Rheia: one final try at ground-up worldbuilding

[Tiluchi]

Thanks all for the comments! Took a break from working on the map for a few days to pay attention to other hobbies, but about to start working on the next continent.

Hi Tiluchi,

Looks like exquisite work; much more involved than any I've ever done. Like you, I used the tutorials on Worldbuilding Pasta to create my tectonic history, although mine is so crude and sloppy I was embarrassed to show it with my main equirectangular map. I like your fully rendered terrain for the first couple continents, as it looks very realistic and convincing. How did you generate this terrain, if you don't mind me asking?

Are you planning to model this planet with Earthlike parameters or are you aiming for something different?

Thanks! Honestly, I drew the elevation map entirely by hand using Adobe Illustrator (I think other vector programs such as Inkscape would do a similar job), with a number of Earth topographic maps as a reference. It's a vast amount of work but I wanted complete control over elevation so I could easily make edits to the topography or add detail to certain areas at a later date. I highly recommend vector-based maps over raster-based programs such as Photoshop if you're planning to do very in-depth worldbuilding work, as it allows for a "master map" with much more detail and a smaller file size.

Ultimately I imagine this will follow Earth-like parameters, at least as far as climates go. I'm actually currently thinking this will be a moon orbiting a gas giant planet in the star's habitable zone, albeit not tidally locked due to magical/handwaving reasons. However, I still have to do a little more research to find out if this would necessarily impact climates or other things before I make a final decision there.

[Stìophan]

I absolutely love your map Tiluchi, it's an absolute inspiration. I agree with you totally in the vector v raster debate however, one thing I have found is that after having tried Inkscape and Affinity Designer, I can't seem to get the same level of detail as Illustrator, especially doing small ,minute contours, unless of course I'm doing something wrong!

[Peter Toth]

Hi Tiluchi,

I absolutely love tinkering with planets that are moons of gas giants in a star's habitable zone. In my previous project, I opted for a brown dwarf as I wanted some extra heating on the tidally locked side, just to make things interesting. The only problems I ran into were extreme tidal bulges even at more distant separations and larger massed jovians, which I used to my advantage. For example, with a 500 earth-mass jovian at a separation of 330,000 km from an earth mass planet, you'll get a 24-hour revolution period. This arrangement, however, will also give you a 50 km tidal bulge at the equator (provided adequate water depth) and an unavoidable tidal lock. I believe you can circumvent the tidal lock without magic, however. All you have to do is set the separation at 14,000,000 km, which will give you earthlike tides and not tidal lock for several billions of years. I have a rough spreadsheet to estimate values but it relies on approximations. As for climatic effects, the only thing you should be concerned about is a jovian's intense radiation belts, which would require plenty of protection in terms of magnetic field, rotation, or a dense atmosphere. To be honest, I'm not certain if I met these specifications on my last project, Kaunis.