Community Atlas - The World of Nibirum

Since all of the continents are now complete, it is time to start the CC3+ version of the world map. I am tasked with the challenge of translating everyone's beautiful continental maps into an official version of the world.

Since we want anyone with the core CC3+ software to be able to use the map, I have made the choice to create it in the original CC3 style. I expect this to be a long term project. I'm really hoping that as the map progresses that I can get input form the community, especially from those who originally created the continents.

So far I have two continents with their updated coastlines.
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Comments

  • Wow that's some task! Looking forward to watching your progress
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    That's going to be one big headache with all the different projections to take into account!

    Something to get your teeth into, though. Great project - and I know you'll make it totally beautiful :)
  • Thanks Lorelei and Sue! I know that I can always count on you girls to be my cheering section. :D
    Posted By: LoopysueThat's going to be one big headache with all the different projections to take into account!
    Yes! I know that I'll be pulling my hair out over several of the continents. :D It's going to be getting the details like mountains and forests in the correct positions and proportions that will be the trickiest.
  • ScottAScottA Surveyor
    Yes, a monumental project, but one which I think will be beautiful when finished...
  • 1 month later
  • This is still very much a work in progress. I am currently working on a few of the continents and have also started laying in the mountain backgrounds and rivers on the continents that I have finished. My goal with this is to have everything match the continents that have been added to the atlas.

    Nothing here is final yet so if at any point you have comments and suggestions, I'm open to ideas. I've mapped continents before but this is my first world scale map. I'm not sure if I will use symbols or just textures. I will have to experiment with both.
  • I wonder if you could put 12.5 degree latitude (the tropical zones). And showing 30 and 60 degree, is more logical since they correspond with the Hadley cells, which determine weather and climate zones (like placement of deserts, jungles and taiga/tundra) and also the arctic zone - perhaps higher than 75 degrees due to the issues raised by Wyvern (I think).. Though having said all that. perhaps you have important reasons for the 25 and 65 degrees rather than 30 and 60 degrees, which in the end are still rather close.
    But what a mammoth and wonderful task you are undertaking. I 'dips me lid' as they say in Oz.
  • Thanks for the input Quenten.

    I initially had 30 and 60 degrees on the map but after studying the work that Wyvern did on the star charts, I saw that he had 25 and 65 degrees as the equivalent placement of the arctic/antarctic circle and the tropic of cancer/capricorn. Since everyone has already determined location of deserts and such I thought including the solar latitudes would be more beneficial for determining climate,vegetation, etc when doing regional maps. Do you think I should include both? As I've said, I am open to any and all suggestions on this.
  • GThielGThiel Surveyor
    You might also consider adding the two Tropic," the northern-most and southern-most latitudes where the sun can be seen directly overhead; see the Tropics of Cancer ( 23.43689° north of the equator) and Capricorn (23.43689° south of the equator). I don't know what the axial tilt of Nibirium is as that would have a major effect on the climate in the more northerly and southerly regions as well as hours of light and darkness.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
    I have a feeling its slightly different on Nibirum. I can't quite remember all the details, but Wyvern worked it all out really carefully in a post a few weeks ago (which to my shame I can't seem to find!)
  • I effectively set Nibirum's axial tilt as 25° when I designed what became the "official" Atlas' star charts, by setting Nibirum's ecliptic as angled at 25° to its equator. That's sufficiently similar to Earth's not to create major differences, but by keeping to a simpler value than Earth's circa 23½° tilt, hopefully it makes life a bit easier for GMs to work with.

    Consequently, as Shessar already said, the two Nibirran Tropics, and thus the tropical zones, are shown by the 25°N and S latitude lines now, along with the midnight sun = arctic/antarctic circle latitude lines at 65°N and S.

    Given these lines are only 5° different to the Hadley and Ferrel cell boundaries for Earth, at roughly 30° and 60°N and S latitude, and that the cell boundaries aren't firmly fixed anyway (they also vary through the year; the commonly-cited 30° and 60° values apply chiefly near the equinoxes, theoretically), this perhaps isn't too key a point. And again as Shessar noted, since the major climate regions/vegetation regimes have been emplaced by the continental-scale maps prepared earlier, these atmospheric-circulation cell-locations aren't perhaps nearly as important now as they might have been otherwise.

    However, it may be useful to provide a separate Sheet for the map with 10° latitude circle lines across the whole planet for anyone needing greater clarity on this and other points, along with another Sheet showing the currently-illustrated equator and solar lines. Users would then have the option to use one or both sets of information, or indeed neither.

    To amplify Loopysue's point, the two main topics regarding Nibirum's star charts and the planet's solar lines and polar geomagnetics are here (Star Charts) and here (Solar System). For the latter items, scroll down to my April 7th posting on the second linked topic here.

    Liking the look of the map so far, by the way!
  • I think it is a pity that so much is in the tropical zone, where it was not conceived as such by the original mappers. So not sure how to account for Nibirum's climate biomes as charted.
  • Posted By: QuentenI think it is a pity that so much is in the tropical zone, where it was not conceived as such by the original mappers. So not sure how to account for Nibirum's climate biomes as charted.
      It's true that most of this wasn't taken into account with the original continent maps, but here we are all the same. I think I'll take Wyvern's suggestion for including a sheet of every 10 degrees for those who would want it as well as the current tropic and arctic latitudes.

      Keep your thoughts flowing Quenten. I want to make sure that I don't do anything that is completely wrong, while at the same time being casual enough to not worry about any discrepancies caused by having so many hands in the cooking pot. :)
    • Not sure I'm following the "so much is in the tropical zone" argument here, given that Nibirum's tropics extend all of 1½° further from the equator than do Earth's, so are essentially all-but identical. That seems indeed to have been the pattern most of the continental mappers followed when drawing the various terrain types onto the surface of Nibirum, where anything specific was defined at least. Don't recall any attempt to map Nibirum's climate biomes as yet though, beyond those general "similar to Earth" choices.

      Of course, this general patterning for Nibirum influenced my decision to go with an Earth-like similarity when determining the angle of the ecliptic, and the various facets that follow from that choice.
    • 8 months later
    • Well, after what turned out to be an extended adventure in renovating a house that I inherited, I am back. The house had several over price offers after only two days on the market so I know that my efforts have paid off. Now, I will again have time to spend on mapping for the community atlas.

      I have managed to get all but one of the continents laid in with mountains and rivers. The last, Alarius, will be the most challenging because it spans from the arctic circle to the equator and when flattened out, the distortion over that distance is pretty extreme. This will take me a bit of time to do. :)
    • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
      My goodness! And you've even stretched the mountains and the rivers in the extreme latitudes to match the projection :)
    • What an amazing project. The definitive Nibirum map
    • Thanks Quenten and Sue! Translating everyone's continent back into a world map is a challenge but it will represent the world better than the original FT3 map that we started with. Doing this was Remy's idea and I think it's a worthwhile project, I just hope that I can make a map that captures everyone's efforts all in one map. I think once I know where the mountains and rivers are the other details will be a bit easier to add.
    • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
      Looking great so far. Looking forward to get this as the "front map" on the atlas rather than the FT3 export (The FT3 export is nice and all, but this is a truer representation of the atlas work)

      I think handling things as we did, i.e. starting with the continent maps (loosely based on the FT3 map) and then backporting those to a world map worked out great. Allowed the individual mappers a bit more freedom to define "their" continent while at the same time providing a common framework, and when this map is done, we have a world map that represents those continents.
    • This is indeed looking excellent, though having mapped a little bit of northern Alarius (so able to ignore largely the problems of the whole-continent projection), I can quite appreciate the challenges ahead.
    • 4 months later
    • Sincere apologies that it has taken me so long to get back to mapping this.

      I now have the most difficult parts done. The next phase I'll be working on is the terrain details and after that the forests. Here's what I have so far...
    • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
      Looking great. Can't wait till you get this done and I can replace the world map with a proper map.
    • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
      I get a headache when I think of just how much work that must have been!

      Wonderful work, Shessar :)
    • oh this is going to look so nice on the front page of the Atlas!!
    • edited July 2019
      Thanks, glad you like it so far.

      I've decidied to do one continent at a time. I've also been experimenting with the mountains a bit.

      Here's Berenur. I'm still undecided which shade of green I like best for the forest.
    • ScottAScottA Surveyor
      Lovely! I'm rather partial to the darker green forest in the top example, myself.
    • Agreed, the darker green is my vote
    • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
      I concur. But honestly, it is a bit difficult to give a final decision before I can see the entire map with the forests on the other continents as well. Might well be that the lighter looks best in the end if there is a lot of dark woods on the other continents.
    • SkidAceSkidAce Traveler
      Use the lighter green for tropical jungles, darker elsewhere.
    • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
      Use both, depending on climate :)
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