Seeking Constructive Criticism for a Large Map Project

[Coriolis]

Last week, I completed this map of the Western Empire in the Palladium Fantasy Roleplaying Game.

I'm looking for feedback I can use to improve what I have. In particular, I'm interested in ways in which I might improve the map's aesthetics, readability, and thematic impact.

I have a minor color vision impairment, and I have a pretty unrefined sense of style in general, so I'd particularly appreciate feedback about the color balance. While I think they look spiffy, I'm a little concerned that the gold of the title text and compass might be clashing with the rest of the map.

I'd also appreciate your thoughts on how I might evoke more of the themes of the Western Empire. In the setting, this empire is analogous to the decadent later phases of the Roman Empire. Rivalries and conflicts between the regional houses are a big thing, and there's both a looming civil war and a massive barbarian invasion army massing in the Old Kingdom region to the east. Much of the nobility is into hedonism, petty ambitions, and forbidden stuff. The empire has been around for 6,000 years and is big on military conquest, slavery, gladiator combat, drug trafficking, and magic (including the less savory varieties). It's quite powerful, and the only thing that's kept this country from conquering the world is its tendency to implode due to corruption, incompetent leadership, and civil war. I'd really appreciate any ideas on how to better evoke these themes in the map and frame.


A few notes on the design of this map:
+I like to present these maps as magic maps that aren't hand-drawn, but seem otherwise thematically appropriate to the setting.
+I want this to be usable and nice to look at on a large screen high-definition display or as a large printed map, and this is the largest of three versions of this map that I've created. The map itself out to the neat lines is sized to print at 11x17 inches at 300 dpi, but this particular version is sized to print on a 18x24 inch poster at 225 dpi. I've also made a framed version without the faction-describing panels at the bottom that's suitable for printing on a 12x18 inch poster at 300 dpi.
+I created the Compass Rose to look like an in-game compass. I know that there are normally 360 degrees in a compass, but the Western Empire uses 120 degrees in their shiny gold compasses since they care more about looking fabulous while conquering the world than they do about precision navigation.
+The frame background is a blood marble texture I created; blood marble is a mineral found in one of the mapped regions, and it seemed an apt metaphor for a violent empire on the precipice of foreign and civil war.
+The wraparound inscription is thematic and isn't important to the map's function. I put it in because I think it looks cool and it gives me a chance to work in some of the subject's themes directly.

[Jean-Abdel]

I don't know anything about the game but if the point of your map is to show the main cities it's perfect. I would put imperial capital at the top of the legend tho, from most to least important. The compass looks great. The colors outlining each region and the arms might be too flashy but it makes the map easier to read.

[Cookiegod]

Hey man, I like your map a lot.
I'm actually in a very similar spot to you.
Like you, I don't have that much of a refined sense when it comes to style, though yours might be better. And I think your technical approach is also somewhat similar, though your skill level is superior.

You are right in that there's a bit of a clash between the colours of the lands and everything else (compass, border, sea). The gold looks nice on the dark blue sea, so if anything you should maybe think about improving the saturation of the landmasses maybe? But you don't have to, because to me (again, I'm not that qualified) it doesn't seem that stark and I wouldn't even have noticed it if you hadn't mentioned it yourself.

The border lines are probably the least good thing here. It looks like you made a layer with the lines and then made it "erase" what's in the province colour layer below. It looks a bit pixelated. What you should do about it depends on the use you want it for, and I also only noticed when I looked at it zoomed in.

I also don't exactly get the purpose of those straight lines in your map.

What program(s) did you use to make your map with, if you don't mind me asking?

[Coriolis]

Hey man, I like your map a lot.
I'm actually in a very similar spot to you.
Like you, I don't have that much of a refined sense when it comes to style, though yours might be better. And I think your technical approach is also somewhat similar, though your skill level is superior.

You are right in that there's a bit of a clash between the colours of the lands and everything else (compass, border, sea). The gold looks nice on the dark blue sea, so if anything you should maybe think about improving the saturation of the landmasses maybe? But you don't have to, because to me (again, I'm not that qualified) it doesn't seem that stark and I wouldn't even have noticed it if you hadn't mentioned it yourself.

The border lines are probably the least good thing here. It looks like you made a layer with the lines and then made it "erase" what's in the province colour layer below. It looks a bit pixelated. What you should do about it depends on the use you want it for, and I also only noticed when I looked at it zoomed in.

I also don't exactly get the purpose of those straight lines in your map.

What program(s) did you use to make your map with, if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I'll experiment with increasing the saturation in the land areas. As for the borders, I'm not set in my ways, but I haven't yet come across a technique that I like better.
My border-drawing technique:
1. make a new transparent layer, call it "Black Borders"
2. Using the pencil tool with about 5-10 pixels of width (depends on the size), I draw in the borders between each region/province with black.
3. I select all the oceans and fill the Black Borders layer with black. What's left are the regions themselves; everything else is black.
4. I create a new layer for a specific region and pick a color for it.
5. Using the bucket tool, I fill the whole region layer with that color.
6. Now using the select tool on the Black Borders layer, I pick the provinces I want to color-code together.
7. With that selection, I go to the region layer and hit Delete and then Select-None.
8. I apply a Gaussian Blur to the region layer to make its edges very fuzzy, so that some of that color goes into the region.
9. I go to the Black Borders layer and use the select tool to pick those same provinces again.
10. I invert the selection, go to the region layer, and hit Delete.
11. I repeat steps 4-11 for each region I want to do borders on.

The result is a border that's a little harsh and admittedly a bit pixilated at the edge, but I like how it fades into the territory and doesn't obscure much terrain. Now that I think about it, I might be able to eliminate that pixilation if I used paths and stroked along the paths instead. Thanks for pointing that out.

The straight lines are something from the setting, called "ley lines." They are areas of potent mystical/psychic power that aren't usually visible, but are important in the RPG.

I used three programs to create this map. Most of the work was done in GIMP. The rivers and erosion effects were done in WILBUR, and the icons, labels, and compass were drawn in Inkscape.