Five months ago we had started making real progress on our Ferrodia map. Today, we're almost done. It's just some placement of towns / cities, their names, some fun-with-fonts, and some last minute adjustments.
It may come as a surprise to you, but making art is not my strong point. I'm bad with colors. I've got no sense of proportion. I'm never excited to draw / paint / etc.
Yet, through years of frustration and struggle, I've managed to get OK at map making. It helps that I've got some great assets (made by GrizGuts) to work with, and lots of time to iterate and work. This map is one of my best, and I'm pretty happy with it so far.
You'll notice rather quickly that this map is imbalanced. The land looks a bit funny. Lots of mountains on one side, pretty flat and empty on the other, deserts on one side, vast forests on the other. Four large rivers that divide the landmass, a centralized lake with awkward islands, glaciers, volcanoes, and an oddly rounded island when most islands tend to have length. So what's going on here?
That's for me to know, and you to theorize or find out through campaigns. =p
What I'd really like to draw attention to is the southern quarter of the map, the area with all the mountains. This is my favorite section of the map, and perhaps my favorite section of any map I've ever made. It has a nice balance, the rivers and mountains feel right , the valleys are well done, and the mountain ranges actually have the depth (meaning they take up space) they need. All too often a mountain range is a small line that is only a dozen or so miles across, which just doesn't track with IRL mountain ranges at all. This one feels right. If the lore would allow it, I'd have made the whole island like this.
I'm also pretty excited about the mountain colors. They're really nicely done. Gone are the days of "mountains are gray blobs". The process of making these mountains and getting the colors right has really improved my skills and tolerance for many, many layers in photoshop, and I think it'll make everything easier going forward.
This map's biggest flaw / shortcoming is the north west quadrant which is a barren flat land and not particularly interesting. I think it might need some adjustments, but they'll be subtle if they're there at all.
For years now I've been meaning to sell my maps so you all can use them. It should be a simple project, and yet... It's something I wanna do this year. I've got quite a few good ones ready to go:
Arcadia in the Age of Heroes
Arcadia at the start of the Age of Iron
Arcadia in the year 1509
Arcadia in the year 1525
Caldonia Frozen
Caldonia Lush
Modern Bravo as a hex grid
Modern Bravo in normal
Ancient Bravo as a hex grid
Ferrodia
Ethos (which I'm still not 100% on. It needs some small changes)
The Hornstead Kingdom in Solumn in the year 1520
So that's 12 decent maps. I really should put some time into getting them up for sale so people can use them in their campaigns.
gl hfNeal / Koibu