What's your favourite overland style?
Loopysue
ProFantasy 🖼 41 images Cartographer
I've accepted the task of creating CC4 Overland, so before I dive in and start work on it I'd love to know what your favourite overland styles are, so I can draw inspiration from the things you like.
Please give me some indication of why your favourite is your favourite. Maybe you love the mountains, or the structure symbols are excellent. Maybe its just really easy to use.
Thanks in advance :)
Comments
I do not do a ton of overland (I do more battlemaps). But for overland:
Greets,
Well, it really depends on what I'm doing but in no particular order:
John Roberts (both) because it is close to 'realistic' but not too much.
Darklands for the same reason but love the fills
Spectrum for the fills
Fenlon (did I spell that right? Just now getting coffee) nostalgic reasons
Sometimes, I sorta make my own OR mix them all up for my purposes.
I believe that's all I can think of now without coffee.
😁
Cal
I mentioned this on your FB post, but I love Spectrum for overland because of the diversity of mountains, hills, and trees, and how well they also work for both large overland maps as well as smaller isometric scenes.
Not sure this will be the most useful answer, as I have tried out a lot of different overland styles (and continue to do so), and they all have their own merits.
However, of the more pictorial styles, I do have a fondness for the Herwin Wielink style, possibly because it's the one I drew my first detailed overland map in (the northern Sword Coast region from the Forgotten Realms, although that remains unfinished after I became too distracted by the Community Atlas!). There's something about the symbol and fill colourings, and the way many of the symbols blend easily into the bitmap fills in that one that gives it a more "organic" feel for me. That and the fact there's a degree of sketchy, non-linear texturing to the bitmap fills as well (actual thin, drawn lines), which again helps distract the eye away from any repeating patterns.
For mapping precision, it would have to be one of the top-down styles, to be able to draw elements such as contour lines properly, and ensure everything was correctly located, something the pictorial styles have problems with quite often. I suspect that isn't what you're looking for the new CC4 Overland style here though, Sue!
And of course, it would be wonderful to have a full suite of shallow to deepest seafloor textures and symbols to work with at an overland scale 😉 (which I seriously doubt will be on the cards for this project either!).
And of course, it would be wonderful to have a full suite of shallow to deepest seafloor textures and symbols to work with at an overland scale 😉 (which I seriously doubt will be on the cards for this project either!).
LOL!
Thanks for the answers so far everyone! Very useful.
I am going to exclude top down styles.
So I use Schley mostly, but I don't think that should be the one because it already has so many symbols.
That leaves my next two equal favourites - Jon Roberts - but far too many symbols for me to use often; and Spectrum - which could do with a heap more symbols, but it is alone in depicting grass covered hills and even mountains, which I really like. That is a bid omission from Schley - hint to the monthly freebies from Schley
The list below does not represent the "order" of my favorite styles, but rather the order in which they appear when I open the program/overland:
Ancient Realms - Its mountains and hills are beautiful.
Dark Lands - Very versatile and amazing color palette, however it lacks many icons for structures. It goes very well with Mike Schley's icons - which expands the possibilities.
Herwin Wielink - I love this style, but the lack of more icons (mountains, hills, structures) really hinders variety. The color palette of the Fills is beautiful.
Jon Roberts - Very beautiful "watercolor" art, but the same criticism from Herwin Wielink applies to this one, it lacks structure and flora variety. I know it's difficult, but they both deserve a beautiful icon expansion.
Spectrum Overland - Huge variety of natural icons, however it lacks more structures and I have a problem fitting mountains since they are all "peaks".
Mike Schley - No comments needed regarding the variety of possibilities.
Beyond the chosen style, the most important thing is that I believe that an Overland project like this for the CC4, and based on the high quality of those who produce it, has everything to be a flagship for the company. Therefore, this "Ultimate Sue Richards Overland Super Plus Master" could follow Mike Schley's line, where the chosen style continually receives image pack expansions.
I also forgot to add that Spectrum has by far the best fills. I would urge that ALL the Koppen biomes are included - with perhaps at least 2 fills per biome.
You actually think a lot without coffee 🤣
A lot really depends on what look or feel I want. However, if I were to create a new default color style, it would be Spectrum Overland.
For me, it is the "best" looking style. For the lack of a better term, it has a 'realistic" look to the mountains and trees. There are a multitude of fills and multiple options for trees. I really like being able to create craters and cliffs because you do it from every angle. There are waterfalls and glaciers. I think the hills look and function more like foothills to mountains than rolling hills. I think there needs to be better symbols for the generic fantasy towns. But the primary issue is I just want more symbols and options.
In second place it would be Herwin Wielink. To me, the style is the one that has the most cohesive look to it due to the style. The dark lines of the mountains blend in with the dark lines of the land. The same is true for the trees. It has mountains and foothills that go together. There are rolling hills. It has multiple mountain styles including mountain ranges. It has a VC option, which I think really helps with versatility. I like the different structure options. I think the fills for this style are weak and it probably needs some more options.
You are likely doing color, but I am a sucker for the B&W maps. I have been hoping you would be tasked with creating one at some point. I pretty much like all of them. I love that the landform style really allows the map to look like those. The only issue with all of these styles is the lack of options compared with color.
I have always been strongly drawn to the Herwin Wielink style - I just absolutely love the look of the map as a whole and the character of the symbols. However, I almost never use it other than to take a symbol here and there for other maps, because of the lack of symbols. What it does, it does extraordinarily well (IMHO), but it doesn't do much.
Not a specific style comment, but rather a general look - I often, but by no means always, lean towards subdued colors and subtle color shifts rather than the bright, bold maps styles (Dark Realms or Parchment Maps, for example, over Sarah Wroot or Mercator).
Mike Schley is impossible to beat for sheer variety of symbols, of course.
Hope this helps.
Strangely, for me, is that I really dislike the HW style. It's too dark, too cartoonish for my tastes. Weirdness is that when I first started using CC3+, that was the first style I chose to use. It was all a hot mess.
hmmmm
Maybe I will try a new map in this style to see what I can do now. Hmmmmm
Cal
@Calibre, I am 100% in agreement with you about Herwin Weilink. If only the Jon Roberts had many more symbols and fills, it would be my favourite, but in the meantime, it is Mike Schley, though it needs many more fills (and better ones).
With Spectrum coming close second - again, it needs heaps more symbols though the fills are tremendous. I am super excited thet the author of that style is now going to do the main style of CC4.
The interesting pattern emerging between this thread and the FB Group thread, is that preferences seem to be quite polarised. There are just as many people favouring HW as there are MS - mostly for the reasons you mentioned above. What one small group prefers, the other dislikes.
Prior to your comments, last night, I was working on a new land texture that was vaguely reminiscent of the HW Land Brown. Maybe (when I get the texture actually right), I should do a lighter version as well so people can chose how dark or light they like their maps?
I guess it also depends a lot on how individual mappers want to use their maps. Light is much more economical and much clearer when printing, but dark and contrasty is nice for impact when the map is used as a png or jpg.
Please continue to tell me your favourites. It all helps.
Thank you :)
Dark Lands, Spectrum Overland and Herwin Wielink.
Haven't tried 13th Age and Ancient Realms yet. Actually I haven't tried a lot of overland styles. 😅
Maybe (when I get the texture actually right), I should do a lighter version as well so people can chose how dark or light they like their maps?
I like that idea very much. I use the Adjust Hue effect a lot when I need the same fill to be a bit lighter or darker in different places, but it’s helpful to have a range preexisting in the fills.
@kilma.ard.venom I spent my first 2 years with CC3+ only using the default overland styles. At the time I couldn't afford any of the Annuals, but these days I've got them all. There are many very beautiful overland styles available, but the strange thing is that quite apart from not really having a lot of time to make maps, when I do overland maps I tend to automatically pick the original default CC3+ overland styles - probably just because those are the first styles I ever learned how to use.
@Royal Scribe Yes, we do it a lot in city and dungeon styles, but never really provide alternative shades in overland styles. Maybe it's time.
@Calibre I would love to know if you had changed your mind at all about HW if you try another map in that style now. Taste changes over the years...
I agree that HW is dark. That is probably one of the reasons I don't use it nearly as much as other styles as it seems to only fit a particular feeling even though I really like it. I disagree that it is cartoonish.
I dislike MS. I know it has tons of options. I have seen very nice maps made with it. I cannot make them. The overall style is out of date. I am sure it looks good if it is 1995 and you are flipping through an AD&D 2E module, but it is beyond dated. I think someone called it cartoonish. I am not sure if that is the correct description. I would put it like this. MS is like a very skilled high school art, meanwhile there are many other styles such as spectrum, that would be the equivalent of master works of art in comparison.
There are two uses for CC. First, is personal use and people have different degrees of toleration of style matching the map/game. The second is professional. I doubt you can create an all in one professional style that suits everyone's needs. However, the more developed, less cartoonish, and more options you have, the more that the default style could be use for multiple professional uses.
I think it maybe shouldn't be a "dark" style. I know in World Builders you wrote about color shifting. What you managed to do really made those maps looks great. If you want to provide a dark option, then maybe just make a neutral map and then have second style that just copies that but turns on the color shifting.
I've got a similar story. The main difference is that I didn't use the default style to draw a map of my homebrew world. I tried to recreate my favorite world map style — I fell in love with it since I was a kid — though in a simpler manner. And now I have almost every annual, but I just look at the examples admiring them not sure whether I want to redraw that world map or rather have what it takes to redraw it.
This is the style I am referring to: https://www.theworldofmaps.com/sites/theworldofmaps.com/files/ENG_ST_WK_1272_low-res_0.jpg
As far as fills go, (not taking symbols into account), my favourite is clearly Spectrum. Schley has Some nice fill, others not so. I do like toe forest fills in 13th Age.
But regardless, I think my clear favourite author of fills is Sue's - all her creations have wonderful fills.
My only real request is that all biomes be represented, and several options for each - as she has done in the Spectrum particularly with deserts.
Sorry Sue about talking about you in third person, but I wanted everyone to know exactly who I was referring to.