[ooc]Please don't post here, see the Discussion thread (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?70946.last).
This setting is an experiment of sorts. It's a setting that's going to be created as much as possible using random generators, or other random or semi-random methods. It's unlikely I'll stick with any particular generator or any method to the madness; a fair number of decisions will likely be made ad-hoc by me randomly assigning possibilities to numbers and rolling dice. Alongside all the fluff, I'll include what randomly generated stuff went into it's creation, so this thread will also function as a documentation of the creation process.
Periri is the working title as of now, until the setting is developed enough to choose a thematically appropriate name.[/ooc]
Welcome to Periri. Possibly a first for the CBG, I, the creator, as of this writing, know as much about this setting as do you, the reader, which is nothing. The idea to start is that I'll generate a randomish map, draw random borders on it and then start filling it in with random nations. Lets get started shall we?
To start I've yet to find a satisfactory way of generating random maps in Photoshop, which is what I use to create my maps. I'd like a general idea of the landmasses and their relative distance to one another before I start to create the map in Photoshop, so arbitrarily enough I'm going to doll a d12 to see how many continents I end up with.
I picked a d12 because I don't want to end up with too many continents. The more continents the harder it is to make the map look good in Photoshop; however too few continents generally end up looking "unrealistic." A d12 allows for a setting that can have a lot of continents or a setting that's dominated by a single landmass or so.
[dice]1d12[/dice]
Of course I can't see the result of the die-roll yet in the preview, so I'll have to continue this in the next post.
Ok finally getting around to working on this again.
Three continents. I'm already halfway tempted to exercise editorial control to reroll that but we'll run along with it.
Next to determine the general shape of the continents and where they lie (lay? damn you English) in relation to each other. The shape of each continent I am going to determine by reaching into my dice bag, grabbing a handful of dice and rolling them. The spread of dice on the table will determine the shape; each die will be a point, and after eyeballing all the dice positions into photoshop, I'll connect them into the continent shapes. I'm not going to take pictures of the dice roll results, because I only have a cell phone camera and it's a major pain to email myself the pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it, heh
Where the continents are in relation to each other will similarly be determined by rolling three dice, each representing a continent, and noting where they end up.
This is probably going to be mostly boring unless you're really into mapmaking, so I'm going to toss the entire mapmaking under the first spoiler and the final result under the second, if you'd rather skip reading about the entire mapmaking process.
Fair warning, the images will be hugemongerous.
The Photoshop work
[spoiler]
The results of the dice rolling:
[spoiler]
(//../../e107_files/public/1249789856_245_FT70944_dots1.jpg)
(//../../e107_files/public/1249789856_245_FT70944_dots2.jpg)
(//../../e107_files/public/1249789856_245_FT70944_dots3.jpg)
[/spoiler]
Then we connect the dots.
(//../../e107_files/public/1249788217_245_FT70944_continentoutlines_.jpg) (//../../e107_files/public/1249788217_245_FT70944_continentoutlines.jpg)
I like the continent on the left, it looks like a bird.
Next we do a little Photoshop magic and rough up the edges of the continents to give them a more realistic look.
(//../../e107_files/public/1249789325_245_FT70944_continentshapes_.jpg) (//../../e107_files/public/1249789325_245_FT70944_continentshapes.jpg)
As you can see the image isn't very clean. In the process of cleaning it (painting white over the black bits we don't want) I'm going to leave some in so that we can have some islands.
(//../../e107_files/public/1249790577_245_FT70944_islands.jpg)
Now we have islands. They don't look totally randomly places, and maybe there's too many, but it's not such a huge problem, because changing the landmass is easy enough even on a finished map, so this need not be perfect at this stage.
[/spoiler]
Now we have a map layout. Next will be some more map setup, and then we can start drawing random borders and generating nations (woo, getting closer to the fluff portion).
ah Clouds + Threshold... how I love thee and thy ability to make awesome coastlines.
Thank you for walking us through the process. I actually think that the map process will probably be more interesting than the other stages... thank you again! ~LD.
More mapmaking. I've laid out the basic grass green over the continents and the water effect (which I'm not entirely happy with, but we're stuck with it until I find something better).
[spoiler]
(//../../e107_files/public/1249861084_245_FT70944_peririnoterrain_.jpg) (//../../e107_files/public/1249861084_245_FT70944_peririnoterrain.jpg)
We have no mountains, or forests (or other terrain), however. So we need to do that too. To place them randomly, I'm going to render a cloud layer, and then render difference clouds on it twice.
(//../../e107_files/public/1249861955_245_FT70944_differenceclouds.jpg)
and select the bright cloud through the color select menu. We'll end up with something like this.
(//../../e107_files/public/1249862101_245_FT70944_randomterrain.jpg)
The random clouds will be the guide to where to place mountains and forests. Using a light brush, I'll paint mountains where the the clouds are. I'm going to render a different cloud layer for the forest and do the same thing.
(//../../e107_files/public/1249863390_245_FT70944_forestmountains.jpg)
It doesn't look good at all, but it's not done. The mountains and forests will be modified and hand painted to look better during nation generation. What we have now is a general layout though. Now all that's left is to determine borders before we get to nation generation, though I'm not sure how I'm going to do the borders yet.
[/spoiler]
The map as it is now, in it's full resolution. Warning, it's HUGE. Like MASSIVE. 4800x3000 pixels.
[spoiler] (http://www.routinedelirium.com/Periri/Peririrough.jpg) [/spoiler]
Now that I look at the giant map I've made, I'm struck with the immense amount of countries I'd need to create to actually fill this out. Oy.
Anyway, this should be the last map-making post for a while. Today we're rendering random borders using bandages because bandages heal everything; wait no, this isn't anime, I mean we're doing random borders with a cloud render because cloud renders are like a swiss army knife where each tool on it is another swiss army knife.
[spoiler]
Start off with a normal cloud render and then render difference clouds on it once.
(//../../e107_files/public/1253398223_245_FT70944_differencecloudrender.jpg)
Then we add some color to it. I've made this orange/red, but any color works. This is just to up the contrast between the black lines and the rest without changing the width of the black line.
(//../../e107_files/public/1253398295_245_FT70944_orangecloudrender.jpg)
Then we take the color selection tool and select the black, and apply a layer mask so that it hides all the orange. You end up with a bunch of lines over the map, which will act as a rough placement for borders.
(//../../e107_files/public/1253398410_245_FT70944_bordersrough.jpg)
[/spoiler]
Next up, country generation, which will commence as soon as I pick a generator to use.
The random border creation process is brilliant!