I removed Remy's tag and changed the header to "WIP," as this isn't quite ready for submission. I will start a new thread when it is.

@Don Anderson Jr., I'm not 100% sure I was following what you were referring to with the "darkened section." If you meant the brown walls, then yes, that was meant to be the caves beneath the mountain. Here's what it looks like with the mountain in place. Everything on this map is meant to be roughly at the same level, with those caves going vertically into the mountain.

But if by "darker" you meant the shaded areas like the spots circled on the map, that was meant to reflect elevation changes descending into lower areas. I may have to do something to make that more subtle.

Working on the dunes, too. I wanted sharpish ridge lines like the dunes of the Sahara Desert, rather than more slopy hills like dunes at a beach, but I still need to extend it a bit so there aren't flat parts on top, and maybe soften the ridge lines a little if a can.

Hi Monsen,

At your convenience, I have a pair of maps to submit. This is for the Sakherma Ruins, which is located in Doriant - Gold Coast - Eknapata Desert in the area boxed here:

I will post the FCW files as follow-ups in this thread.

Also, fellow mappers: I have plans to map the big city of Khemtufu and the Temple of Fah, but feel free to dive in anywhere else in the Eknapata Desert if you wish.

Good suggestion about the Edge Fade. There was one on it already, but I increased the width from 10 to 30, and it looks better. (I also tried 50 but it was a little too washed out.)

Made the elevation changes in the caves more subtle by replacing the SOLID 10 fills with multiple sheets of the semi-transparent sand fills.

No hate from me! I'm getting better with the mechanics of CC3+ but I'm constantly learning new things. And there are lots and lots of people with a better artistic eye than I have who give me great feedback. Even newbies who may not know how to do a particular thing in CC3 can point out things that just don't look right, or might be confusing. Just like with writing, an outside eye is always helpful because the writer or artist may be too close to the work to notice what might be unclear or confusing to the audience.

Thank you, everyone, for your very helpful feedback. This community is the best! Please let me know if you have any other thoughts or suggestions before I submit this.

Sakherma Ruins

Sakherma Ruins - Beneath the Mountain

Sakherma Ruins - Below the Ruins

Oh dear. No, should have an M.

Good lord, I'm a mess! Okay, fixing now...

I like how you've managed to give neighborhoods distinctive looks with colors and symbol type choices. Like the desert/middle eastern house types in the lower left, the blue building complex (temple?) on the middle right, the eight gray buildings in the center top. And I really like the bridge. Some day I want to do a major city with a massive bridge inspired by the historic London bridge -- the kind with shops and residences on the bridge.

As for dragging on for days -- that happens to me with so many maps! I usually have half a dozen going at once so I can take a break from one (while the ideas continue to percolate) while turning my attention to another.

It wasn't me, but I think it's a fantastic idea. I've always just used glows with the text to make it stand out against gridlines, but I really like the Color Key idea. My maps sometimes have thousands of magenta polygons, so why not a few more! 😉