CA109 Here Be Monsters
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Well, here is my offering for the CA109 annual, Here Be Monsters. Any comments very welcome, as I am just a struggling cartographer. I really lik the annuals, they make life easy to produce good maps.
This map represents a region where the really only safe routes are along rives or coasts - and even they are fraught with danger - wild jungle and swamp creatures, and barbarian hordes. Along with Kraken and Leviathin etc.
Need to look for more land monsters in this style to add to the monster list. Any pointers welcome.
This map represents a region where the really only safe routes are along rives or coasts - and even they are fraught with danger - wild jungle and swamp creatures, and barbarian hordes. Along with Kraken and Leviathin etc.
Need to look for more land monsters in this style to add to the monster list. Any pointers welcome.
Comments
Now here's the weird thing. While it does look strange to see something like that, there are some historical maps from both Europe and Asia where the map creator flipped things around that way. So it really isn't out of place or wrong per se, just something you don't see every day.
But I do like how you made one of the sea creatures into what looks like a Dungeons and Dragons Bullete. That was a really good idea I think.
I also think you have done well with the spacing out of the monsters. If you put them too close to one another they just tend to look like someone just stamped them on. I'm glad you didn't make this map that way. Great job!
Also, as a suggestion, something I noticed about the banner at the top. It bends in a weird way, making it very difficult to place text there. What I did to solve the problem with my map was that I split the words so I had to place each word individually instead of typing them both together in the word tool. This allowed me to get past that weird bend and make it look decent.
Over all, it's a nice map
However, this is not one of my favourite styles.
It seems as if you opted for the "text along a curve" option for the title in the banner. That might need a couple of minor adjustments, as to my eye the two words are running a little close together, while the capital "E" is just a bit too near the top edge of the banner once the effects are on.
Maybe the rivers need a small tweak, just to help them stand out fractionally more in places. I'm losing the roads that run beside them too. A thin glow for one or other, or both roads and rivers, perhaps?
The style would definitely benefit from some land monsters adding to it - not even any Dragons to "Here Be" at present! There are some free fonts that might help, but few that I've found are sufficiently close to this style to work with it, unfortunately.
The sea routes around the Eight Cities Federation seem to have occasional longer dashes set in them. I know the CC3 tools have an annoying tendency to do this sometimes when you don't really want them to, and while they actually work fine as they are, I think, it might be something to consider adjusting. Also, I'm intrigued by the unmarked landfall one of the routes makes just north of the most easterly String of Pearls Isle; that might need some sort of marker adding, unless it's something too secret to show!
I can't quite make out the name -"Oglala Lake"?- just NW of the String of Pearls, but it seems to me it needs to be a bit more inland, maybe with some hills separating it from the coast. Right now, it looks like there's just a thin, fragile land bridge between it and the sea.
Also, just an informational question: is there a significance to the mountain range at the northern end of the Derinov Desolation being a different color from the others? As it is, they look fog or cloud-enshrouded.
The lake is meant to be almost coastal, like a massive lagoon, and what we often get here on Earth (another very dangerous place to live in). I will rename it Lagoon. I will repost the map after more suggestions come in (which I love, BTW)
Hadn't occurred to me the trails were actually routes available by land and inland waterway, as you'll have gathered.
Maybe move the scale-bar and caption, plus the compass rose, to the Text sheet to get the benefit of the highlighting glow too, as they're looking a little lost now (or just add the same effect to whatever sheet they're currently on, instead).