Map of a Fantasy World

[Clover]

Last week, I spent a large portion of my time creating a map in Flash of a Fantasy World I am creating... Just wondering what everyone else thinks of it and how I could improve upon it... thanks :smile:

http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=map2md0.jpg

[ufo]

Looks nice, though all the colors that suddenly change is a bit confusing.

You might want to add an indicator somewhere along the bottom indicationg how much a real life mile/km is on the map.

[Clover]

I imagine it being about the size of China... but I'll add a scale too... thanks :smile:

oh yeah... the colours...

http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mapkeybg3.jpg

where it gets darker in the West is because of evil n stuff...

EDIT: why is the picture function not working for me today?

[Dire Penguin]

I always try to make maps, but they end up looking like a load of troll pucky!
Yours is good, but a little hard to read. I take the maps for places out of dragon magazines, and paste them all into my own games.

[Clover]

you mean like the words are too small?

Got the pics to work now... using the wrong link... doh!

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4962/map2sd2.jpg

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/917/mapkeywe3.jpg

[pestilenceawaits]

I like it the land divisions are very well done. I am a geographer IRL and make maps for a living if I had to give any criticism it would be that the outlines of your coasts don't look natural enough. I have the same problem when I try to draw maps free hand I general use a program like fractal mapper that creates natural looking outlines and then I use that outline in my mapping software or image processing software to fill in. It is also nice to have the legend on the map itself if it can be done and a scale bar or a text scale should be included. China at that scale would be approximately 1:500,000 or so (rough guess) hope that helps.

[Clover]

It does help, thanks :smile: but a couple opf questions... what do you mean by the 'legend' and how would I make the coastline more natural without any kind of program?

[Peregrine]

Look at real maps, get a feel for the sorts of coastlines they have. Generally the rule is, 'not smooth'. Make your hand jitter even on the relatively straight segments. Throw in bays and inlets and peninsulas and capes and stuff.

I may not do this for a living like pestilenceawaits (you lucky dog! :smallsmile:), but I was one of those geeky kids who was into maps (and into making them up) from a very young age...