My First Proper Map

[MapHatter]

Hey guys, I've been working up the courage to share this map with folks who know about mapping, so here it is. It's my first 'real' attempt at a map. I've always enjoyed it, but I've never thought about the actual specifics of how landmasses form. I was hoping I could get some general opinions on how it looks, whether the rivers behave properly, whether there's any inconsistencies with the geography, and so on. I'm hoping to take mapping a bit more seriously in the future, so figured I should try and get some tips or pointers.

[tilt]

Looking good MapHatter - nice landmasses, clear labeling, nice damped color scheme. The rivers are mostly right but a few don't make real sense. All rivers flow towards the lowest point and typical end up in the ocean or in a lake. They only come together, they don't flow apart. Think of them as a tree, where the root is at the ocean and the branches goes up to the mountains, in ever small branches the higher you go. So you won't have a river running from a mountain to another, but you can have rivers gathering together from different mountains of course

[MapHatter]

thanks tilt. can you point towards which rivers aren't right? I've tried looking over the map a few times. I see a bunch of rivers starting in the mountains and rivers converging with other rivers or lakes, but I don't really see where I've gone wrong.

[TripHazard]

wow, that look awesome. wish i had some sort of artistic tallent like this! lol

[kacey]

Looks awesome, what a great first map. The only thing I would change and it's not even a big deal is there's some lines showing through the large text which makes it a little harder to read, but then I'm a stickler for that sort of thing so others may not even notice or care...This is really exceptional for a first attempt, can't wait to see what you do next.

[edwardloveall]

Nice work MapHatter! I like the consistent naming style of the locations. They feel like they belong together.

I'm currently working on shore lines on my map so maybe I'm just hyper sensitive to this, but your shore lines are farther away from the coast line then they are from each other. That's all I saw that bothered me though. Keep it up!

[MapHatter]

thanks guys nice to get some encouraging feedback. I am conscious of my rivers. I had some issues with river bifurcation in the past, which I had to remedy, but I thought I'd fixed those issues. Can someone point out which rivers don't seem to make sense, as I'm having trouble finding them myself. I've followed each river individually, and to my mind, that they all flow downhill, towards low lands, flooding basins before overflowing and continuing downhill, converging with lakes or other rivers along the way to the sea. What am I missing?

[rdanhenry]

I didn't spot any rivers that are necessarily wrong, but it is certainly unlikely to have so many rivers that begin so close to the coast flow so far to a distant shore to reach the sea. Unlikely, but not impossible. So, the River Police might issue a warning not to make it a habit, but it certainly doesn't invalidate an individual map. If we never mapped the unusual, how boring it would be!

Horsehaven strikes me as an odd name for a forest. Horses tend to be more creatures of the grasslands, but maybe it was named for an outlaw called the Horse, anyway.

It's a nice map. One thing you might want to work on in your next map is showing the flow of rivers through forests, rather than letting the trees completely obscure them.

[tilt]

Yeah, what rdanhenry said.. nothing totally wrong, but some .. unlikely instances.... like running back inland a short way from a bay or running between mountains which of course is possible since valleys exist ... so I think I just find your river system very complex where I think the easier route would be .. well, easier LOL.

[arsheesh]

A proper map indeed. Very nice work on this Maphatter.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh