Suggestions for Creating a Mountain Kingdom Map
JulianDracos
Mapmaker
I want to create a map of a kingdom in the mountains. I am working with a 200 x 200 mile map. I am trying to conceive of a way for it to not just be flat land with mountains around. Presumably, there will be cities are different elevations. There may be rivers and valleys.
I have played around and gotten some ok results with a few styles. I think part of my issue is trying to conceive of what angle the map should be at.
In addition to any general suggestions, are there any styles you think work best for this style map? How should I handle symbol scale size - especially of the mountains. Having an entire mountain symbol going 20 miles seems a bit small.
Comments
If I wanted something more "realistic" I would definitely go for Mike Schley Overland.
This may depend on what level of clarity you need as to what's where.
Side-on or isometric pictorial symbols make it very difficult to show what may be located in the valley or mountainsides behind them, for instance, without a degree of tweaking, use of arrows or other pointers, or where you need a good eye to spot the half-hidden symbols placed partly behind the foreground mountains. There's a risk in doing so that you'll forget about those hidden vales and mountainsides too, and not place anything there.
A top-down view with some form of contours makes the location of everything much clearer. Pretty well any mapping style that offers a range of coloured textures, or simply coloured polygons, can be made to work to show this. Fantasy Realms and the newer Fantasy Realms Reimagined version offer a loose compromise between pictorial symbols and a "true" contour map, should you want a more pictorial, yet still top-down, style. This method makes it far easier to show mountains and ridges at exactly the size you're comfortable with for what you're mapping, without needing to rescale pictorial symbols, possibly to the point where they start to look wrong (such as with too thick outlines, or worse, where they become pixelated).
I might wait on Sue' map. I was going to use Schley as Rico suggested, but I didn't because of the issue Wyvern raised with mountains blocking items right behind it. I kept trying to do the shaded relief. At least for the scale I was working at, I didn't like it. If I got the mountains looking good, then there was not enough room for the colored contours. If I made fatter mountains, I didn't like how it looked. I think it might be better if I made a larger scale map, especially where there are not mountain regions.
I might try the travel map style. I am just not sure it will provide the types of detail I want. I thought about the 13 age, but it does not provide an easy way for height differences. It is closer to a satellite map. I want to use landform style, but I think cities and other things will be hidden behind the symbols.