Not quite sure about the scale of the map you're emulating, but as you mentioned "tents", I think you're probably right to go with a Dungeon-scale map.

As for the drawing style, that really depends whether you want something a little abstract, but clear - like the drawing you've shown - or something more nearly photo-realistic, or something between the two. Plus what you think looks best among those options, of course!

Another element of this may be exactly how the map will be used, as that could determine how clear you need the various elements to appear - if the slopes are important for movement, for instance, you may need to use variant shading/colouring to make clear for players where there are difficult terrain areas, say (loose sand, hard rock, etc., and perhaps not just on the slopes from the dot-shading in the valley near some of the presumed tents).

For the elevation, you may be better using something like the shaded relief techniques, as discussed recently in this Forum topic. But if you're going with more rocky terrain (or areas of rocky outcrops), symbols probably will work better to convey rough, variable cliff-lines. I'd assumed from the density of contour lines on your base map that the hills were going to be key features, as they're suggestive of something steep and high.

Like most deserts, the Gobi has a variety of terrains, so just pick something that appeals and run with that!

For more realistic drawing styles, and assuming you have plenty of the Cartographer's Annuals available, take a look at the thumbnail images on Sue's topic which shows all the CA issues in one place - here. That should help you start narrowing down to a style you think fits best with what you have in mind. Even if you only have the base DD3 installed, you can find materials to work with there to create what you need, though you may need to be a bit more creative in how you use the various tools and symbols, and may need to draw more, where there aren't enough symbols of the type you need.

I'm not sure I've quite followed what you've drawn here, but if all the terrain hexes are on the same sheet, you could use a Color Key effect on that sheet to cut through to whatever sheet you've placed underneath (say one showing the sea bitmap texture). That would avoid the use of multipolys (because it's hard to do anything further with a multipoly once you've converted it to one, if you need to make changes to it, for instance). You could then keep that thicker coastline on its own separate sheet, although you might be able to achieve something similar using a Glow or Outer Glow effect on the sheet with all the hex terrains on too.

However, so long as you're happy with what you've achieved now, I'd stick with that, as it looks pretty good already! It may be worth thinking of changing the river lines colour to match the coastline, so it looks less like the rivers "dead end" there, but that's a pretty minor concern.

This is looking more like Atlantis now though 😁!

Thanks very much Sue - though I'm less sure about the "perfection" personally.

I suspect Ralf may have a word or two more about drawing and using steps later today on the livestream!

Yes, have to say Joe Sweeney's video tutorials (pretty much all there was some years ago; things have greatly improved since!) were key to my learning how to get more and more out of the program too.

Interesting looking map so far.

The wall maybe looks a bit too perfectly circular for something apparently hastily constructed, and the interior also seems a little too "planned" in this regard. Typically with something rapidly fortified, there'll be houses, etc., that end up beyond the walls, or become demolished ruins (whose rubble then vanishes into the new walls!). Also, if the wall's quite new, few properties will have been built facing it so neatly, unless they too have been very recently (re)built. This ignores the problems or advantages because of terrain, naturally.

Some of the bitmap fills may need rescaling at some stage to avoid their repeating pattern being quite so obvious (the effect's accentuated currently because of the very fine-scale square grid, which makes it tricky to know which of the fills other than those at sea this might impact), and you might want to move the title box, as it's currently hiding part of those green segments of the undersea contours which presumably have some significance, given their limited extent.

Increasing the edge fade on the undersea contours would help blend the lines there, and you might want to redraw some of them using smooth polygons too, to lose those very sharp corners in places currently. The "Horsehead Nebula" deep water head looks good, although it probably shouldn't be cutting so directly through the shallower water contour near the shipyard.

Very pleased you'd found a good, workable solution to the "erosion" issue.

It is surprising sometimes how little extra you need to do to distract from the repeating texture patterns. Of course, there are others where you struggle to manage this no matter what you try, but hey!

No, sorry, I still don't get it...

😎

[That would be a more distant Ted comment, obviously.]

All the places that have been either mapped or reserved are shown as such in the online Atlas. Everywhere else is free to choose from - and don't forget that even if somewhere has already been mapped at some level, you could always map a smaller piece of that, down to a room in a house or a dungeon (or even smaller places!) if that hasn't been mapped in detail yet, should you choose to. There are no limits except your imagination!

You can reserve a place or places by commenting on this Forum topic, or by contacting the Atlas' organiser and coordinator, Remy Monsen.

Full information can be found out regarding all aspects of mapping for the Atlas on the How to Contribute page of the Atlas.