[WIP] The valonyan Empire and the Free Cities

[Eilathen]

Hi all,

So, i guess there's always a first ... Never thought i'd post a map made in PS

This is part of a world that a very good friend of mine and i are working on. We are building a setting from the ground up for our pen&paper RPG group.
The world will be more in line with our antiquity than the usual faux medieval Europe. There are anachronisms in it, for certain, but the overall atmosphere and feel is supposed to be more in line with TV Series like Spartacus - Blood and Sands than Game of Thrones.

Anyway, this is still a WIP, so if you have comments, critics, feedback and/or tips, we very much appreciate it.
A lot of the hard work was done by my friend and many of the icons and brushes are from Star Raven (so thanks for that!). The symbols for the city-crests were collected on the internet and put together by us.

I guess that's it for now.

As i said, please comment, critic, give feedback and tips...it's very much appreciated!

[TK.]

I like the style of the map! It has flavour!

That said

- I'd move the Compass to the map per se, instead of inside the legend
- Same for the Scale, also move the numbers of the scale to match the slash divisions instead of centered for each slash...it's confusing to know where the distance actually is 400, 600...and also...400 what? 600 what?
- The river on the east, around Tauriana, seems weird to me...might just be me
- I might be wrong but the mountains formation in the east seem wrong from a tectonics pov. "Thousand Rocks" and "East Guard" go opposite directions which afaik would be impossible.

I'm not an expert, so take my advice with a grain of salt ^_^

[CarnivorousJellybean]

The one thing I'd suggest (and I'm no expert) is to make sure your trees are as crisp as the other geographical features. They seem pretty fuzzy right now compared to the mountains and hills!
You could try:
- ctrl+left click (or cmd instead of ctrl if you're on a mac) over the thumbnail in the layers tab to select all opaque pixels
- under select (top bar menu) go to Modify > Contract
- start with just 1 pixel
- invert the selection (shift+ctrl+i)
- delete the selected area (delete/backspace key, or eraser)
That'll get rid of the fuzziest layer of pixels, but it might also get rid of some details that you want. If it's lacking too much detail, undo until you're back where you started, then:
- duplicate your tree layer a couple times until the edges get more opaque
- repeat the process I outlined the first time

Hope that helps!

[Sapiento]

Very nice map.

[Diamond]

My thoughts: I like the landforms, especially the islands around Thaleia's Passage, and that neat little triangular area where Tauriana is. I like the names (especially since I live in Antioch, California! )

Things I would change/have questions about/don't like:

- How does that one little free city survive all by itself just south of the Empire? Is the land around it just really impassable?
- Not a fan of the cut-out rivers. In my opinion, it makes them look too big/thick compared to the coastline. You've got that one river just north of Luned's Sanctum that appears to be one line only; that looks much better to me.
- Inversely, I think your coastline needs more 'oomph'. Right now it's too simple and can't hold it's own against all the other elements. Have you thought about doing a tighter inner glow (I see you've got a subtle green one there), or even a stroke inside the coastline?
- Why not put the names of the cities right on the map? You've got plenty of room.

[- Max -]

Wut? An Eilathen's map? Off to a good start here. I concur with Diamond about the rivers/coastlikes and city names though.

[Eilathen]

Thanks for all the comments, guys! Highly appreciated. We will go over those critics and hopefully can show you some improvements in the weeks to come.

@ Diamond - lol...really? Antioch? Nice! I mean we knew there was a city in antiquity that had a very similar name (i think with just one letter more in it or something) but that there is a modern city with the exact name...no clue

@ CarnivourusJellybean - wow, thanks for the precise work-flow. It's appreciated. We saw that the trees are a bit more blurry than, for example, the mountains. But as i said, we are PS newbs...so thanks again.

@ TK - Yeah, the map is not up to real geographical and geological standards. I pondered doing it realistically (as i have some knowledge in the field) but in the end we decided that it is not that important to us. It just has to look good

[Ilanthar]

Well, I won't repeat Diamond comment (agreeing with quite everything he said), so : good start and glad to see one map from you!

[tainotim]

Lovely map Eliathen. The green tone you have along the coastlines really conveys a nice feeling for the rest of the land, even though it's subtle. And the general land shape is great! Are the shields your own design? The Perusian one is inspiring

Cheers,
Tainotim

[Robulous]

I like it, the city symbols are particularly good. But yes there is plenty of space on the map for the city names, though I can see why you chose not to for stylistic reasons.

Btw did you hand draw the mountains or use a stamp or template? It looks very effective.