so let me know what you think!

[tainotim]

Awesome work Caenwyr. Think I followed every single one of your "reworks", and this is my favorite so far. You have definitely improved a lot

Now feedback. Concerning the map, I don't really have any pointers. A good, well-made map. Now, what I don't like about this piece is the frame. Compared to the very refined map, I think the frame feels very rushed, and it could use some more work. Perhaps it just that it's a very simple frame, however, there are irregularities and holes in it that you could look at. Perhaps change the color of the transparent stripes so it stand out from the paper texture

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Ilanthar]

The sea labels are fine now, no distracting at all and still very legible at full size. Now that Tainotim mentioned it, I agree with him about the frame. Maybe something more sharp and "modern" too, to match your new mountains.

[Caenwyr]

You know what? You're absolutely right. How about this?

AWI_handdrawn_overhaul26.jpg

[Caenwyr]

Hi guys,

Once again some tiny tweaks to the map, and a total translation of all the English text to Dutch (which is the language of my novel, so that's a bit more convenient). Do you like the new frame I created for the map? If so, and if you don't have any other remarks (if you do, please let me know!), I think I'm gonna post this one in the finished section at last .

So be sure to give me your feedback, and thanks a lot for all the help you guys gave me already!
C

Attachment 79744

[DanielHasenbos]

I can't open the attachment, not sure if that's just me or anyone else has that problem.