Custom Made Worlds (IMAGES)

[crabclaw]

showing off latest map which is nearly comepleted:

11 x 17 at 300 dpi CYMK print ready

 

[Khaalis]

Absolutely amazing work. Congrats!
I wish you luck finding some decent paying work using your talents.

 

[alaric187]

Wow. Those are awesome, crabclaw. I use Fractal Mapper to do my maps. Of course, I don't have the talent to get anywhere close to that level. If you put out a book/pdf with helpful tips and the like, you can count on my purchase as well.

Alaric

 

[Ferret]

Amazing, one comment though, the mountains look detached from the rest of the landscape, I don't know if this is because I don't see many mountains, or they're too crinkly. The ones on the top left look fine.

 

[crabclaw]

Thanks -- the map isn't finished yet -- on the right side i need to still burn the rivers into the mountains and do some blending -- but the map is about 85% finished.

I think the patron also wants highways and cities represented so that may be coming soon too.

 

[crabclaw]

Okay I narrowed the rivers and on the right side i nest rivers to look more in part with mountains.

 

[Conaill]

Nice graphics work, crabclaw. Unfortunately, on the geography side, you seem to have some topology problems...

First off, keep in mind that rivers always flow downhill. That means, the further you are from the delta, the higher you'll be. For example, the river running N-to-S on the East (left) side of your map: the highest point along the course of that river would be at it's source... which is awfully close to the ocean just north of it! That could only happen if there is a very sharp cliff between the source of the river (highest altitude) and the ocean (sea level). There's another N-to-S river a little further East that has the same problem.

Second, river systems typically do not branch into two, and lakes do not typically have two outlets. Water takes the shortest/steepest route downhill, and there's not typicall two exactly equally short/steep routes for it to take. There's a bunch of examples of this in your map, making it look rather unrealistic. There's a series of lakes running the length of your continent which have a number of outlets to the ocean. Makes it look as if your continent is falling apart into a series of barely separated islands (with the inner lakes at sealevel), but then the "rivers" in betwen the islands would look very different.

I would suggest you try to come up with an altitude map of your continent, and adjust the geography or the rivers accordingly.

 

[Destan]

Nice graphics work, crabclaw. Unfortunately, on the geography side, you seem to have some topology problems...

Naw, I'm the one with the problems. Crabclaw made the map to order, based on a sketch I had given him. The land that's depicted in actually the dead body of a fallen god (don't ask), so natural laws - as we know them - don't really hold. Unfortunately, that type of info isn't with the pic, it's only in the supplement, and the supplement ain't yet published.

In short - I'm to blame for the apparent inconsistencies.

D

 

[crabclaw]

hawk-eye and thoughtful criticism is appreciated -- added city names and did general tweaking to mountains and nesting rivers in deep canyons.

 

[Conaill]

Naw, I'm the one with the problems. Crabclaw made the map to order, based on a sketch I had given him. The land that's depicted in actually the dead body of a fallen god (don't ask), so natural laws - as we know them - don't really hold. Unfortunately, that type of info isn't with the pic, it's only in the supplement, and the supplement ain't yet published.

Funny. When I pointed out similar issues with Nightfall's maps, he came up with "actually, the god of rivers and water died in the last great cataclysm".

Now really, it isn't that hard to make sure your rivers run downhill that you have to revert to some magical explanation, is it? ... Is it?