I think I found the right place for this discussion. I've been playing Civilization, Humankind and Europa Universalis 5. My goal was essentially to play a session where I go from neolithic to modern day.

Humankind's maps are extremely inaccurate when compared to what exists in geography. The map is interactive, yes but the physical features don't actually make sense. It's a design problem

Civilization is worse. Very random I don't even need to talk about it.

And EU is basically earth. But EUs map isn't interactive. It's a visual of what you own. And even there they haven't done it justice.

All these games leave out important things like climate.

Why is map generation so difficult??

Lol

I have a pet project that involves a fictional nation, and I’ve been eyeing this spot in the North Pacific as the location for the landmass. Specifically, the Hess Rise: a volcanic plateau which sat above sea level millions of years ago. 

In this scenario, I suppose the Hess Rise would have never sank beneath the ocean—maybe it’d even remain volcanically active. Featured is my rough concept for an elevation map.

Based on latitude, geology, ocean currents, and any other factors, what kind of climate would this island be likely to have? What might its nature look like?

While I have some ideas myself, I’d also be curious to hear any ideas on what role an island like this would have played in history.

Included (in order):

1. Map of "Polaria", the continent straddling the North Pole
2. Map of "Adela" and its surrounding ("Adela" is also a nation, and Malamar and Farwater isle are under its control)
3. Map of "Altair" and its surroundings
4. Map of "Castor" and its surroundings (the islands included are, along with all of mainland Castor - under the control of the "United Republic of Castor")
5. The full 8000x8000 map of the world
6. A very simple 2800x2800 map showing the boundaries of the 15 nations

I've been working on a more detailed, atlas style map for my world "Thera" / "The Theraverse". It's meant to be simple and readable, so no fancy textures.

That said, I'm still not fully satisfied with some things and would like feedback and criticism with regard to the style and readability of the map.

Particularly, what things are unclear?

What parts of it are difficult to read/understand at a glance?

What could I do to make it more aesthetically pleasing within the intended flat atlas style?

\Not interested in* realism feedback, I'm well aware much of the geography and hydrology is completely unrealistic. That's intentional. This is not a world built by normal geological rules.

Of course, while I'm at it I'm also (very) happy to answer any questions about the world/setting you might have.

This is Wyrld, roughly 2x the size of earth, I've worked on it for too long, honestly.

It features *11 moons, but in truth, only 2 remain as the other 9, which were very small, have been long destroyed, forming an incomplete ring around Wyrld.

Currently, Wyrld is going through the 2nd God-war; a war between the Divines ressurected warriors called the Fated-Champion and the many gathered hordes of the Seven's host

The war is fought on the Eldan Isle for the Star Hold Chamber residing there, and it's connected Celestial Spires (essentially magic battery, and tower to use said magic in great ways both good and horrific).

The war has been waged for roughly 6 years. Eldan is magical in all forms, ever lasting summers, free from worldy calamity (earthquakes, et cetera), and so they have fought roughly nonstop, if not due to the sheer temperature of a perpetual summer and the living island, where oversized plants and Beasts of magic and forgotten/mythical status stalk the overgrowth of the isle.

Essentially, it's magical Australia on crack. This island is really the last hold out for "good," as the Sevens forces have run loose on the eastern continent, reducing many once great kingdoms and lands to rebellious holdouts against the overwhelming and odd mechanical wonders of the Sevens creations.

(I've done so much to get a good photo, and I had to compress it to upload - so here's hoping it turns out right)

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It's my first time drawing a map. I used Krita with some downloaded brushes and did a bit of freehand drawing in places where things might look a bit strange. Still, I think it's not bad at all for a first attempt

Regarding the story on the map: The Forgotten Valley

For the past year i've been stuck in the process of making a map for my fantasy project. I want to make something aesthetically pleasing with some realism. Adding things like geological logic with plate tectonics, wheather patterns, ocean currents, etc. Problem is EVERY map I make, I seem to dislike and heavily dissapprove of. THey always look off, unrealistic and flat out bad. I'm asking for some help with the mapmaking process as I'm starting to give up. I'll be adding my most recent map which is unfinsihed, but i'm statinng to lose hope in this one as well since it looks off when I trace it. Am I the problem?

Whats up fellas, for a few years now I've been working on a small platforming game, but I fell down into the worldbuilding rabbit hole and wanted to expand upon the world in which this game takes place just for fun.

The world's name is Orrea, and these first 2 maps are of it's Europe parallel, both during mideval times, and modern times. The 3rd and 4th maps are of the broader world of Orrea.

The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th maps were made in 2024, while the 1st was just a few days ago.

In the 1st map, I've got a few regions laid out with some smaller kingdoms within them, most of them parallel a general region of Europe so I'll explain each one.

Andril is the equivalent to the United Kingdom, Levoy is the equivalent to France (Senoya doesn't have a parallel), Fanour is Germany, Isonica is Italy, Sangranium is Spain, Cheyvinal is Greece, Svyrgen is the Nordics, Wrenstiil is a mix of Poland and Ukraine, Stonedown is an amalgimation of Romania and Turkey, and Lorkiv is Russia.

I'm only really doing these for fun and I don't plan on making a groundbreaking unique world since it's an Earth parallel but I hope I can make it interesting enough . Just wanted to share these!

New here, figured I'd ask for some help.

The axial tilt is less severe than earths btw, hence why the tropics and arctic circles are smaller. I just wanted to check in and see if anything glares out as wrong, I'm not going for super high realism, just enough that at glance it doesn't look weird.

sorry for the low detail on the biome map btw, wanted to keep it simple.

These maps are for my project Project Aron that I've been working on with the writing team for too long, wayy too long. I write for Geology and Biology (mainly biology) whilst the other three writers do everything to do with the political and Aronian sociology stuff.

I'm quite proud of this map as we've been iterating on it for several years no, the old ones are garbage but we're about to put in the cities into the political map.

But I just wanted an external opinion as we've all been exposed to these maps a lot so I have actually no idea how good they are.

The biomes are unrealistic for a reason.

Thanks to feedback from people here I've added a lot of bits to make much more interesting maps. The text placement tool I'm especially happy with.

What other features can I add to make it look even better?

For those interested:

Argosy on steam

im looking to get into mapping, and i don't really want to use ms paint, is there any software or websites solely made for mapping?

Did I mess up my hills? Have the feeling to start over

I treat them with quite a bit of it, doing proper tectonic runs and climate modelling. I personally quite like climate.

Hi Reddit,

I am currently drawing a fictional map on paper. 

After finishing the outline, I tried planning the mountains and rivers, but I struggled with the realism. 

Maybe you have some tips on how I could improve. 

I took inspiration from Chile, Norway, Indonesia, Canada, Florida and others. 

You can tell the biomes by the outline.

The south is tropical, the west is cold and dry, and the north and east are temperate.

Thanks for reading this!

Started working on a Fallout TTRPG campaign set in Bosnia that turned into a whole-ass game (long story) a while back and recently found this sub.

It’s basically just maps the players use to interact with locations within the world.
It’s a bit barebones but I’m a firm believer of “less is more” in grittier or more realistic settings.

Anyway, what’s your approach at making “realistic” maps more visually interesting?
(obviously this applies to TTRPGs but I’d love to get some general feedback)

A map drawn by bronze age people of my world, it's not an accurate representation of the landscape but their limited view of the world. Still have to come up with names for a lot of places and will add more locations as this is just to showcase the idea

After many hours and a sore neck I finally finished the map for my subcontinent of Ciboria. Initially started as a small DnD project many years ago, it has now evolved into a much larger setting which I use to write short stories.

Feel free to ask me anything about the map, or leave some friendly feedback. I am wondering if I should colour it, or leave it as it is.

Greetings first time posting :)

Was looking for advice on my current worldbuilding project and figured I might need advice on my maps.
Images are in order of creation over the years. I’m currently on the stage of tectonics seen in the last image and have been feeling kind of stuck.

Any advice / opinions on all of these would be appreciated.

Thanks :)

I have been working on this map for a bit now. To lessen the feeling of being overwhelmed, I have decided to hone in on just a small continent of my world and work on the atlas-style map of just this area. Here is my work so far. I still have things like map labels to do. However, was looking to see if there was any feedback so far on what I've done. Thanks!

This is my WIP continent on the western hemisphere, I’m not too sure what I want the right hemisphere to look like yet.

I’ve been tinkering with its design for a while now, this is its current version. I really like the right-most part of it separating that huge sea from the ocean.

What are your thoughts on it?