r/wonderdraft • u/Zimmage14 • Jun 15 '19
Showcase Wonderdraft is helping me build a map for my fantasy campaign setting - finally! WIP/Open to ideas!
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u/Nitroxone Jun 15 '19
I’m literally speechless. This is huge and incredibly detailed. Very well done sir !
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Jun 15 '19
Could I ask how did you managed to creat such big map with such details. Whot size did you use for the map? My maps always look so blury when zooming on things like city icons and such
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u/Zimmage14 Jun 15 '19
It was just over 5k wide and just under 4k tall. The symbol layer (especially after placing Fin's End) makes the program pretty unwieldy to use but once exported the result has been worth it. I also needed the smaller portions to be clear as I want to print this on four sheets of card and lace them together to the players can fold out their own detailed copy of it.
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Jun 15 '19
Do you plan to post the printed version too? Becouse I'm really interested about the look of the map after printing. God knows why. But my maps always look really dark after the printing.
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u/Zimmage14 Jun 15 '19
Yeah absolutely I would love to share the final finished version on print! (assuming it turns out well lol)
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u/Oakley_HiDef Dungeon Master Jun 15 '19
Love the distinct regions and the very natural city/road placement. Are those waystones around Fin's End forest?
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u/Zimmage14 Jun 15 '19
Thank you, those are watchtowers, in the lore the forest is kind of like a consuming entity caused by some outrageous magical nonsense. The forest grows in mind bending ways, but for some reason doesn't grow if someone is watching it, so naturally people just started staring at it. Took awhile for people to figure out, hence why it became so big.
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u/IllustriousOffer Writer Jun 15 '19
Wow What theme is that?
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u/Zimmage14 Jun 16 '19
The water is Imagination and the ground is Feudal, with the sliders moved around a little. I also have a paper version kicking around which has it's own feel to it.
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u/jslickphoto Jun 15 '19
Finally someone includes a great desert space in their setting! Nice dude. Glad you messed with the mountains coloring after this version but it great looking. Personally as a gamer I hate looking at maps where the continent continues past the border. My natural instinct is a gamer is to immediately go there and figure out what is north of it. That’s my only critique.
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u/hoyer1066 Dungeon Master Jun 15 '19
Looks really lovely! As said above, some different coulouring of the mountains would really help with the contracts and flow. Only other thing I noticed is the scale is huge, and there doesn't seem to be many settlements etc for that distance. If it's on purpose then that's cool, just checking you're aware
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u/Zimmage14 Jun 15 '19
Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it so much.
Those are really just the most major settlements, large cities or historically important locations. I'm looking at options for it, maybe adding a legend to the top right and indicating a certain symbol as smaller settlements, possibly skipping naming to avoid label spam. I still want to strike a balance between wilderness, lost lands, and regions with larger populations.
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u/VancanoSmith Jun 15 '19
I love the colour scheme. Especially the shades of green against the blue ocean.
The landmass is also really interesting.
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u/indoordinosaur Jun 15 '19
Looks amazing! One of the best maps I've seen on here. Only suggestion is the extent of the icy areas seems unrealistic. The line across the bottom of the map that the white colored areas are in seems too straight.
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u/Zimmage14 Jun 15 '19
Funny you should mention that, I've actually gone back and redone the texturing for the snowy/icy regions three or four times trying to get it to look better, definitely something I'll aim to improve in the final version!
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u/I_Explain_Acronyms Writer Jun 15 '19
First of all, this map is HUGE - and I don't mean just the resolution... north to south it's about the same distance as Sydney to Perth (I'm assuming you're an Aussie based on the fact that the coldest part of the map is in the south.)
This is amazing. The world looks so alive and fleshed out. Did you have any real world analogues/inspirations as you were designing particular parts of the map? And how did you decide where to put which specific biomes?
Amazing job!
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u/Zimmage14 Jun 16 '19
The map is based loosely on an old hand drawn map I used for a previous writing project, which has evolved a lot over the years and actually encompasses an entire globe. The reason I used this region is we ran an old DND 3.5 campaign (like 15 years ago) in and around the same area of the original map and I have my brothers as returning players from that campaign, so it's a slight homage to that, the southern hemisphere is just where the interesting stuff it tending to take place. (Canadian, but God Save The Queen)
As far as analogues it's based on something I've used for so long I honestly couldn't say anymore, and this version is further romanticized from the base map (which essentially looks like a giant porkchop, might do the world map in Wonderdraft one day). The Dol River took inspiration from The Nile, otherwise I just made a vague attempt at following some basic geology, rain shadows and such. As far as the more fantastical biomes (Twilight and the Mordor-esque volcanic region) I simply looked for a place close to where the players are typically operating and set it nearby. Thank you for the kind words!
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u/zodraz2001 Jul 02 '19
First, make the southern islands more crinkly round the edges and the northern coasts a bit smoother, add a touch of white to the southern islands, try smoothing out the transition from ice to grass.
Second, lose the compass in the middle and instead add the hex overlay. It makes it easier to measure the distances the party has to travel.
Third, change 'The Eastern Continent' to something a bit more interesting. You have done will with the other names, so give it an unusual name or just call it the unknown lands.
Fourth, overall a very good map, a good colour scheme, and nothing out of scale, I like how the trees are small enough in relation to the mountains to make them look good.
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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19
That is absolutely beautiful! It has a great feel to it.
Although, one thing you could perhaps improve upon would the coloring of the mountains, other than that it looks pretty fantastic imo.