The Lost Lands of Batazaan
FarsightX3
Traveler
The Lost Lands of Batazaan is my expansion 3 world map for my game world. It's been lost due to the curse placed on the Wandering Sands by the Judge Xexpar to contain the threat of the Shar, a shadowy sect that seeps into every facet of the realm. Zhar'omen, the Warlock of the Spire, the leader of the Shar was the prophesied one to establish the Dark Age of Vainspire. Xexpar, the celestial Judge of Truth and Falsehood battled Zhar'omen at the pinnacle of his Spire. It's said that Xexpar never ascended back into the heavens. Whispers flow across the realm believing that Zhar'omen has Xexpar as his prisoner while others believe he killed the celestial Judge to gain absolute power. (Sorry had way more written out but my browser crashed and I lost it all. This is just a very basic summery)
*I understand many will probably not like it as it may look 'patchy', but that was intentional. This map is designed for an MMORPG world map. If you play MMORPG's you'd understand that each area you can adventure in are called 'zones'. I simply wanted to highlight the zones, thus not rendering a more of a traditional world map. I hope you like it."
- Legend -
Dark Blue = Starting Cities/Capitol Cities
Light Blue = Banner Cities
White = Wilderness
Yellow = Dungeons
Green = Raid Campaigns
Purple = World Wonders
Brown = Seas, Mountains & Lakes
You can click the image for a larger rendering and you can zoom in and view the detail. It will bring you to another page, once there click again and you can see the larger portion of the world.
If you enjoy playing MMORPG's does this world look interesting to explore? Which are some of the most intriguing areas?
*I understand many will probably not like it as it may look 'patchy', but that was intentional. This map is designed for an MMORPG world map. If you play MMORPG's you'd understand that each area you can adventure in are called 'zones'. I simply wanted to highlight the zones, thus not rendering a more of a traditional world map. I hope you like it."
- Legend -
Dark Blue = Starting Cities/Capitol Cities
Light Blue = Banner Cities
White = Wilderness
Yellow = Dungeons
Green = Raid Campaigns
Purple = World Wonders
Brown = Seas, Mountains & Lakes
You can click the image for a larger rendering and you can zoom in and view the detail. It will bring you to another page, once there click again and you can see the larger portion of the world.
If you enjoy playing MMORPG's does this world look interesting to explore? Which are some of the most intriguing areas?
Comments
- The sea pattern is a bit repetitive. There are two things that can be done to help mitigate this. Firs is to increase the scale of the sea bitmap fill. This makes the "tiles" larger, and therefore doesn't repeat as many times. The second is to use darker/lighter patches (with edge fade) as this also breaks up the monotonous repetition.
- The edge between land and see looks a bit sudden to me. Have you tried with an edge effect, like a small glow?
As for not liking your map, I think you confuse this a bit with the fact that your maps are a bit difficult to comment on. There are certain things people look for in a map and apply real world knowledge to decide if a feature is realistic or not. Making a non-relaistic map (like for a game as you do here) is completely fine, but suddenly our knowledge of the world suddenly doesn't apply, making it difficult to give constructive feedback. That doesn't mean your map isn't good. Knowing exactly the purpose of your map certainly helps appreciate it properly though, because we know which "rules" to not apply to it.
I don't play MMORPG's, but in a general computer game sense, your desert looks quite inviting for an exploration run.
Do you post this map online for your players to look at at? If so, have you considered making a zoomable version? (Example)
You did pick a poor time to post your map though, the activity here is at a very low level due to the summer, seems like many of the regulars are on vacation.
Thanks for the feedback! I actually don't use Sheet Effects because it won't render. It crashes CC3. I'll try it and see if it works. Good call on the Sea texture. I did that for other textures but not the sea.
I understand, I always get a lot of flack on cartographer forums because my maps are very unconventional. Posters don't understand the intention behind it. I have a purpose for mine. Even with the 'patchy-zone-like' approach I still wanted to have a realistic vibe as much as I could. I hope I have conveyed that.
I always find deserts challenging to design. I wanted to be creative as possible.
Curious, will you guys ever do more Herwin Wielink Annuals? Possible more symbol sets expanding his current two? I had to use the old traditional CC3 vegetation as I like that better than his vegetation symbols. He's by far my favorite annual
As far as I know, no additional Wielink stuff are planned, but I don't knwo what the future holds. Some people just can't appreciate that a map with a spesific purpose can break certain rules and still be a good map :-(
Now, I myself are quick to point out weird features if I notice them, because I like maps that make sense. The excuse "it's magic" always make me cringe when used to explain what I view as a clear mistake in the map that the cartographer is just to lazy to fix. But, you'll always also need to evaluate the purpose of the map. If the map is of en extremely high-magic world where wizards fly around terraforming and making flying mountains at will - well, then you will have weird features in the map, and they do actually belong there.
Will I be able to still access the symbol sets from the traditional CC3 with CC3 and all of the annuals from CC3? I still use the traditional CC3 standard symbol set and Overland Symbol Sets as well. I believe I was told that I wouldn't be able to access them with CC3+?
I agree, for me personally, the mapping style I use makes sense for what it is. If I were to change the scale of the world and elicit towns, mountains, forests and rivers mine would look more realistic. To capture the essence of the zone I feel like the approach I have been using works well. I try to explain that and then I get bashed for it. I don't believe I have had that experience on these forums which I do appreciate the community here. On the cartographer's guild forums I don't post anymore because of the slander. I appreciate constructive criticism if warranted and the comprehension of the map.
I do agree with you, magic is a poor excuse. Sometimes it may be warranted for a particular place if it makes sense. Take for instance the Burning Vale in this world map. It use to be a lushes land that belonged to House Ragost until defied Zhar'omen and he used his dark magic so the vale can't produce crop ever again and completely charred their city.
CC3+ contains everything from CC3 itself (and more), and CC3+ versions of all add-ons are available (free of charge as long as you own the CC3 version)
You should be able to open your map straight up in CC3+ (assuming the same add-ons installed), but I recommend converting it to proper CC3+ format with the FFIX command (After doing this it will no longer work in CC3 however, so have a backup before you do that)
I know we turned this into a Q&A for CC3+ lol but if others are lurking please feel free to comment on my map please
No, DogTag, its not Super Duper Science.
Only about Tech Level 19... or so it may seem. :-)
But, I think the lot of us have derailed this thread enough for now, so let's get back to what Farsight asked for, comments on his map
"The mountain ranges and the jungles are well made and really give the feeling of vast areas of wilderness."
That is something that MMORPG's are missing today, a true wilderness. Everything is now just a quest hub. Exploration is gone