# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Regional/World Mapping >  Aelwydi

## QED42

I have been world building away on a setting called Aelwydi and I have gotten to the point where I am ready to start doing "proper" maps of part of it. This is the first continent I've put together called Tir Bore.



Right now the issue I am stuck on is one of labelling. On a map of this large scale how much information do I want to put it it without making the map seem cluttered? I want to be able to show off the nice terrain but also provide some information on the continent as well. 

It would really help me if people could chime in on what sort of information they think should be included on this type of map. Maybe just capital cities and country names? Should I include names for the seas/oceans and what about mountain ranges? I'm planning a more zoomed in map in a different style for a better look at the political region in the main north west portion for example as that is the most inhabited region (by humans at least).

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## Tonquani

That's a great looking map QED.

I'd probably put as little as possible on it if you are planning to map it's regions in more detail.  Probably just oceans, regions and (possibly) mountain ranges.

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## QED42

> That's a great looking map QED.
> 
> I'd probably put as little as possible on it if you are planning to map it's regions in more detail.  Probably just oceans, regions and (possibly) mountain ranges.


Thanks Tonquani. 

I finally have an update. As I got stuck on where to go with the current map I inevitably started on another one. This shows the zoomed in region where most of the major nations on the continent are. It would be great to hear what people think so far.

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## Greason Wolfe

Well, I think it is coming along nicely so far, though I am a bit curious why you decided to use a different font for the rivers. Not that it is a bad thing, just curious if it is a stylistic choice or if there is an underlying theme that will be more evident as you continue working on this project.

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## QED42

The main font I've been using seemed too blocking for rivers. Rivers are more thin and curly so seem like they need a thinner, more curly font if that makes sense? I'm not sold on the font I did use though because it's a bit hard to read in places.

Finally I do have an update.

I'm not 100% on this style of forest either but it's the best I've managed so far.

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## MapMappingMapped

Wow, that's quite a unique style! Nice work!

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## Greason Wolfe

> The main font I've been using seemed too blocking for rivers. Rivers are more thin and curly so seem like they need a thinner, more curly font if that makes sense? I'm not sold on the font I did use though because it's a bit hard to read in places.
> 
> Finally I do have an update.
> 
> I'm not 100% on this style of forest either but it's the best I've managed so far.


Yup, that makes sense. Not sure how easy it would be to find two fonts that would match well together going from a block to curvy style, but I get where you're going. Maybe a moderately curvy font that you can use bold with for place names and then italics for river names? I am terrible with fonts so that's about the best suggestion I can offer.

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## QED42

> Wow, that's quite a unique style! Nice work!


Thanks, I hope it's unique in a good way! It's mostly limited to my ability, I try doing things a bunch of different ways till I find a method I can achieve that looks least terrible!




> Yup, that makes sense. Not sure how easy it would be to find two fonts that would match well together going from a block to curvy style, but I get where you're going. Maybe a moderately curvy font that you can use bold with for place names and then italics for river names? I am terrible with fonts so that's about the best suggestion I can offer.


Yeah I suck at fonts too and labelling in general. 

I have a little more done now, I've added in all the locations of the dwarf fortresses on the map. Duru being fort/hold in the dwarf language and Karmu being a ruined fort/hold. I also added in some more of the minor kingdoms to the South and some general labels to the East.

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## QED42

I've been fiddling with the labels again and also done something with the border. Do you guys think that the squares in the corners need something in them? I can't think of something good that would fit there.

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## Gallien

The overall style is great! I love how the name of the sea fits into the "waves" texture.
But something needs to be done with the forests. The sea isn't blue, so why are the forests green? Plus their borders are way too exact. Right now I like the version without the forests more.
The border is great! If you decide to leave the squares empty, they could be reduced in size a little bit - but right now they are asking for something to be put inside, IMHO. Maybe some simple signs like runes or geometric figures?

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## QED42

> The overall style is great! I love how the name of the sea fits into the "waves" texture.
> But something needs to be done with the forests. The sea isn't blue, so why are the forests green? Plus their borders are way too exact. Right now I like the version without the forests more.
> The border is great! If you decide to leave the squares empty, they could be reduced in size a little bit - but right now they are asking for something to be put inside, IMHO. Maybe some simple signs like runes or geometric figures?


I like the idea of runes, so I made some to put in as well as tweaking with the borders a bit

The forests is something I have taken a look at too. What do you all think does this look like a better a approach, should I go back to the original or leave forests off all together?

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## Gallien

I think the new colours are much better!
Interesting idea with the leaves pattern.
I like where all this is going  :Smile:

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## MistyBeee

Oh, what a lovely, creative and smart way to depict forests ! I'm 100% for this version, both for the forests and colors. Congrats for your idea !

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## Greason Wolfe

Wholly agree, new colors are great and I think the font looks much better too.

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## Ilanthar

Nice idea for the forests, indeed  :Smile: ! It echoes the sea pattern nicely.

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## QED42

> I think the new colours are much better!
> Interesting idea with the leaves pattern.
> I like where all this is going


Thanks but I hope that it is less going and more gone now, I'm not sure it needs much more adding to it. I tried putting in labels for the mountain ranges a couple of times but couldn't get anything I like so this maybe be the final version (I did make one small tweak to the labels on the Eastern side.




> Oh, what a lovely, creative and smart way to depict forests ! I'm 100% for this version, both for the forests and colors. Congrats for your idea !


Your praise means a lot as it was one of your maps that inspired me to start using patterns for the ocean/sea on maps. Ending up using a pattern for the forests is less of an idea and more of painting myself into a corner though  :Razz:  




> Wholly agree, new colors are great and I think the font looks much better too.


Great to hear I'm on the right track here  :Smile: 




> Nice idea for the forests, indeed ! It echoes the sea pattern nicely.


Thanks Ilanthar, I was lucky to be able to find a pattern I liked and could adapt to make up for my inability to draw forests!

Now onto the update(s)!

What do you all think of presenting it finally as two maps together for the sake of putting on the finished maps section, something like this:



Also as a bonus update it's possibly time to start looking at the next continent for Aelwydi. I say continent but it's not supposed to be that big, more of a large island in the northern region. Across the Huilend Sea we find Strangur, which was previously called Arwach by the elves. I do not have much lore written out for this place yet but it is basically the land of not-vikings that is pretty much trapped in ever winter. In past times the people of Strangur would go off raiding to make ends meet, classic viking stuff, but these days they tend to work more as mercenaries around the world with a bit of raiding on the side.

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## QED42

I've started work on my Strangur map. The concept I had for the map is to show a bit of the history of the island through the map or at least imply one of the major concepts for the lore there. 



I still suck at drawing but hopefully my attempt at a dragon doesn't look too bad. If anyone has any suggestions for how to make it looks better I'd love to hear them. What I want is the feeling that the dragon looms over the people of Strangur.

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## QED42

Small update but I think it makes a big difference! With the help of Mistybee and Ifrix I reworked the tail so it looks a lot better. I also added a small amount of shading to the dragon too.

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## MistyBeee

That's a lot better, Qed, and I'm glad if I helped a little  :Smile:

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## Kellerica

I love that dragon! I just want to cuddle him and/or ride on his back to burn my enemies to ash. 

The map looks good too, even if I think it could maybe do with a little more breathing room between it and the frame?

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## Harrg

I love this sea and forests!
Mb. make shadow on sea-land borders? or very soft blue color?
Very strange look mountains in this style.
Very good front effect on the sea, but it`s not good work with toponims. Mb land names will be delete texture under them?
Dragon is awesome!
I have idea about map boder. Mb break pattern on small parts, like interface vitrage style in game of paradox Crusader Kings 2?

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## QED42

I'm glad everyone likes the dragon but I'm struggling on a name for it. The current four contenders are: Stjornandi, Skelfing, Hoggormur, Hviturormur. I'm leaning away from the S ones as the landmass name already starts with an S. Any preferences? 



Map wise I've made a few changes and added in mountains as well as starting to think about placements of settlements.

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## Kellerica

I don't know, Skelfing has a really nice ring to it in my opinion. The others are a bit too complex for my taste, Skelfing has a nice flow to it, and it rolls very naturally of the tongue (or mine, at least).

Nice work with the map too.

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## QED42

> I don't know, Skelfing has a really nice ring to it in my opinion. The others are a bit too complex for my taste, Skelfing has a nice flow to it, and it rolls very naturally of the tongue (or mine, at least).
> 
> Nice work with the map too.


You might have talked me back round on Skelfing now! I'm still a bit undecided though. For map purposes the dragon might end up unnamed for the time being.

It took me a while to come up with the names for the settlements on the map but I have now started labelling things. I'm trying out a different font for this map too.

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## QED42

Because I have the attention span of a gold fish instead of working on the current map I've been thinking about the lore of Weitland from the previous map and it's different elector counts. So here is a prototype for the style of coat of arms there.

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## QED42

I finally stopped procrastinating and here is an actual map update.

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## QED42

I decided the compass was way too big and didn't really fit but I still think it might be missing something in the bottom left of the map. What do you all think might fit there?

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## Rubikia

Looking good ! Wish I found this thread earlier !

Perhaps you could fit in some sort of illustrated detail, like ships or seamonsters, or even a small city map in the corner like John Speed's maps. If not any of these, maybe name coastal features and all the bays, bites etc., that way you could push back the names of the sea to that corner and make it seem less empty.

Just some ideas

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## QED42

> Looking good ! Wish I found this thread earlier !
> 
> Perhaps you could fit in some sort of illustrated detail, like ships or seamonsters, or even a small city map in the corner like John Speed's maps. If not any of these, maybe name coastal features and all the bays, bites etc., that way you could push back the names of the sea to that corner and make it seem less empty.
> 
> Just some ideas


Thanks!

I tried drawing something to go in the corner in the style of a city but I couldn't get that to work how I want so I'm trying a sea monster. For no reason in particular I decided to call the monster Derek, so say hello to Derek everyone.



Unless there are any other suggestions I think this map might be done.

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## QED42

I have started working on the next continent.



Known as Machlud by the elves this land is also known as the land of the eternal throne, the land beyond the petal sea or the land of warlords. I haven't decided what the locals call the continent but it's going to be China influenced in the central region which is nominally ruled by the eternal throne, something like Indian principalities to the south and the northern mountain range is home to the d&d style monastic orders of the world.

Humans, tabaxi and dragonborn are the most common races found on the continent but there is also the usual smattering of elves and half elves. I think the ruler that sits on the eternal throne is probably a half elf that claims their right to rule going back to survivors of the fallen elven empire.

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## QED42

Fear not faithful lurkers, I have an update for you.



I have started working on the parchment map for Machlud though I am seriously considering a name change for the continent as it doesn't fit so well in my opinion

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## QED42

I've hit something of a crossroads here, I'd love to know which style you all think looks better. Or some combo of the two would work better.

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## arsheesh

I prefer the monochrome version personally, but you might want to make the values of those insert illustrations a bit bolder, currently they are a little too light and difficult to read.  Cool sea texture by the way.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## Greason Wolfe

I'm in agreement with Arsheesh. The monochrome has a solid consistency, and a little more punch to the insets would bring it together well.

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## QED42

> I'm in agreement with Arsheesh. The monochrome has a solid consistency, and a little more punch to the insets would bring it together well.





> I prefer the monochrome version personally, but you might want to make the values of those insert illustrations a bit bolder, currently they are a little too light and difficult to read.  Cool sea texture by the way.
> 
> Cheers,
> -Arsheesh


Thanks for the feedback! The pattern is a seamless pattern I found and edited a little in an attempt to mirror a style Mistybee had on one of her maps.

Does this looks better for a monochrome version?

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## Deeds

I personally like this last one the most out of the three variations. nice work!

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## arsheesh

Yup, that looks much better.  Nice layout.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## Greason Wolfe

Absolutely. Solid work on this.

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## QED42

Thanks for all the positive feedback, I shall now try and label the map without ruining it! I've started work on the labelling but naming all the things takes some time  :Razz:

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## QED42

So I think I might finally be done with Haulilwar, land of the setting sun. If anyone can spot any obvious mistakes or has any last suggestions now would be a good time to mention them  :Smile:

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## Greason Wolfe

Think they both look good, but not sure about putting them together like that. The style change between the two versions is a bit overwhelming for me, but that's mostly a matter of personal taste, I think. Either way, definitely digging the monochrome portion/version. Very clean and readable. Great job on this, so here's a chew toy of rep.

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## QED42

Thanks Greason Wolfe.

Back to work on this there are two regions left to work on really, Deheuol which is a larger continent with a huge desert (probably) and Llaethod which is a collection of small islands.

Naturally as Deheuol will be more work I'm kicking that down the road and starting on Llaethod. Llaethod is where the minotaurs live, they are a race of slavers and pirates who grow a lot of spices on their islands. To start out with I've taken a bunch of islands from satellite photos and combined them together to give a base that looks like this.

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## QED42

I haven't completely abandoned this one! I actually did some mapping work today as well as nudging along some lore stuff in the background.

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## QED42

Brace yourself, an update is coming!

I'd love to hear what you think on if the labels are clear enough as to which island they refer to or if they could be better placed.

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## NolaSong

I think the map looks great! The only label I got a bit confused with was Imiselinos.

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## QED42

> I think the map looks great! The only label I got a bit confused with was Imiselinos.


Thanks, I've moved that label slightly so hopefully it is a bit clearer which island it is for.

What do you guys think of the scimitar, keep it or remove it?

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## ThomasR

I'd say keep it but with a bit more texturing. As it is, it misses something, especially with your detailed reliefs. Also, if you keep it, I'd recommend balancing the colors with something colder in the upper parts but that's personal taste  :Smile:  Great job QED42 !

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## QED42

> I'd say keep it but with a bit more texturing. As it is, it misses something, especially with your detailed reliefs. Also, if you keep it, I'd recommend balancing the colors with something colder in the upper parts but that's personal taste  Great job QED42 !


Thanks for the feedback! I've done a little work on the handle but could you be a little more specific on advice for the texturing? I'm kind of bumbling around here not really knowing what I'm doing  :Razz:

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## QED42

I made a slight tweak to the parchment map and consider that one done now. I also brushed up the terrain map just to have in case I ever need it.



Now it is on to working on Deheuol, the continent dominated by the great desert. I have a basic height map for the continent to start with here:



I started with the coastline of Stewart island, rotated it around and filled in some bits then added in some mountains from Japan and then some from Europe to get here.

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## QED42

And now I've started to put some terrain in. Most of the continent is dominated by a huge desert filled with undead.

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## Kellerica

It's a really impressively realistic style. I'm not a 100% sold on the water being pitch black, but the terrain looks awesome.

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## QED42

> It's a really impressively realistic style. I'm not a 100% sold on the water being pitch black, but the terrain looks awesome.


Thanks! The problem with doing the water something other than black is then I feel like I have to do the rivers too which is a bit trickier and they don't show up as well when they aren't black.

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## QED42

Very minor update but here are some super rough borders for what I have planned for the political set up of the continent. As per usual I've ended up with more countries than I had plans for so that is something to think about for a bit before any more actual mapping progress happens.



The stars are important locations in the infinite desert. The red star at the centre is the black necropolis, where the undead that dominate the desert spawn from, and the blue stars are the 4 elemental gates, possibly lost or ruined, that lead to the Genasi city in a pocket dimension that is the way point between the material plane and the elemental plane.

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## QED42

I had to take a break to hammer out some lore but I'm finally back to mapping again!



For the inserts I'm thinking of doing the four elemental gates in the corners and the lost elemental city in the bottom middle.

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## QED42

Guess what? It's update time!



Not sure I'm loving the drawings in the inserts. This is a scaled down version of what I'm working on but even on the bigger version I'm not sure they are great.

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## QED42

Gotten to the point where I need to name all the cities and I'm cursing myself for putting so many on the map.

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## QED42

I have started playing far too much Team Fight Tactics but this map is still trundling along.



Need to do something with the labels on the inserts, add the continent name and think about names for the seas/oceans.

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## QED42

I think this might be the final update, what do you all think? Any suggestions for improvements?

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## Greason Wolfe

Looks good to me. My only nitpic would be the labels in the seas. Kinda hard to see against all the swirlies. Maybe a little darker on the lettering or a bit of outer glow of some sort just to make them stand out a bit more?

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## Romanadvoratrelundar

> Looks good to me. My only nitpic would be the labels in the seas. Kinda hard to see against all the swirlies. Maybe a little darker on the lettering or a bit of outer glow of some sort just to make them stand out a bit more?


Would still work if the labels were in little boxes or banners though

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## QED42

> Looks good to me. My only nitpic would be the labels in the seas. Kinda hard to see against all the swirlies. Maybe a little darker on the lettering or a bit of outer glow of some sort just to make them stand out a bit more?


Thanks for the tip, I put some white in there which I think makes them easier to see now?

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## Ilanthar

Interesting style. I think a dark halo around the sea labels would help.

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## QED42

Back to the grind stone, I have started thinking about what the full world map might look like. Obviously this includes adding in more new regions because why not make more work for myself?



Hopefully this starts to give an idea of how the different parts of the world fit together.

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## QED42

Trying out something a bit different for the mountains on this map, how do you think using this brush set has turned out?

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## Mouse

They look pretty cool  :Smile: 

I've not been around much lately, so I'm seeing your maps today for the first time in absolutely ages, and I am astonished to see how far you have come in the last year  :Very Happy: 

Everything in this one is so well done, but have you thought of maybe reducing the opacity of that wave pattern just a very tiny bit?  It's gorgeous, and it may just be me, but it does seem to compete just a little bit with the land for attention.

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## QED42

Thank you Mouse, great to see you back on the guild with us again  :Smile:  I hope you are back full time now and this is not just a passing visit.

It is really nice to hear you think I have improved a lot, at the start it felt like I was taking big steps but lately I feel like I really hit a plateau or skill cap in my map making. Looking for the next step on how to improve is hard because with no drawing ability I am not sure where to go next.

When I load up the map again I will look at tweaking the opacity as you suggest, thank you for the tip!

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## Mouse

> Thank you Mouse, great to see you back on the guild with us again  I hope you are back full time now and this is not just a passing visit.
> 
> It is really nice to hear you think I have improved a lot, at the start it felt like I was taking big steps but lately I feel like I really hit a plateau or skill cap in my map making. Looking for the next step on how to improve is hard because with no drawing ability I am not sure where to go next.
> 
> When I load up the map again I will look at tweaking the opacity as you suggest, thank you for the tip!


Always remember that even though you may not realise it you learn with every minute you spend doing anything creative.  The learning is usually small, and may only take the form of a single thought, so you may not notice it or even be able to recall when this or that particular tiny improvement took place.  Take a look back at your early maps and compare this work with them if you don't believe me  :Wink: 

I visit sometimes, but I'm very busy.  My focus in life has shifted quite a lot.  Although I can draw reasonably well, I have gravitated back towards using CC3 and making things to use with CC3.  It gives me a lot of pleasure creating stuff for others to use.

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## QED42

> Always remember that even though you may not realise it you learn with every minute you spend doing anything creative.  The learning is usually small, and may only take the form of a single thought, so you may not notice it or even be able to recall when this or that particular tiny improvement took place.  Take a look back at your early maps and compare this work with them if you don't believe me 
> 
> I visit sometimes, but I'm very busy.  My focus in life has shifted quite a lot.  Although I can draw reasonably well, I have gravitated back towards using CC3 and making things to use with CC3.  It gives me a lot of pleasure creating stuff for others to use.


Well I hope we see you round here a bit more often in the future  :Smile: 

I finally got to an update, mostly just noodling round the edges rather than doing anything important to the land parts while I decide how I am going to label it up.

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## QED42

I have made a little progress but not a huge amount. Mostly I have been messing around with the border and added in markers for where the capital/major cities are.



I don't like the knotwork in the corner of the main borders, that will probably go or be changed. 

What I am mainly stuck on is how to do the borders of the different nations. If anyone has any suggestions for ways to do that or styles that would fit this map I would really appreciate it.

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## QED42

How does this look for showing where different countries are? Is it clear enough or do I need to up the opacity?

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## KMAlexander

I think it needs more definition. I'd try upping the opacity.

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## QED42

> I think it needs more definition. I'd try upping the opacity.


Thanks for the feedback, I ended up reworking things a bit. Does this look a bit better?



Update comes with bonus labels!

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## ThomasR

Love the map but Im not convinced by the clear color of the country labels. As you have a pretty fair set of colors for the map itself, you can maybe go dark for the labels to play the contrast card all the way.

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## QED42

> Love the map but I’m not convinced by the clear color of the country labels. As you have a pretty fair set of colors for the map itself, you can maybe go dark for the labels to play the contrast card all the way.


You are 100% right, thanks for pointing that out.

Brace yourselves, update incoming!



This is half scale so don't worry too much if the text isn't readable but what do you all think of the decorations I've added? The top corners are kind of open space that need something in them too, not sure what I'm going to put in there.

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## QED42

Two updates in a row. I hope no one liked the yellow/gold colour on the decorations because that got chucked out the window fairly fast.



The current questions for where to progress are as follows:

1. Do I go and label all the seas on the main map? Probably.
2. Do the bottom two maps of the Elvish names for the oceans and continents need to be labelled to make it clear what they are?
3. Do the top corners need something in them?

For part 3 originally I was leaning to masks as they are connected to the creator god but in lore he is kind of forgotten/secretive so I am not sure whoever was making this map in universe would use his iconography. I do think this is an in universe map as it is kind of limited on the details for some regions, especially Haulilwar where some of the things shown as countries are only really countries in the eyes of outsiders. Maybe a coats of arms in the top corners for whoever commissioned and made the map would work best.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

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## QED42

I think finally, finally we might be closing in on this one being done. So no is the time to speak up with any suggestions or things I can improve!

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## Mouse

Oh I think you made the right decision with the yellow decorations  :Wink: 

This is looking good.  

I agree with Thomas and KMAlexander, Make the drawing less transparent (if it's full opacity and the pale brown is because you have used an overlay blend mode, try a grain merge instead or duplicate the overlay layers to make it darker) - maybe set the labels layer to full opacity and grain merge so that they are the darkest thing in the map?

It's difficult to say without knowing how each layer is set up.

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## QED42

> Oh I think you made the right decision with the yellow decorations 
> 
> This is looking good.  
> 
> I agree with Thomas and KMAlexander, Make the drawing less transparent (if it's full opacity and the pale brown is because you have used an overlay blend mode, try a grain merge instead or duplicate the overlay layers to make it darker) - maybe set the labels layer to full opacity and grain merge so that they are the darkest thing in the map?
> 
> It's difficult to say without knowing how each layer is set up.


Yay more Mouse feedback!

I have put another level of overlay on the labels, I hope they show up dark enough now. The labels for the different seas have been added in now too but I'm not sure I like them or not. Do you think darker or lighter on them? My feeling was they should be lighter but I'm not sure they are light enough, they draw the attention a bit too much in this mode?

I'm also not sure which drawings you think should be less transparent? I'm worried that making the decorations, coats of arms etc darker will draw attention away from the map in the middle.

Here is the update.

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## Mouse

The labels are better this time, but still very pale.

I think all the linework and shading should be darker than it is.  How you do this is guesswork from here because I can't see how its constructed at all.  If you have drawn everything in a pale orange brown and that's as dark as it goes, save the whole file under a new name and just experiment with the colour controls on each layer to make them all a whole lot darker than they are (not the paper - leave the paper pale).

You may have to fuss around darkening different layers more or less than others, but once you've darkened them all (except the paper) you might see how pale the original is and understand why I am suggesting this move.

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## QED42

Thanks for explaining, I've gone back and messed about with a bunch of the colours to darken various parts. I think for the most part it is black lines set as overlay or soft light but there might be the odd item that has snuck in there as naturally brown or orange.

A couple of options here.





I darkened a lot more lines on the second one.

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## Mouse

Yes, that's definitely better.

How about trying a few new blend modes, like grain merge.  That will keep the nice brown colour but is a lot darker than overlay.  If it's too dark you then have a margin to adjust it up again by varying the transparency of the layer.

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## QED42

I tried playing around a bunch with the grain merge but couldn't get anything that didn't look super black from it. Maybe they changed how it works in the latest version of GIMP or I'm just not doing it correctly. Either way apart from a few tweaks I think this will be the final version that I post up.

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## Mouse

That's fine  :Smile: 

Did you try reducing the opacity to make it not so super black?

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## QED42

Yeah it just seemed to go grey then :/ 

I've put the final version in the finished map section. I have also tried setting up an album for all my maps of this world but I'm not entirely sure how the albums section works on this site. Can I edit the order stuff is displayed in the album and get it to show a thumb nail? Currently it doesn't seem to have one.

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## Mouse

I don't know much about the way the albums work myself.  Maybe the only way of ordering things is to upload them in the right order?

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## QED42

I dunno how this is going to go exactly but something a little bit different next.



Searched around online and used this tutorial to generate the stars for the world now I'm thinking about drawing on constellations.

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## QED42

I've started playing join the dots to pick out constellations. Would like some feed back and feel free to chip in with any interesting shapes you can spot in the star patterns!

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## swiss

I love the coastline detail. Is that all manually drawn or did you use some kind of procedural-generated technique?

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## QED42

> I love the coastline detail. Is that all manually drawn or did you use some kind of procedural-generated technique?


I'm not sure which map you are referring to but for most of the maps the coast lines were based on different real world coastlines with some editing. For example Tirbore was Tasmania rotated.

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## swiss

Ah yeah I see there are a lot of different maps in here. I was talking about the ones posted on 9-23.

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## QED42

Tweaked some things then started trying to do the legend at the bottom and got tilted out my mind trying to line up numbers, text and different fonts.

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## QED42

Not sure on the font choice and if I will add more decorations or not. What do you all think?

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## KMAlexander

I like the italics on the title, but it's hard to read at small sizes.

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## Azélor

What is the writing system you used?

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## MistyBeee

Oh, celestial maps are always special to me ! 
'love it, Qed ! ^^

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## QED42

> I like the italics on the title, but it's hard to read at small sizes.


You are right, I've taken the italics off some of it does this seem better?




> What is the writing system you used?


It is Hindi that I have used for the numbers round the circle and the stuff in the border round the legend. Hindi is where all the names come from too.




> Oh, celestial maps are always special to me ! 
> 'love it, Qed ! ^^


Thanks, hopefully I haven't messed it up with the tweaks I have made.



How does adding some goldish colour look, an improvement?

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## KMAlexander

> You are right, I've taken the italics off some of it does this seem better?


Yep! Much easier to read.  :Very Happy:

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## Ilanthar

Nice! I would suggest to make the main stars pop out more.

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## QED42

I'm back! Hopefully this is going to be a map that covers the region of Veenland with a VERY simple city map of Veenhaven as an insert.

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## QED42

Veenhaven was the first part of my world I started building and was inspired by a2area's classic Sheinar map and once you have a basic lay out for a city in mind it is very hard to get it out. So here is my simplified version, the different districts will need labelling but I have an idea what some of them are.

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## QED42

Took a long break from this map because I didn't like how it was going.

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## QED42

It has been a while but fear not there is progress! (of a small amount)

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## QED42

Some months later I have finally come up with names for the locations.



There seems to be a lot of dead space on the map, do you think this one is done or is there scope for more work here? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

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## rdanhenry

The Veenhaven inset map looks like it should have a bit more to it, if only labels for the city's quarters.

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