Beyond Sosnasib

[Greason Wolfe]

There will be a bit of glow around the labels, but I also intend to dial back on the color intensity a bit to give it a lighter appearance on the whole.

[Naima]

Forgot to rep this ... Now fixed ...

[Caenwyr]

Beyond Sosnasib - The Boguildurie Peninsula

Thanks to a suggestion by a certain someone that we won’t call out by name (he does have a lot of bling, a sparkly gemstone of a name, and runs the main monthly Challenges, thank you very much ), I am going to attempt to take my March/April 2018 Lite Challenge Entry to the next level. Not that I really needed the suggestion. As the challenge came to a close, while I was fairly happy with what I had accomplished, I still didn’t feel as though my entry was truly finished. The simple fact of the matter is, in the sixth hour, I completely revamped the approach I was taking, and, ultimately, ran out of time. If only I had started with that approach to begin with... But, as my father used to say, if the wolf hadn’t stopped to mark his territory, he’d have caught the rabbit.

Now the wolf is chasing another rabbit, but this time he marked his territory before he started the chase.

There are three bits of software I am using for this map;

1) Terragen 0.9.43 (it’s an old version, but I have it fully licensed so I can use all of it capabilities)

2) Wilbur (by and far my favorite height field editor)

3) Paint Shop Pro (again, an older version, but it has everything I need it to have)

For those that didn’t follow the Challenge, my work process went like this (short version)

I took the DEM data for the western portion of North America, (technically speaking, it was a portion of the W140N90 DEM of the GTOPO 30 Dataset that came with Fractal Terrains Pro) raised the sea level by about 900 feet (260 meters to be exact, and even more in some areas), and went to town with some height field editing (in Wilbur) as well as texture and coloring schemes in Terragen.

For the most part, I will be doing the same thing here, but I will be using a larger portion of the data. That being said, I am, for all intents and purposes, starting from scratch. I will have to redo the lakes and rivers, I will have to replant the forests, and, if I follow the vision I have in my mind as I am typing this, make some changes to my height field editing process. And I don’t mind any of that because I am actually excited about this map, and, after working my way through the Challenge, a little better armed to see it through to completion. YAY!!!!!

It is my intent (as per the original Challenge rules) to use as many CG member names for locations and points of interest as I can, however, many of those names are likely to be “re-purposed” in order to get a more “thematic” distribution than was evident in my Challenge entry. I may also end up including a number of random names as well, but only if they are needed to flesh out the last little bits of the finished map, because (and lets face facts here), not every member name lends itself well to such purposes. Still, if I can find a way to use a member name creatively, I will do so over the use of a random name.

Lastly, because a small amount of interest in it has been expressed, I will be, from time to time, taking little side trips to explain how I am getting from point A to point B to point C. I will try to keep these side trips from happening to frequently as well as fairly brief. However, if they become too distracting, please let me know, and I will save them for another time/thread for any who still have an interest.

So now that I’ve lulled all of you into a false sense of hope (insert evil laugh/howl and wicked smile/baring of fangs), I’ll post my “final” map as it appeared for the Challenge so that we can judge whether or not I reach the next level (or maybe even more than the next level) with this map.

Attachment 106491

Well I'll be gobsmacked - there's a lake with my name on it! Literally!

This goes to show I should really start checking out the challenge entries too, too many of them seem to not end up in the finished section, however awesome they are (and their awesomeness, for clarity's sake, is not related to their having my name in them!). This was already a wonderful map, Mr. Wolfe, and what you're doing with it now is just outlandishly cool. Keep it up, I'll be following this one closely!

[Greason Wolfe]

Sadly this one has been on hold for a while. Crazy work schedules constantly do me in, but I am hoping to get back to this after the current challenge. I know where I want to go with it and, when time has permitted, tried to do little tweaks here and there, but those are mostly texture experiments and not "progress" per-se.

[Greason Wolfe]

It has been some time since I've had much of a chance to work on this. Sadly, most, if not nearly all, of my texture experiments didn't go so well. On top of that, I wasn't entirely happy doing it in terragen. So it went back to the drawing board, literally. Started plugging away at this version a while ago, a little bit at a time (read that as whenever I had a little time on my hands) by hand (mouse), and finally have enough done to post something worthwhile. Still so VERY much to go, and I don't expect that I will get to the finish line quickly.

I am re-purposing this to go with my Tomb of the Damor Fellowship challenge entry from August, but still intend to keep a significant number of member names incorporated into the map.

Anyways....



EDIT: I should state for the record that this is very much influenced/inspired by Mr. J.Edwards' Thalak-Mul project. Just can't help myself, love that kind of style, and really hope that I can manage to pull off something moderately close to it here.

[bkh1914]

I'm glad you haven't abandoned this project.

I really liked the challenge entry version.

I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this
and watching it evolve / emerge.

[Greason Wolfe]

So, drawing islands is ..... Not as fun as I thought.

Took a bit of time to experiment with how I wanted to detail the mountains. Think I am close to the look I want, though only detailed a few of them for the moment, and threw in a bit of forest work, though I think those need to be just a bit smaller, or not quote as intense. In any event, feel like I am making a bit of progress. The slowdown is in deciding how to detail things. Once I am firm on the style/technique, I am hoping things will progress a little faster.

[J.Edward]

So, drawing islands is ..... Not as fun as I thought.

Took a bit of time to experiment with how I wanted to detail the mountains. Think I am close to the look I want, though only detailed a few of them for the moment, and threw in a bit of forest work, though I think those need to be just a bit smaller, or not quote as intense. In any event, feel like I am making a bit of progress. The slowdown is in deciding how to detail things. Once I am firm on the style/technique, I am hoping things will progress a little faster.

What do ya mean? Drawing islands is loads of fun.
I am amazed I haven't seen this before. It's awesome.
It may take a long while to complete, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more on this one.

[Greason Wolfe]

I will get back to it eventually. This one is kinda like your Thalak-Mul map. So very much to do, and trying to figure it out stylistically. Have a fair idea now, but still trying to tweak a few things through other maps.

And you did see the original version as a challenge map a couple years ago, just in a completely different style. Was actually pretty happy with it given the fact that I cranked it out in like two weeks, but knew it could have been so much better.

[Arimel]

I have only just seen this map and my name in it! Lake Arimel looks almost like the one I live near. It looks great if you are still continuing this.