[WIP] World Map & Continental Map

[MindOfTheo]

For starters, thank you in advance for merely taking the time to check my post. If my topic is in the wrong place, feel free to call me a derp, and remove my topic. For what I am doing, these maps are all apart of my world building which I have been doing since 2007. The world building is for a series of stories I have been writing, brainstorming, and mulling over since I started, and finally I know enough about what it is I want to do to actually start seriously on my maps.

Honestly, I didn’t want to put this up in the state it’s in, but I also didn’t want to invest months of work into a map that would need to be completely redone because the geography is all wrong. So instead, I would make changes and improvements as I go along based on the comments and advice of the more advanced users on the forum.

World Map Climates:
World Map.jpg

World Winds
World Map Winds.jpg

Continent 1 Map in relation to world map:
Sulest Cotinent.jpg

What I'm looking for is general advice on geographic accuracy in relation to our real world geography, continental locations, and just ways to make my world more plausible.

[Veldehar]

An extremely general observation would be that, assuming this is a equiractangular projection, your polar land masses will be visually stretched by the projection, which doesn't seem to happening here. It might also be more useful to label latitude zones as tropical, subtropical, temperate and polar as very simplified climate zones. The world also seems to have most of its habitable land surface in the tropical to subtropical zones. Another general question would be the size of the planet in question.

After those general observations, we head to the continent where you have some serious river issues, with two that seem to go from sea to sea. Also there is a river that hooks around some hills after heading for one ocean, suggesting a downward terrain which then hooks all the way back to another body of water, suggesting a pretty major shift in terrain that would require some explanation we aren't seeing in the map. And even appears a bit counterintuitive when compared to the height indicators we're provided.

Such a land sparse world would have (potentially) very simple ocean currents with the arctic zones being very isolated from warmer currents, not sure of all the implications so many straight currents might have.

That's at least a few considerations for a start.

[Veldehar]

I would also check out the Rivers Tutorial which is a stickie in the Tutorials section of this forum. Recommended reading for sure.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...he-right-place

[MindOfTheo]

Oh wow thanks for the tips! I was actually looking for a guide on rivers since I know next to nothing on them, so I shall be sure to read it over.

[Veldehar]

I am currently working on a world and slapped a small continent onto my antarctic region which then got me to thinking about the effects of that. The Antarctic current on Earth now gets to make a more less straight run without being directed north much to pick up warmer waters, hence making antarctica more "isolated" in its own climate. At one point Australia and South America would have altered that flow (being connected to Antarctica way back when) and sent the cold water north to warm up before it would come back down, and those warmer waters would have effects on the climate down there. In my case, it will also affect the climate of another southerly continent, making it a little more pleasant than it would otherwise have been.

Climate is so much fun it will drive you crazy.

Rivers are really fairly simple, its just easy to slip one in because you want it there rather than it logically being there, LOL.

[MindOfTheo]

See. Now that currents have gotten into the mix, I'm starting to read up on that now too! There is just so much that goes into building an accurate world! I plan on updating my maps soon, but some stuff's come up at the moment, but hopefully within the next couple of weeks, I'll have something more to look at.

[Veldehar]

Just don't let it all drive you crazy... like it does me, heh heh.