Ooops, just noticed that I overlooked a change in Spring that I had intended: changing the farm fields to just furrows, since it's spring and the crops were just planted and wouldn't have come in yet.

Realized I didn't have any stains or scum, so added a bit. Really love how this template includes so many different effects options for adjusting the coloring.

Round 3! These fog symbols are scaled at x4.

Ralf does demonstrate it at the end of this "Fractal Terrains to Parchment World" tutorial (around the 38 minute mark), using a full world Parchment Map that he had created the week before.

I finally have a bit to show for my contribution to the Community Atlas Competition. More work is needed but it's enough to provide the gist.

I adopted a little farming village on the edges of Verinress'Arl on Artemisia. The parent map's notes explain that Verinress'Arl is populated by Aeifa (surface dwelling drow), who are ruled by a Matriarch, where succession is by fight to the death among her female offspring. The red box here (northeast of center) shows the village in relation to the rest of the kingdom:

The village was once the site of a military outpost, but when it was decommissioned generations ago, a village grew up and took over some of the surviving military facilities: a small fortress that became the village jail, and a tower atop a hill that was purchased by sorceress to live out her years of retirement. The tower was passed down to one of her apprentices, and so on through the generations.

While the villagers are mostly self-sufficient, raising enough of a variety of crops to sustain the village, it's known for its fruit orchards and even more for its vineyards and the wines that are popular throughout the realm.

Here's the village so far (I also put a copy in my gallery if you want to zoom around):

Still more to add within the area protected by the palisades, and forests to the north/northeast.

Here's a closer view of the hillside known locally as "the rock" (though a proper name will be provided on the map):

In addition to the sorceress' tower on top of "the rock," there are three other buildings the dig into the hillside. On the south/southeast, a decommissioned military fort has been converted into facilities for the village watch, with jail cells built underground in the hillside. On the eastern side, the Temple also digs into the hillside where the crypts and religious records/artifacts are maintained. And on the north side, the winery (which may be a bit oversized, now that I see it) also extends into the hillside, where wine can ferment in giant vats in caverns protected from the heat of the sun.

The government buildings include the City Clerk's office in the center, with the courthouse to the east, the mayor's office to the northeast, and the town council chambers to the northwest.

Here's an example of treehouse housing. More smaller complexes like this will be built elsewhere within the palisades.

Outside of the village walls on the southwest side is a large pond. There are some industries along the creek that exits the pond: a small mill, blacksmith, tanner's, and glassblowers. North of them is a hillside and field that have become an entertainment area. A large bonfire is lit most warm nights, where the villagers make music and dance. There's also a stage where traveling minstrels, troubadours, and traveling acting troupes can perform for the villagers who can sit on stone benches before the stage or on the hillside behind. The big building on the northeast side of the pond is the community baths (elves are stereotypically fastidious, after all).

Much more to come, but since it's officially August, I wanted to post what I have to date to start getting feedback.

Made some good progress, including labeling some of the primary businesses and points of interest. I also widened it a bit to make room for a legend. The text was a little hard to read so I added a semi-transparent back. Let me know if it's still too hard to read, and what you'd recommend to help that (make the back less transparent? darker or lighter shade?)

I just noticed that although I posted my completed map in the competition thread, I didn't post an image of it here. Doing that now, just so this thread shows the full process.

I have wanted to use Mike Schley's elven treehouse symbols ever since I started mapping with CC3+, so I am delighted to finally have had the opportunity. (My friend keeps calling this map -- especially because of the elevated pathways -- my Ewok Village.)

I played around with Edge Fade settings on the TERRAIN ROCK sheet and settled on an Edge Width of 4 units, an Inner Opacity of 100%, and an Outer Opacity of 25%. (In comparison, the grass, earth, and other textures have a width of 15 units, an Inner Opacity of 100%, and an Out Opacity of 0%.)

Here's how it looks full size, plus a few coastal zooms.

I decided against trying to "erode" the levels of the ziggurat. It was a lot to change, and I decided that I will keep the technique in mind next time I do one. Instead, I focused on adding layers of the sand texture to each level of the temple (except for the top portion that the priests are more diligent about sweeping). I tried to vary the patterning by starting drawing from different corners, but I'm not sure that helped much. I might alternate which of the sand textures are used, as I did set each to different scalings. I like the color and scaling of #4 the best but I really should change it a little so you don't see angled paths of no sand like on the north face.

I also added the edge of a mountain using the same techniques as the dunes, but with the bevel isn't smoothed as much, and I used a dark brown earth fill. Maybe I should move the mountain to the NW or NE corner?

Working on a desert village using the Desert Oasis style, but now I'm wondering if it's turning more into a town than a village, even though it's only 500 feet x 500 feet.

I added a wall around it because I figured they'd be pretty protective of their water source and the crops it's able to sustain. Added an inn and stables because I figured that traders would be coming through. And a pyramid outside of the walls as the Halls of the Dead (either tombs or a columbarium). All of this is making it feel a little big for a village -- which is fine, I can always add it to the Atlas outside of the competition and do another desert village for the contest.

Thoughts?