No, no, it's just the lawn mower's very narrow, and it takes days to cut all that grass... 😉

Thanks Ralf; as we've discussed before, it's always best to make sure about these things!

Very kind Sue. I'll have a rethink and maybe PM you if something occurs. I had a couple of other ideas, but the TT one came to me earlier today as a simpler possibility.

At typical overland map-scales, the second version of the gum tree could also pass quite well for a silver birch.

All looking great, as usual! ?

Great looking map so far.

I'm not keen on the altitude scale being on the later version though, as it's hiding part of the ocean current flows there.

Stating the scale of the map (1:XXXXX - whatever it is) might be more useful than a physical scale that's accurate only for the equator, but the latter could be helpful to give a rough idea of the planet size involved, as Monsen noted.

I just gave simple "Drift" names to a couple of the main currents on my Errynor/NW Alarius map, based on Earthly examples, so inventing more names for the major currents elsewhere would seem very reasonable.

Similarly, continent names for the larger landmasses would seem in-keeping with this pattern.

I suspect most prior mappers, like myself, have tended to assume similar major prevailing wind patterns to Earth's. So, NW Alarius is essentially Europe, and Alarius overall would probably see weather patterns similar to Europe-Asia. Beyond that though, things become a bit trickier, as the parallels with Earth aren't so exact, particularly the smaller seas between most of the continents. Be interesting to see what you come up with, however!

@WeathermanSweden: I think Quenten's provided you with more real-world ideas than you can likely use right now for ocean current names, though of course the names have changed over time in places, and a lot have regional (local language) variants too. The latter might be interesting to explore for Nibirum, perhaps.

I picked "Drift" names for the two main currents I showed, partly because the North Atlantic Drift, the northern part of the Gulf Stream, is relatively familiar from my own time studying geography from/in the UK, and partly because I was dealing with relatively near-coastal areas, where less-active oceanic water streams seemed appropriate. I have much interest in mapping the ocean floors in fantasy terms, and the civilisations based there, so adding some current activity was largely automatic.

With aspects like the altitude colour-key, I tend to add them on a map only where they won't be hiding anything that should be better shown. [It irritates me when published real-world maps aren't given the same consideration!] Otherwise, I simply set them in a separate side-bar of their own alongside (or below) the map. That has the further advantage they can be expanded to be easier to read, and other features, such as a scale, or notes on the map, can be added there as well. So here, you might add a key for the current arrow colours (and possibly the prevailing wind arrows, if these will be added to the same map), for instance, and maybe quantify what the different line thicknesses refer to, if relevant.

As Nibirum has more-or-less Earth-like seasons, is it worth considering a pair of maps for the alternate half-yearly views of the currents and weather systems? There are differences on Earth like this, though it does mean a lot more thinking-through of ideas than maybe is warranted for a fantasy world.

Thanks Remy. That's a bit disappointing, but trade-offs like this have to happen, I suppose. I'm still just using the Rich editor (that was the default originally, as far as I recall). Don't have a lot of spare time/energy for further experimentation currently...

Unfortunately, the fills aren't included with this Annual as far as I can tell. From the Mapping Guide with this issue:

"If you do not own Dungeon Designer 3, you can still use the png and pdf versions of the maps, as well as the adventure description of the ship. To create your own ships you will need a copy of DD3 though."

The missing fill is definitely a DD3 one, Water Blue 5 Bitmap (or if not that exactly, it's one from the same Bitmap group).

DD3 is indeed a separate ProFantasy product.

@Medio: I think you should probably post whatever you're comfortable in showing. I don't really do WIP threads myself, as I tend to chop and change things while I'm mapping, and that's all done offline, but it is interesting to follow others' process in this regard.

The size of the trees you select should ultimately come down to whether they make the map easier to read quickly, or not. Personally, I like the mix of sizes, and the background colouring for the forests, in your second Sep 20 map posting above.

To my eye, the forests in your Sep 21 map no longer look as clear. However, you need to go with what works best for you ?

Finally got round to watching this on catch-up tonight, and very good it was too!

Nothing particularly new there for me for once, but as Sue said in the chat, it's an excellent resource now to point out for other people regarding importing fills and symbols into a different style map, for example.

And I never cease to be impressed by how much you and Ralf are able to suppress yourselves when something goes awry! There's a lesson for the rest of us there too, perhaps ?

You could use the map divisions as your scale, though as the map's rectangular, you'd need to pick the one that works best only for that, and just add a note on the outside edge of the map border to say what the scale is. Adding a scale bar - it's easy enough to draw your own if the symbol option for the style doesn't appeal, for instance - might be a better alternative here though.

Are the different land colours intended to show approximate contour levels? Or are they for vegetation background effect? If the former, maybe think of adding a height key. If the latter, then I'd agree with Sue that the trees may need adjusting, as they seem too sparsely scattered for clarity otherwise.