Need help refining my latest fantasy map

[Coriolis]

Fellow cartographers,
I've been working on this map for around a month and a half off and on. Tonight, I finally finished putting in the final planned features, and I think I'm close to the final product. There are just two problems remaining:

1. I have a color vision deficiency that makes it hard for me to assess color balance and saturation.
2. I've been staring at this image so much looking for details that I fear I may be missing some big-picture issues.

If you have the time and the interest, please have a look and let me know if you see anything I should adjust.

(note that the actual image is 4312x2790 pixels; the website doesn't seem to want to display it in full definition)

[kacey]

Hi Coriolis, I think this map is pretty awesome. I love the icons, and all the little pictures you did for the tribal centers are really well done. My only real nitpick would be the red around the Wolfen Empire, I don't know if it's intentional but it really stands out compared to everything else, I just find it a little too bright, and over saturated. All in all I think this is quite nice, I just wish I could see it better. Have you tried saving it as a jpeg to post here so you can get some of you're size back, I've had some luck using this format, tho I was hesitant at first. I was able to post full size around 5100 pixels across without loosing the text, I just had to move the quality slider from 12 down to 11 to keep the file size below 9.4mb which is the maximum size I seem to be able to upload here, I mention this because the text on this map is nearly impossible to read.

[Coriolis]

Thanks for the suggestion. This should work better.

Thanks as well for the comment on the red; red and green are tricky for me; I see them, but I don't differentiate them as well as some.

[kacey]

This looks much better. I didn't even notice before that the words on the right hand panel were carved in, now I like it even more. How did you make the little buttons with the pictures on them for the tribal centers? I really like them, and wouldn't mind trying something similar in the future...If you don't mind.

[Coriolis]

Thanks! I'm fond of the carved-in look. The buttons are shrunken-down round shields made from a template I created about a year ago as an entry into one of the lite challenges (as I recall, I got last place).

The technique for making the template starts with a simple circle and a lot lf bevel and emboss filters of progressively smaller rings within the circle; the trick is to make the bevel and emboss shallower as you get nearer to the middle. I then blurred the highlight/shadow layers from the bevel and emboss filters and applied a bit of low-opacity cloud to give the surface a smoother look. Some vertical and horizontal gradients gave the shields a more 3D look, and a shadow drop from the original circle finished up the template. I used a few different steel and wood textures (with layer mode set to overlay) for the shield faces and rims.

The colors and shapes inside the shields I drew in Inkscape, making heavy use of the Bezier tool and Edit Paths by Node tool. I like drawing icons.

You can see the shields of this map at full size here.

If you're looking for a proper shield tutorial, I recommend this one by Arsheesh.

[Coriolis]

I made a whole mess of revisions today, including reworking the borders. I changed the Wolfen Empire's border to blue to make it easier for me to differentiate. Any feedback would be helpful, especially on color balance.

[Josiah VE]

Just wanted to drop by and say, this looks awesome! The terrain is wonderful, the forests are great, and the icons are fabulous!

[kacey]

I agree with everything Josiah said, and I like the new colour you've chosen for the Wolfen empire better then the first, very nice.

Edit...And thanks for the links, I'll have to give Inkscape a try.

[Eilathen]

I agree with what the others said. The map looks very good! And i think the more subdued colors work a lot better (they do not dominate the map as much as before, which is a plus in my book).

Now all we need is a little tour of this world No seriously, care to share about the setting itself?

Also, is there more? It looks like this is only part of the world overall. Do you have a worldmap? If yes, care to show it to us?

I am sorry for all the requests and questions ... but i am a map-nerd (well, duh!) and p&p roleplayer...so i am always always interested in the stories behind the maps and the histories of the worlds out there

Have some Rep.!

[Coriolis]

Thanks for the appreciation and the rep!

To answer your questions, this map is based on the world of the Palladium Fantasy Roleplaying Game by Palladium Books. It's a world with a rich history, many sentient species, many cultures, and a wide variety of supernatural forces. The known world mostly consists of a single supercontinent, of which this map shows the northeast portion. This area is the domain of the Wolfen Empire, a collection of tribes and member states dominated by humanoid canines. There is indeed quite a bit more to this world. Though the original map was produced by the game's writer back in the early 1980's, the best-looking version was done a few years ago by our own Arsheesh, and you can find it here. I've done some other maps detailing parts on this world, and you can see them here.