WIP - Malazan World Map

[Sadist]

Hey all, I posted a little quicky map of the Malazan world a little while ago. After getting some critique and then going through and looking at some of the other maps on here, I realized that it was just WAY under par...so
this is my new project. I'm working on it section by section as the end file size is just too large.
This is the continent of Genabackis from the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
I've decided to try and go for a more of a stylized yet real satellite view on this, so here are two pics.
I used the actual maps from the book as an overlay so I could get the geologic elements in the right positions, the rest is based off of the previous map which is in turn based off of Werthead's.
This is just the first couple of steps...I'm hoping to go through and refine all of the features as it moves along.
any input and help or tips from everyone would be much appreciated!
Cheers!

[tilt]

A good start, it does look however as if mr. Erikson neven had a visit from the river police, but then again the map in the books is so compressed its hard to really see where the rivers go. Just remember that rivers don't split - they only come together and by the easiest route finds the ocean
I don't know if this picture is in full size, but if it is, I would probably go a bit up in size to get in more details - but then again- thats me, love details

[Sadist]

hmm...I'll have to go through the rivers and take a look, but what I can tell they mostly seem to be coming down and joing from mountains and hilly areas into lakes and such...
this isn't actually the full size, it will be much larger, I just compressed it a bit because this was just the initial render.
more details to come!

[Sadist]

some more detail work, not quite there yet, threw in a quick ocean layer to see the coastline better, although that still needs some more work, I'm pretty happy with how the lakes are turning out though. I'm not quite happy with the forest areas yet...think they need some more definition...maybe a border or something

[Steel General]

Indeed a good start, you can try putting a bit of drop-shadow on your forests to give them a bit of depth.

It appears that some of your rivers aren't quite reaching the coast, don't have a map in front of me so not sure if that's the way they are supposed to be or not.

[Will Phillips]

MALAZAN FTW

That is all. Carry on the good work.

[Sadist]

cool, thanks Imperial, and thanks for the feedback from Tilt and Steel General.
I went through and checked out all the rivers and made a few adjustments (although either not on the original map or not clear enough to see)
One thing that was REALLY bothering me were the forested areas, then I realized it's because there weren't enough of them, taking a little bit of liberty, also considering the style of map from Erikson would not actually show forests as you might view them from space but rather their general areas, I expanded the original forest areas and added MOAR!
I think it looks much better.
Although I will definitely add in a few more details, especially in the southern region where I kind of just have to guess anyway. I'm probably going to leave this as it is for the moment and let you all nit pick at it while I start work on the other continents. I want to maintain the same basic texturing styles throughout before I go in to much more detail work.

[tilt]

looking really good - there are two lakes that empty out in two rivers, where they should only use one, the northern one is easy to fix - just cut of the northern of the rivers - that way the river don't go over the mountain either
I personally like a litte more height on the mountains.
And now I got a sudden urge to map Darujhistan *lol*... but allready got my hands full with my own city Breakwater

[Sadist]

And Breakwater is indeed a worthy venture...
I'll check on those rivers...
are you talking about the northern-most pair where the river runs out of a spring into a lake and then out of the lake into another lake?
I think I see a couple of other areas, while, on the original map, just won't work...
Frickin River Police!

I'll probably go over certain areas on the mountains and layer them up, what's there now is just a basic "mountainy" feel

I was actually thinking about mapping a couple of the cities, it might help me get my teeth into city mapping.
Although, Darujistan is quite large, and will take a lot of research to get each district with the proper buildings mapped out

[tilt]

LOL ..yep, but in your defense, Erikson should have had a visit from the river police also... writers gone wild..
I'm only 264 pages into the first book - so Darujistan is the first city (after Pale) I know about