AERLAAN – A playground built for a muse

[PaGaN]

Hey Charerg!

A "looks pretty solid" from you is exactly the green light I was waiting for. Thanks. It was a LOT of work to get here but worth it and I know you know this! You went waaaaaay deeper. Thanks for your help. By the way, I tried your technique using hot spot trails for defining ridge movements but wanted to take a baseball bat to my Mac as GPlates crashed almost every time...lol (you DID warn me). I will do the bathymetry at some point but REALLY want to get on with the land first.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

PaGaN

[Pixie]

PaGaN, you have more than graduated. That's a a very solid world map, when it comes to tectonics.

Move on to heightmapping, but don't get trapped in the detail - a 10800 x 5400 map in detailed altitude is a lifelong project! Unless you plan to leave your half-baked world for your kids to continue and your grandsons to complete, think carefuly about the level of detail you want.

Like everyone else, I'm envious of the solid tectonics and resulting landmasses - I wonder how climate/oceanics will work out and how civs will spawn and interact... (long down the road). Massive kudos for your achievement so far! I'm in awe.

[PaGaN]

Hey Pixie!

Thanks so much, i really couldn't have done it without all the coaching and encouragement. It really was a HUGE learning curve but well worth it (maybe now i can stop dreaming about shifting plates and orogeny...LOL)

And now, yes, onto height mapping.

I am NOT going to be going into the mind blowing level of detail that yourself and Charerg have. I need enough to be able to work on climate. What i'm thinking is perhaps 6 levels: 0 - 1000', 1000' - 2500', 2500' - 5000', 5000' - 10,000', 10,000' - 20,000', 20,000' - 30,000'

Do you think this sounds reasonable? This should allow enough data to calculate impact on climate no? Or do you think even that is overkill?

[Pixie]

Do you think this sounds reasonable? This should allow enough data to calculate impact on climate no? Or do you think even that is overkill?

I'd say it's fine in number of levels. Then there's the in/out detail (in terms of river valleys, mountainous areas). Blobs are much closer to draw than the intricate ins and outs showing river erosion.

[PaGaN]

Yeah, I'm trying to keep that in mind as I go and also trying to keep to the beautiful almost fluid curves and sweeps of mountains (somewhat easier with knowledge of what the tectonics are )
I'm working on a gradient map so, at the end of this I will have a colour height map AND a gray scale map that I could always take into Wilbur for refining the erosion maybe?
I'm going to work on a sample area to post here to make sure I'm not off base

[Azélor]

The continents looks pretty good but I can't say for the tectonics.

You are using feet as unit of measurement? But your profile says your in Toronto! Unless you meant Toronto, Ohio?
No big deal, Game Printer lives in Ottawa, Illinois.

Just saying because my tutorial (if you intend to follow it) uses meters, 1000 per levels.

Everything above 20,000' (roughly 6000m) is overkill. The impact on climate is usually marginal at that altitude and unless you have a very detailed map, places that reaches that altitude are few and far between. Only some mountains will reach that altitude.
Unless your world has a lower gravity, then the mountains could be much higher. Olympus Mons on Mars is 24 000 m high. The summit is well outside the martian atmosphere.

[PaGaN]

Hi Azelor.

I'm in Canada but originally from the UK where we still use weirdo Imperial systems like feet and inches, stones and pounds etc...LOL

I never thought about the impact fur following your guide. I'll switch to metres and with your above advice, I will stop defining elevation at 6000m.

When I actually get to rendering the map I'm not going to be going for an atlas style like Pixie or Charerg (way too intimidated by the insane amount of work and results that they have achieved). I will either go for a painted style or a classic Jonathan Roberts style map, not decided yet.

Regardless, just need enough detail to figure out the climate

[KonpekiUmi]

Great work. I imagine plate tectonics are the most difficult part of map making, especially when you have to do it all from scratch.

[kacey]

It looks awesome PaGaN I can't wait to see the height information.

And on a side note, I'm from Canada too, been here my whole life, I live on the Bruce Peninsula not too far north of Toronto and around here we use feet and inches, measuring in meters to me is confusing, and I can't say I've very often heard someone describe something in meters, people here mostly describe things in feet and inches so I'm not sure it's really a UK thing... I can visualize a foot or an inch, but I have a hard time visualizing a meter. I also get confused around the guild because allot of people use miles and I only know kilometers so in most cases the scale on a map means a whole lot of nothing to me.

[PaGaN]

Great work. I imagine plate tectonics are the most difficult part of map making, especially when you have to do it all from scratch.

Thanks KonpeckiUmi and welcome to the Guild! Yes, Tectonics is definitely one of those things that is probably best gotten into with an initial naivete and ignorance of what is actually required because, quite honestly, if someone had told me all of the things i'd have to read up on in order to get through it i might well have just given up. THANKFULLY i was bolstered and encouraged by the excellent peeps around here and i had Kacey, my Tectonic Twin, going through it with me as Kacey was working through the tectonics for The Unexplored Land (Check out Kacey's thread here)

@Kacey: I'm working on the elevation now, this is a whole other hill to climb...LOL. Re: weirdo measurements, i'm with you on the meters, i think i just mentally approximate a meter to 3', i know that's not right but whatever. BUT there is NO WAY i think i'll ever be able to guage km. I'm a miles person. For the climate i will sacrifice my comfort and work in meters for Azelor's guide as i want to avoid any extra confusion if you get what i mean...LOL.

I loved your treatment of the mountains for The Unexplored Land by the way, great use of layer styles, you're definity onto something there, looks really cool