New Town Environs Map
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My advice on this would be as follows:
- first, decide if you wish to focus on the town or the environs. If you're going for the town, then I'd suggest you move all of what you have now into the box in the lower right corner, as this map currently doesn't say much about the towns. If you choose to focus on the environs, then what you've got already is pretty good, and you could possibly use the space in the lower right for a close-up of the main town.
- second (and assuming you're keeping this at the regional level as it is now), I would suggest adding more details to the map. At the moment, you have large swathes which have the same pattern and same appearance, and that doesn't attract the eye very much. I'd recommend you especially break up the forests a bit more, or add interesting details within the forests (some examples from the top of my head: rocks breaking through the three line, tree-covered hills, clearings, villages and farmland, different types of woodland, ponds/lakes, ruins/cairns, paths/trails, individual trees that stand out for some reason eg size or lightning struck). I like the way you've shown cliffs - adding a lot more cliffs would make the landscape much more intriguing, I think.
- third, you show in the legend the different types of terrain, but what is represented by the areas that are just empty (eg along the river)? I'm assuming it's farmland, but it isn't immediately clear. It obviously can't be grassland or a sand/gravel plain, because that's represented in other ways already.
- fourth, some of the existing features get a bit lost in the forest at the moment. Most notably, the paths, villages and the cliffs in the lower left-side forest. Adding colour might help to distinguish things a bit more clearly, but that might also ruin the style you're going for. In my opinion, the simplest and easiest way to make those features pop a bit more is to make the forest layer (I assume it's on it's own layer, right) a lower opacity, and maybe set to multiply or something.
- and fifth, to my eye, the font you've used for the legend is very clear, but also looks extremely modern in comparison to the aged style of the rest of the map. I'd recommend smething a little more fitting to the context.
And since you ask about worldbuilding: it's a bit hard (in my opinion) to give comments when you haven't explained much about it. What's the history? Who rules this land and from what authority? Are the inhabitants wealthy or poor and how do they make their living? What is life like for someone in the main town? What is life like for someone in the villages? What threats do they face (not just military threats, but also things like natural disasters, weather events, diseases, economic depression, political oppression, crime/banditry)?
Hope you find some of that helpful.
Wingshaw
