Esfera

[Deoridhe]

I've been working on Esfera for a while, and I've been trying to make it naturally plausible even if not likely. I wanted something unique and interesting with a lot of detail and a ton of cultures. There is a magical system, but I'm trying for something quasi-naturalistic and more universal than the usual fireballs and rare mages model. The energy that fuels the magic is similar in quality to sunlight, as it can be metabolized by living things, however it moves through and is stored within dense material instead of moving through empty space. It does manage to radiate some heat, however, mitigating some of the other qualities of the planet to a convenient degree.

Planetary System.png Planet.png

It's a large planet on the outside of the habitable zone of it's solar system, with a sister planet on the inside. The central star is a G0V star slightly more massive than our sun, which allows for a wider habitable zone and more planets - 12 in total. There's an asteroid field outside of the seventh planet's orbit before the gas giants begin, and a second larger asteroid field right outside of the twelveth planet.

The planet has a narrow set of rings with two ring shepherds inside of the ring and a much larger moon far outside. The rings are silicate and make the winters harsher on the surface along the line of their shadow even with the additional warmth from the planet's additional power source that enables life to survive even closer to the poles. In addition, the light from the rings at night and it's use as a navigational tool can't be over-stated.

My first post about Esfera focused more on the plate tectonics and I ended up learning some aspects of GPlates (thank you to the Astrographer's old posts for showing me the way) in order to thread back form the initials sketches I made when I was young to a very rough Pangea-continent. It took a bunch of steps backwards (and several tries), but I was able to find a series of movements that I thought were decent enough. I'm showing snapshots below from the proto-continent to the current day, though I got these by working the opposite direction. My one wish was to create a large island chain/grouping toward the middle of the map. I ended up also adding an island arch in the upper right corner and a second set of fractured islands in the upper left.

Esfera - 1st Age - Pangaea Globe.pngEsfera - 1st Age - Pangea.png
Esfera - 2nd Age.pngEsfera - 3rd Age.png
Esfera - 4th Age.pngEsfera - 5th Age.png
Esfera - 6th Age.pngEsfera - 7th Age - current time.png

The names I used for the continents is part of a Conlang I made in college which was rich in vowels and apostrophes. The apostrophes are mostly gone now, but the vowels remain. Looevate, Doundaade, Sooenou, and Zingr are the oldest continents, and Srinthea began as an unlikely island cluster which I remade as an island chain. All of the islands are new, and I tried to work them along different plate boundaries and in line with continental movement and ripping I saw on earth. I've put in a few hotspots in what I think are likely areas; but I might change those as time goes on, or even add one or two island chains like Hawai'i. Their footprints are small enough that I feel comfortable moving on to the next step without filling in those pieces.

Esfera - Names.png Esfera - Plate Tectonics.png

[Deoridhe]

I then used Ascension's Atlas Style in GIMP with some modifications using Azélor's Köppen–Geiger climate classification made simpler to account for average hill and mountain height, to build mountains for specific continental shapes rather than building a whole area from the ground up, and to make sure my height map matched up to the areas classified as mountains in the Atlas style. In the tallest areas I took some additional liberties, centering the heighest mountains on Sooenou where the most complicated and intersecting plate techtonics were going on. On the height map, I limited the outermost sections in height to the maximum height for cliffs for added verisimilitude, and then added some noise at the edges to make things less uniformally straight. I may end up adding some height onto the islands to account for the volcanos that are growing over various hot spots, but for now I haven't accounted for them.

In the meantime, I made a new current map which takes into account the islands I'd added. Cold currents are blue, hot ones are red, and temperate ones are purple. It seemed pretty straightforward, though if I missed something please let me know!

Esfera - Height Map.png Esfera - Currents.png

The step I just finished is the atmospheric pressure systems from Azélor's Köppen–Geiger climate classification made simpler, and it's where I start not being sure if I understood the instructions. I've included January and July below, with January on the left. If you see anything I missed or placed incorrectly, I'd love to get some feedback; I'm getting started on winds, and I'd like them to be at least plausible.

Esfera - January Air Pressure.png Esfera - July Air Pressure.png

[davoush]

Hi Deoridhe, nice to see you still working on this. Ascension's Atlas Style really brings it to life (although I imagine you might want to adjust some areas once you've figured out the climates). A quick suggestion for the tectonic plates map - the colours indicating the different boundaries are very hard to distinguish for me, perhaps use more contrasting colours?

[Azélor]

I'm not sure the elevation map is right. I need to say that I'm not the expert on tectonic so i could be wrong.
Maybe it is ok but to me it looks like the elevation does not match the continent form, like if it has been misplaced.

Just to be sure, the planet is tilted at 27 degrees?

For the currents, there is something wrong. I'm am not sure if your planet rotates clockwise or counterclockwise but the Coriolis force does not behave like that. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_...s_effect14.png
Basically, if your planet rotates like Earth, the current dynamic in the north should be the mirror of the currents from the south. Which means that current flowing from the equator should hug the western side of the continents. And mid latitude current are flowing from west to east like the Gulf stream.

[Ottehcnor]

This is an amazing amount of dedication to work through all this. I'm constantly amazed at the patience and dedication found here.

I agree the the atlas style does bring the map to life, and I'll be looking forward to any updates as you work out the climate more.

[Deoridhe]

Ascension's Atlas Style really brings it to life (although I imagine you might want to adjust some areas once you've figured out the climates).

Thanks so much! Yeah, I'm definitely adjusting (and adding rivers) once I know where and how the rain is falling and where my deserts are. I suspect the small Doundaade island will have a central desert, but otherwise I'm waiting for the winds to come in for me. I've been working on them but I'm not 100% pleased with how they turned out so I'm leaving them a couple days to sleep on and revisit anew.

A quick suggestion for the tectonic plates map - the colours indicating the different boundaries are very hard to distinguish for me, perhaps use more contrasting colours?

Good idea - sometimes I get a little too clever for myself design-wise, and hot pink/purple/orange are probably too close as a color palette. Luckily, I keep everything on different layers.

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I'm not sure the elevation map is right. I need to say that I'm not the expert on tectonic so i could be wrong.
Maybe it is ok but to me it looks like the elevation does not match the continent form, like if it has been misplaced.

You might be getting confused by the dark green shore-edge next to the dark blue ocean; that edge is a lot clearer against a light ocean color.

Esfera - Height Map 2.png

I looked into the maximum height of sea cliffs and diminished the mountains at the shore accordingly, but the effect is odd against the dark ocean because the edges seem to vanish. I got lazy on most of the continents and just left the edge at the lowest level, but some day when I'm feeling frisky and detail oriented I plan to go back and introduce some "up to 250m" shoreline on continents other than Sooenou. I kept the separate height map files for that express purpose.

Just to be sure, the planet is tilted at 27 degrees?

Yes. That was an old decision, though, and sometimes I wonder what I was thinking! Something something wider swath of warmer weather something, I think.

For the currents, there is something wrong. I'm am not sure if your planet rotates clockwise or counterclockwise but the Coriolis force does not behave like that. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_...s_effect14.png
Basically, if your planet rotates like Earth, the current dynamic in the north should be the mirror of the currents from the south. Which means that current flowing from the equator should hug the western side of the continents. And mid latitude current are flowing from west to east like the Gulf stream.

You know, I was uploading that and looking at it again and was like, "this seems off somehow..." but my brain was drowning in (confusing; overwhelming) wind movements and so I let it go. I'll have to rework those. Luckily, making those arrows is really easy! Thanks for pointing that out; I really don't know how I got it so wrong!

And yes, I made it rotate the same direction as Earth. I might be contrary for contrary's sake, but that seemed a detail too far.

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This is an amazing amount of dedication to work through all this. I'm constantly amazed at the patience and dedication found here.

I agree the the atlas style does bring the map to life, and I'll be looking forward to any updates as you work out the climate more.

You're so sweet - thank you! I can't say enough good things about the tutorials I'm slavishly follow... I mean INSPIRED BY! I really recommend doing them more than once; on my most recent iteration of Esfera I finally started understanding how masking works, and it makes things SO! MUCH! EASIER! One of these centuries, once I have the climates on Esfera more settled, I want to try some of the other ones just for variety and to learn different skills. Everyone here is so talented and generous, and I've learned much more than I could have ever managed on my own.

[Charerg]

As a bit of general feedback on the elevations, I encourage you to take a close look at the elevation distribution of Earth:

Earth Azel.png

Note that higher elevations are actually quite rare. Even 2 km+ covers relatively little area. And 3 km+ is basically limited to the taller ranges and mountain plateaus. There are only two areas where elevations above 4 km cover a significant area: the Andes and the Tibetan Plateau. Areas above 6 km cover only a few pixels. Of course, you don't have to go for a similar elevation distribution in a fantasy map, but you should definitely aim for a bit more variability between the various continents. It can make things look too artificial and uniform if every continent has a similar elevation distribution, with vast plateaus that are really high (by Earthly standards), and that will produce lots of tundra areas too, which I'm not sure you really want.

As Azelor noted, some areas look like the elevation map has been noticeably stretched. Now these are probably artefacts left by cloud generation, but it's definitely something you should look at, since it's pretty noticeable.

But overall, it's a good restart and nice to see you back working on Esfera!

Edit:
Btw, the lowest level in the above map is 0-50 m instead of 0-10, otherwise it's identical to the one used in Azelor's tut.

[Deoridhe]

I took another stab at currents - sorry it's taking a while, but my new job is a semi-serious brain drain.

I put it on a lighter ocean (layers are so fantastic) for ease of seeing everything. I stopped the currents at the line of the arctic circle on both sides, but I'm not sure about that now - I built the bones of the currents from polar distortions of the north and south poles but I started thinking about ice and I think I've confused myself. I may need to squint at polar ice caps for a while. I'd like to figure out the lines of ice/icebergs, but that may need to come into play after I finish my whole weather setup.

Esfera - Currents.png

Note that higher elevations are actually quite rare. Even 2 km+ covers relatively little area. And 3 km+ is basically limited to the taller ranges and mountain plateaus. There are only two areas where elevations above 4 km cover a significant area: the Andes and the Tibetan Plateau. Areas above 6 km cover only a few pixels. Of course, you don't have to go for a similar elevation distribution in a fantasy map, but you should definitely aim for a bit more variability between the various continents. It can make things look too artificial and uniform if every continent has a similar elevation distribution, with vast plateaus that are really high (by Earthly standards), and that will produce lots of tundra areas too, which I'm not sure you really want.

I had spent some time looking at the Earth projections, and I tried to pair my higher mountains up with places where the planet was under more pressure due to moving more often in that direction, but I definitely want to give it a more thorough look with Azélor and your points in mind. The much lower elevations of Africa in particular is really striking, though; I hadb't really picked up on how low it is relative to other places!

But overall, it's a good restart and nice to see you back working on Esfera!

I was working during the vast gap, but it was entirely in GPlates and so really difficult to share! I've downloaded a video capturer, but haven't figured out how to use it yet; I wanted to record the movement of Continents over the 300x years from my planets pangea to the current day. I tried to get a similar feel to watching the earth projection writhe on YouTube, and I kind of pulled it off? It took a bunch of tries, though, and several pauses to let revisit it at a later point.

I'm still not sure I have it 100%, but I'm a lot happier with it than I was. Seeing the whole thing on a globe I can spin around is amazing.

[Charerg]

I had spent some time looking at the Earth projections, and I tried to pair my higher mountains up with places where the planet was under more pressure due to moving more often in that direction, but I definitely want to give it a more thorough look with Azélor and your points in mind. The much lower elevations of Africa in particular is really striking, though; I hadb't really picked up on how low it is relative to other places!

The African average elevation is fairly standard, ca. 600 m (comparable to the Americas), which is close to the global average as well. While it doesn't have a lot of super high mountains, there's not much in the way of large lowland areas in Africa either. It's still noticeably taller than Europe or Australia (which are ca. 300 m average).