WIP - Arethas (eastern Centras). Large file.

[Xuixien]

Here goes nothing.

With the help of the beautiful and talented AngieMyst (maybe I can get her to sign up!) - Arethas, the eastern peninsula of the continent Centras. Untextured for now.



Okay so yeah. What I'm trying to represent in this map: Biomes, terrain features, and major locations (castles of prominent families, some prominent smaller settlements, cities, etc). For reference this peninsula has a land area roughly a bit larger than the UK. The northern areas are more typical northern type people, a mix of Scotts/German/Icelandic style culture, towards the south is more British/French/Spanish influence.

I'm looking for input for this map regarding styling - font size/style/color (need some help with labeling hierarchy), clutter (is the map to "busy" with terrain features such as forests?), how are my rivers? Also could use some help on how to do fancy coastline stuff. Thanks guys!

[AngieMyst]

"Baha, California?"
Hello! She has signed up! The labeling hierarchy looks great, I'd rank settlements by population/narrative importance, and size their labels accordingly. If you label the large body of water, try to make the text fill in the shape by arcing and curving it along the bay. Negative space, y'know. You could hollow out small areas in forests to place text. Apparently there are weird rules for text placement, such as

Prioritize the position of point feature labels: 1) above and to the right, then 2) below and to the right, then 3) above and to the left, then 4) below and to the left. Positioning directly above, below, or to the sides is not preferred.