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I don't have much to add other then as someone who enjoys looking at and studying maps of real places, I also enjoy and will pour over maps of fictitious places as well if it's a setting I enjoy. I just really like maps I guess, they spark my imagination.
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Jun 4, 2022 13:31
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twistedmentat posted:That's why i started the thread. I love looking at maps of real places, and many fantasy maps are just as interesting. Its interesting looking to see which ones were made by people who actually know how geography works, like Rivers do not branch off in the direction they're flowing but a lot of fictional maps have that. No real world river does that, all their tributaries flow into the main river.  for the general map love!In regards to that wheel of time map, I've never read the books and I know they are popular, but it looks like someone who is otherwise a good storyteller going "Time to make a map I guess, lets see... possibly endless ocean on the bottom and left, nearly impenetrable mountains on the top and right... Now that I've got my nearly square canvas framed up, let's fill in the blanks with places I wrote or plan on writing about." It looks sort of like an authors rough draft that had the general idea of what they had in mind that could have been handed off to a cartographer and made to look more believable and cool. That second one is pretty neat! Please post more maps, of whatever or wherever! Twenty Four fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Jun 5, 2022 |
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Jun 5, 2022 19:51
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All that is also likely why the majority of fantasy setting maps don't have many straight lines as boarders (in general). For example, if you look at a map of the US there are a lot of boarders between states where it looks like after some political agreement some guys just sat down at a drafting table and went "this state stops here, that one starts on the other side of the line we drew" or the boarder with Canada being "hey, let's make it about here most of the way across and call it good, cool? cool." It's much more engaging in a fantasy or similar setting to think of natural boarders defined by breathtaking mountains and mighty rivers, or ones that are set because two nations are at odds with each other, then an arbitrary agreed on straight line. Even if it is a diplomatically agreed boarder, "at the edge of the forest begins the kingdom of the elves" or whatever is more interesting then a set of coordinates.
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Jun 9, 2022 03:52
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That's pretty neat, to go from "there's no map" to "we're some super fans and are going to make a good, detailed map with input from the author" and doing it well enough that the author is like "yeah that's the official map now, good job guys!" Also I wouldn't really call that an "earth but weird" map, it's pretty original, not just the earth continents as we know them with some changes. I like it even there's something I'm unsure about but because if anything it's obvious that they put a lot of thought into it.
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Jul 6, 2022 09:51
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I guess I was just having trouble visualizing it, but once everyone pointed a few things out, yeah, I can see it. I might have done so on a fresh look the next day on my own, or maybe not, and it doesn't help that I can't get a good zoom level on it so most of it is unreadable or nearly so for me. Anyhow, after the helpful insight here, it feels like one of those "once you see it, you can't unsee it" sort of things. Either way cool stuff, thanks!
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Jul 7, 2022 04:18
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Those rivers are making me angry. Well, not angry, but confused for sure. I don't know what it's from, but the continental divide is apparently all the way on the east coast of the continent, despite there being no mountains on that coast and the west coast being covered in them. Gotta appreciate the determination of a bunch of rivers that appear to flow uphill all that way. Maybe the entire continent is actually on one slow gentle slope east to west, except for up north where it goes the other way, based on the annotation that says "rapids", unless it is some sort of saltwater river that flows inland from the ocean somehow, which maybe is what the ones in the southwest are doing too, everything just draining into that big lake from all sides. I don't know. ptkfvk posted:i didnt realize orks were everywhere As someone who knows "probably slightly more than the average person you would meet on the street" but "less than anyone who is mildly invested in warhammer", so basically very little, the same thing sort of surprised me but I found it pretty neat. But again, I like maps, so there's that. Twenty Four fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Aug 12, 2022 |
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Aug 12, 2022 17:33
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The other thing that's tough to do with a map of space is it's hard to depict in a 2D top-down image like a traditional map when it comes to territories. Meaning, a faction's territory doesn't just go "NWSE" but "up" and "down" and "diagonally", etc. So, you could have one empire "above" another, and one way to the "left" of another, and one that sort of pierces into another one while that one envelops it in all directions. Even if you properly color coded each planet, system, nebula, or whatever is under control of a group it would still look like an indecipherable mess on a 2D top-down map, especially if they are laying claim to vast open spaces of nothingness like SlothfulCobra mentioned. I'm not sure if that is what the above maps are trying to convey or not. You could have a fully navigable 3D map, which would be tough to navigate, easy to get lost in, and definitely not something you can pull up on a piece of paper or a post a picture of on an old forum site, but pretty cool. The most common way of just drawing lines between areas from "top looking down" and calling it good is definitely the easy cop out way for a video game or especially a book, and I can't say I really blame them.
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Aug 13, 2022 01:50
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SlothfulCobra posted:In theory, a spiral galaxy is fairly flat, so maybe broad 2D visualizations could still work, but it's a very handwavey explanation because nobody really knows a good way to visualize a 3D map, so it's 2D or nothing. Agreed entirely. The solution to the "hard to navigate and stuff would be very small" in a 3D map I had in mind but neglected to mention was that it would have to be computer assisted. "Computer, target Star A. Computer, zoom in on Star A. Zoom out to include neighboring stars within X distance. Computer, draw me a line or route between Star A and Star B." I mean it could be keyboard, button, or touch activated instead of voice or whatever, but same difference. Without some sort of computer assistance and interface, yeah, a 3D map would just be like an oblong globe but instead of things on the surface, it would be a big mess with all the stuff on the inside instead. Even a 2D map of that magnitude would be pretty useless beyond sweeping generalities without something similar. Imagine trying to navigate through a neighborhood using a map of an entire large country. There has to be a computer and zoom involved to be useful, I think.
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Aug 14, 2022 13:43
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I guess I'm supposed to know what that is out of context, but I don't, other than "vaguely distorted map of earth". I think I pieced together from the legend text that it's a sonic thing? With no explanation I'm not sure if it's serious or funny or what. Help me out?
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Oct 9, 2022 02:22
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Huh, thanks for the answer!
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Oct 9, 2022 15:33
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7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7a 7b 7c 7 7 7 7 It probably means random encounter or empty room or something with a few annotations, but I'd like to pretend it's something specific that some crazy castle owner just filled their place with. Taking a tour of the castle: "If you will follow me, this room is the wine cellar. Next door, we have a wine cellar. Just down the hall, is, yeah, another wine cellar. Look, there's not much to do around here but sit around and get hosed up, okay?"
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Oct 13, 2022 02:01
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mega dy posted:I am a professional Maps person and my formal opinion is that this thread is really cool. What, specifically or vaguely, do you do, and how did you manage to get the job? Genuinely curious, sorry if it's a derail, but something I've always been interested in.
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Jan 28, 2023 01:49
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:the boy wizard who shall not be named podcast being on Hunger Games has me looking at maps of that universe DrBouvenstein posted:I may regret asking...but how in the absolute gently caress are the Sierra Nevadas and Cascades underwater, but MUCH lower elevation areas (like, I don't know, LITERAL current sea-level areas on the Gulf coast) not underwater? The vagueness of the top map makes some sense giving that "general idea" vibe. Then there's the bottom map, where the ocean appears to have claimed all of Mexico but gave straight up at the western portion of the Rio Grande while simultaneously having no respect for mile high elevation mountains lol.
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Jul 14, 2023 11:42
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McSpanky posted:Yes, Panem is a busted setting. Now 2000AD's Cursed Earth, that's some primo post-(post-)apocalyptic dystopia I got a laugh out of Ireland being renamed "Murphyville" on that map, I'm sure it's supposed to be named after someone in the future or have a valid in-universe reason, but it sounds like some sort of slur that they straight up embraced, or the fictitious map maker has some sort of grudge. "Here's Geneva, here's Casablanca, and up there we have goddamn Murphyville and the Brit Cit." lol
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Jul 27, 2023 07:31
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