So... now what?
Wasn't sure if this would be better here or in "Community Support"... in any case:
So after many months away from my fantasy world and the CC3 mapping that goes with it, I've found myself back in it again, and have been working on the world map I started ages ago. It's taken a while, but I've finally gotten the continents looking like I want them to, in terms of shape, size, etc. It's very bare bones right now, and I do still have a lot of work to do with islands (I know half of them look totally random, haha) and other stuff, but I thought it would be easier to advise if one sees the size of the map, so here it is:
The two large continents are what I'm mainly concerned with right now anyway.
Also, I do have some text labels for different regions/nations, but those aren't important for this question. Which is: as the topic title states, "Now what?"
Ultimately, I will do some closer in maps detailing each region. but I feel like I could do more with THIS map first, in terms of identifying features on it. Obviously, I can do region names, capitals or really big/important cities, etc... but what about non-man-made stuff? I'm not sure if the size of this map is too big to show, say, rivers and lakes? I feel a little lost as to how to determine this, if a given map size is just too big to show these details, but I've also heard it said that rivers are a good thing to add after basic landmasses, since the shapes/numbers/paths of rivers have such a huge influence over other land features. And I'm pretty sure it's much too big to show individual mountains; they would just be tiny blobs. So maybe something like... just some contours or colors to show that one area is generally green and fertile, one area has a lot of high mountain ranges, this area down here is desert, etc etc...?
I know this is probably infuriatingly vague to read, but to be honest, that's kind of how I'm feeling myself, at the moment. I just feel lost. I want to get in to more details, but I feel like if I just pick a region, make a closer-in map of it, and start placing mountains, rivers, etc, it will feel too random. I'd like to expand a BIT more on this map to get a better idea - even if it's just a very rough idea - of what area has what kind of terrain before trying to zoom way in and place details in specific regions. So I guess I'm sort of saying, to those who have more experience with mapping than I do: if this were your map, what would YOU do now?
And actually, thinking about it, here's a slightly less vague question that ties into the larger question: what about those rivers? I understand the ideas behind why their placement is so important, and why they should be placed early, but turning the concepts of why they are important into the reality of actually determining the nature of the rivers themselves on my maps is a bit harder. Any tips or key dos-and-don'ts on placing rivers in a logical way are appreciated.
tl;dr version: I'm not very good at this and am asking for some tips on how to proceed. XD I know this is horribly unspecific and directionless, as requests for help go, and I apologize for that. Thanks in advance for any advice.
So after many months away from my fantasy world and the CC3 mapping that goes with it, I've found myself back in it again, and have been working on the world map I started ages ago. It's taken a while, but I've finally gotten the continents looking like I want them to, in terms of shape, size, etc. It's very bare bones right now, and I do still have a lot of work to do with islands (I know half of them look totally random, haha) and other stuff, but I thought it would be easier to advise if one sees the size of the map, so here it is:
The two large continents are what I'm mainly concerned with right now anyway.Also, I do have some text labels for different regions/nations, but those aren't important for this question. Which is: as the topic title states, "Now what?"
Ultimately, I will do some closer in maps detailing each region. but I feel like I could do more with THIS map first, in terms of identifying features on it. Obviously, I can do region names, capitals or really big/important cities, etc... but what about non-man-made stuff? I'm not sure if the size of this map is too big to show, say, rivers and lakes? I feel a little lost as to how to determine this, if a given map size is just too big to show these details, but I've also heard it said that rivers are a good thing to add after basic landmasses, since the shapes/numbers/paths of rivers have such a huge influence over other land features. And I'm pretty sure it's much too big to show individual mountains; they would just be tiny blobs. So maybe something like... just some contours or colors to show that one area is generally green and fertile, one area has a lot of high mountain ranges, this area down here is desert, etc etc...?
I know this is probably infuriatingly vague to read, but to be honest, that's kind of how I'm feeling myself, at the moment. I just feel lost. I want to get in to more details, but I feel like if I just pick a region, make a closer-in map of it, and start placing mountains, rivers, etc, it will feel too random. I'd like to expand a BIT more on this map to get a better idea - even if it's just a very rough idea - of what area has what kind of terrain before trying to zoom way in and place details in specific regions. So I guess I'm sort of saying, to those who have more experience with mapping than I do: if this were your map, what would YOU do now?
And actually, thinking about it, here's a slightly less vague question that ties into the larger question: what about those rivers? I understand the ideas behind why their placement is so important, and why they should be placed early, but turning the concepts of why they are important into the reality of actually determining the nature of the rivers themselves on my maps is a bit harder. Any tips or key dos-and-don'ts on placing rivers in a logical way are appreciated.
tl;dr version: I'm not very good at this and am asking for some tips on how to proceed. XD I know this is horribly unspecific and directionless, as requests for help go, and I apologize for that. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Comments
You can also use mountain fills (from the terrain drawing tools) if you wish to use the fill styles instead of using mountain symbols, or you can use the mountain fill style to indicate your mountainous regions, then throw on a few mountain symbols to represent your largest peaks.
Rivers. Make sure you know where your mountains are first. Remember, rivers flow from the higher regions (meaning your mountains), into the lower regions (your ocean). At this scale, the rivers running from your mountain may be too tiny to show in this scale, and won't show up until a few of them have merged to form a bigger river. Figure out a point for each river where it is large enough to show up on the world map, then draw it from that point. If you wish to details the rivers more, but don't want those tiny rivers showing up on the world map, draw these rivers on a hidden layer. This way, you can leave them out for normal viewing, but when you are creating regional maps later, you can see where your rivers run, since you do want them on this map. Creating the complete river, also the non-visible part, helps you create more believable rivers.
Also remember that while rivers often merge, they almost never split.
Some large lakes to go with the rivers should also appear on the map. Just remember that even the largest lakes will be quite small on a map of this scale.
There are other terrain features you may wish to add as well. Look at a real world map, and you'll notice features like deserts and such leap out on you. Check out the terrain drawing tools, and have a look at what you think might appear. Large deserts? Quite possibly. Grassland, steppes? Probably. Farmland? Probably not visible from this scale.
Just a bit of a push in the right direction was what I needed, and that's what I got. It's appreciated.
Interesting link, JimP... I'm not looking to get into mapping out the different regions in a climatic way just yet, but it did get me thinking about how that would affect the type of terrain in various areas (and vice versa).
I started playing around with terrains and contours and whatnot, and I think I actually have some ideas of where to go next... I do have some more technical/"how to use feature X" type issues as well, but I'll make a new thread for them, since the title of this one ("Now what?") doesn't suggest the kinds of questions I now have.