Fourth and fifth map in the set for Diatentia project.. Please critique.

[des566]

Well, here is my next couple maps in the set of 9 maps for my Diatentia gaming guide that I am planning on releasing this year. Usellra- The land of the long lost race of dragon/humans called the Drahkeal. It is now a land of justice and law keepers. Outcast Rock- The land was created for the sole use of being a prison during the War of Darkness and Light, but is now a place of mystery. No one knows who or what might be within the mountains that enclose the continent. Please let me know what you think. I am including a foreword from the book to let you understand the world as well. I am going with an older style of map similar to old 1979 D&D maps and plan to keep the style of the guide in a similar manner as well.

Usellra with symbols and boarders.jpgOutcast Rock with boarders.jpgImage1.jpg

Foreword
With the turn of your first page, you have already taken your first step in a long journey across the lands of Diatentia. Within, you will find everything you need to create heroic adventurers. You will learn all about the many kingdoms throughout the world, from the Honor Guards of the Kingdom of Altara, the savage lands of the Orahton Kindred, to the Legion of Darkness from the continent of Darkfire. There are many races to choose from, new classes to try, and new spells for characters to learn. But, there are also formidable new monsters roaming the world just waiting to challenge the next adventurer and even greater dangers lurk in the shadows.

It has been a thousand years since the War of Darkness and Light, which sealed the evil deities in their shadowy prison. The remaining deities travel the world in hiding while rumors begin to spread that the darkness is growing strong once more. Your characters have been chosen by the great animals of legend to help rid the world of the evil that travels in the night. A glorious destiny in the lands of Diatentia awaits you. . . .Welcome home.

[DaggerAndBrush]

I think your maps have a nice historical feel to them. They remind me of reconstructions of a world map by Eratosthenes.

[Azélor]

I don't find the pattern easy to understand. Forest is the only one that is easy to understand (I can figure out what it is without referring to the map key).
Maybe it's a mater of taste but it's not easy for me the tell what is what.

You could add more details to make the map larger. I don't know what the scale is but it look like small islands, which might be ok if this is the goal.
By more details I mean for example: several smaller forests instead of 1 big chunk and adding variation in the shapes instead of straight lines.

The symbols of the settlements should ideally show some progression, larger cities should be bigger or more complex symbols.

Also, the symbols are close to each other. If you intend to put every villages on the map either reduce the symbol size or make the map bigger.

[des566]

Thank you DaggerAndBrush. I was trying for a historical feel and also to closely match old Dungeons & Dragons campaign maps. Azelor, I knew I was forgetting something. I need to add a distance measure. For instance, on Outcast Rock, the distance from the special symbol on the coast to the capital city in Uniton is nearly 30 miles. I tried to make the symbols for the locations smaller, but found that when I did, the symbols became a bit blurry when the map was shrunk down to fit a 8x11 page. As for the terrain symbols, I could not find any symbols in a style similar to the forest symbols to represent the mountains and hills so I had to improvise and create symbols similar to survey maps I had on hand. As for scale, Outcast Rock is the smallest continent on Diatentia. And when I made them, I kept the continents at 100% accurate to each other so that when I get them printed out by their image size, I can arrange them to fit a very large world map. I will add a shrunken version of that map here to show scale of world. It has been very hard to do my maps due to tremors in both hands, which worsen when I try to focus on drawing small detail.

[des566]

Here is a shrunken map of the world to show scale size comparison. When I tried to post a full drawn map of Spire Realm on the site, the size of the image was too big to post.


Diatentia World Map back cover B&W.jpg

[des566]

I don't find the pattern easy to understand. Forest is the only one that is easy to understand (I can figure out what it is without referring to the map key).
Maybe it's a mater of taste but it's not easy for me the tell what is what.

You could add more details to make the map larger. I don't know what the scale is but it look like small islands, which might be ok if this is the goal.
By more details I mean for example: several smaller forests instead of 1 big chunk and adding variation in the shapes instead of straight lines.

The symbols of the settlements should ideally show some progression, larger cities should be bigger or more complex symbols.

Also, the symbols are close to each other. If you intend to put every villages on the map either reduce the symbol size or make the map bigger.

Hello Azelor. Thanks again for the advice. I am adding the color version of the maps. I added the Distance Legend. Let me know what you think. I am unable to add a color version of Usellra because it exceeds the maximum file size.
Outcast Rock with boarders Color.jpg