Tropan: 2019

[Diamond]

A new year brings a new (yet another) redesign of my world of Tropan. This is an ancient world orbiting a pair of stars. Post-apocalyptic, with lots of deserts, mountains, and only one (known) ocean, a salty Dying Sea.

My question to you all is: do you like the darker or lighter water? I'm kind of leaning toward the lighter, more muted water, but the dark version does pop a bit more.

Tropan20191B.jpgTropan20191A.jpg

[Kellerica]

Nice to see others endlessly updating their own work too...

I'll have to concur with your initial feeling, I think the lighter looks a little better. But honestly, I think in the darker version the issue isn't so much the overall hue of the water, but the lighter tones around the shores. I think they are what stand out a bit too much in the darker version. If they were more subtle, I would perhaps prefer the darker one.

[bkh1914]

As Kellerica said, the strong blue shorelines seem a little too strong.

The other thing that pops out for me is that the central dark area just suddenly happens.
No lead-in. It's just suddenly there.

The lighter water seems to have a distinct grayish cast.
But that probably fits in better with the more muted colors on the rest of the map.

[MistyBeee]

Oooh, a Diamond map ! Always great !!
My vote goes for the lighter water too because the general look is more consistent.
For me there's a problem of values in the darker version. Maybe have a check with turning your map in greyscale will help you to have a better sense of it

[Domino44]

I really like both! For this map I would say the lighter version, you described the world as dying and the ocean to be salty and I feel like the darker version is to rich and it makes me think of it as alive instead of dying.

[rdanhenry]

I like the darker water, but unless it is meant to be the focus of the map, the land needs some less muted color so that it doesn't fade into the background.

Saltier water contains less organic colored matter, which makes it bluer than less salty water. This is used to track ocean salinity by satellite. A stronger blue color is actually more suggestive of salinity and lack of life.

[Veldrin]

Beautiful start as usual

I would suggest the light version. I feel that it sticks better to the shade of the rest (i.e. the continent), the darker bringin out too much the ocean/lake.

[Diamond]

I like the darker water, but unless it is meant to be the focus of the map, the land needs some less muted color so that it doesn't fade into the background.

Saltier water contains less organic colored matter, which makes it bluer than less salty water. This is used to track ocean salinity by satellite. A stronger blue color is actually more suggestive of salinity and lack of life.

Huh! I did not know that. Thanks for the knowledge!

[Diamond]

Well, I know Kell with love this new darker version. I had some nice relief maps that I found online a while back, and after some manipulation I came up with this. I kind of like it. I want more of a really spare, stripped-down look, so this may actually be all I do for terrain. I'll have to redo most of the river systems though.

[Diamond]

Actually, you know what? Screw it. I'm so pleased with the way my challenge map is coming along, I'm going to redo Tropan in that style. And on this one I'll get to draw some canyons!