The Campaign Builder's Guild

It's rather small because PB scales it down.  It's really something like 3500x2500 px.

<image removed for being out of date>
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a54/comnder09/?action=view&current=FantasyMap3copy-2.jpg

Trying to toss together a map that's large enough to take some zoom if need be.  It's for a No Quarter's game world, just something to expand my PSCS3 skills and kind of peg up where each "faction" comes from, in case a player wants to take some influence from another.

Had mountains and rivers but they looked tacky so I took it down.  Let me know if you want the full size version.

I keep getting the feeling the continents should be larger, but at proper zoom they are quite large indeed.

M.

I like it thus far, though it is a tad barren (but you said that will be filled in on an as needed basis).

There's an awful lot of open water, the winds must be brutal there in the far south.  You could easily squeeze another continent or two in, which is good because that gives you breathing room (to add more if/when you need it).

The Eastern continent is a bit heavy on massive lakes/inner seas close to the coasts. I'd fill the two bigger ones at least, maybe leave the one in the center. Could also add some small lakes in the North if there has been ice ages in the past.

Good point on the coast.  If I keep it, I'll up date it.  Loaded it up in PS today and now the eastern continent is looking somewhat aliased; don't know what the hell I did.

This is actually the southern half of the planet, but still valid observation EE; I'll see about moving lakes south.

M/

The rift on the south-westernmost continent looks slightly unnatural; a bit too straight. And I agree that there's a lot of open space left over. Otherwise neat.

Alright, scrapped that old one for a new approach all together.

<image removed for being out of date>
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a54/comnder09/HumanContinent1.png

That'll be the shape I'm working from unless something goes cataclysmic.  

I think the rivers need improvement.  Couldn't figure out how to make them more "river like" beyond a simple 1 px line.  They're supposed to represent major rivers, not every single present one (I tried that once), so they might be a bit too close together.

This map also includes a "scale".  From west to east, it's about 1500 miles, making this about 62% of the width of Australia.  The place names are idiosyncratic to the "main" culture, which resides in Mikkelgaard.

Any comments, criticisms, questions, tips etc is welcome.  

M.

The rivers are perhaps a tad too smooth to look realistic. The lake to the East from Gerhere(?) doesn't have an outlet. Given that it's close to the coast and doesn't have surrounding mountains to obstruct outflow of water, it would seem an unlikely place for a closed basin. Looks to be a good map otherwise.

I like the updated map!

To make  rivers look more 'rivery' try zooming in and shaking the mouse slightly while drawing it.

Quote from: GhostmanThe rivers are perhaps a tad too smooth to look realistic. The lake to the East from Gerhere(?) doesn't have an outlet. Given that it's close to the coast and doesn't have surrounding mountains to obstruct outflow of water, it would seem an unlikely place for a closed basin. Looks to be a good map otherwise.

Not really... have you seen how close to the ocean the dead sea is on a map? It has mountains and hills between it and the ocean but with the gap as small as it is and the mountains as low as they are you wont see them on a map of the middle east (and I believe this one is a map of a continent so that distance is probably actually quite large).

Excellent job on the map, I think it's coming along nicely. I do have one suggestion myself though. Stretch out your mountain ranges so that their tails taper to a tip. You can have em fat like you do on the map (actually several major ranges on earth are like that) but ranges in real life almost always taper at both ends to a tip (due to how tectonic activity creates them). So in short to make mountain ranges look more real give them a pointy head, that grows into a slightly fatter body (which is as long as you want) and ends in a pointy tail.

Quote from: NomadicNot really... have you seen how close to the ocean the dead sea is on a map? It has mountains and hills between it and the ocean but with the gap as small as it is and the mountains as low as they are you wont see them on a map of the middle east (and I believe this one is a map of a continent so that distance is probably actually quite large).

Technically that sea exists because it is a part of the Jordan Rift Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rift_Valley), which is a long depression in the land.

Quote from: Elemental_Elf

Quote from: NomadicNot really... have you seen how close to the ocean the dead sea is on a map? It has mountains and hills between it and the ocean but with the gap as small as it is and the mountains as low as they are you wont see them on a map of the middle east (and I believe this one is a map of a continent so that distance is probably actually quite large).

Technically that sea exists because it is a part of the Jordan Rift Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rift_Valley), which is a long depression in the land.

All seas lakes (and oceans) exist because there is a depression in the land (which happened to fill up with water). What's your point? :P

You guys have made a few good points back and forth about the lakes.  Many large bodies of water (seas and lakes and bays) are only "held in" by hills.  FE, there are no mountains holding the Chesapeake bay (which is near my house) from flowing further outwards.  Also, where a "hill" stops and a "mountain" begins is often shaky.

Here's an updated edition (now with Interlace!), with a fixed south eastern lake and tails for the mountains.  Keep in mind this isn't really a "satellite" kind of view.  It's supposed to be a hand drawn kind of map, so there will be a few truncations in detail.  Think I have enough mountains?

<image removed for being out of date>
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a54/comnder09/?action=view&current=FantasyMap3copyInterlaced.png

M.

Here's a new one, same style.  I like this style of map over the ones that simulate hightmaps because it's less work and feels more "period".  The brown scheme might be getting a little old though.

(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a54/comnder09/NQMap1.png)
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a54/comnder09/?action=view&current=NQMap1.png

M.