Thoughts on my Map?

[sgbii]

I did tons of research on plate tectonics, continent forming, etc etc. I looked into where certain biomes would occur naturally, dry side and wet sides of mountains. Everyone I've asked says it looks cool or it looks good but I want to know if it's believable. These islands aren't the entire world, just my starting point. I do have other areas roughed out in a different file but nothing detailed.

I'm trying I loosely base them off North America with a lot of center removed and the ends put together. I haven't picked an accurate scale either so that's open to thoughts as well.

Black and white

Color

 

[pmmg]

Since the top looks frozen, I am wondering how large these are. How far north is the northern most point, and how far south the southern?

There are no rivers on the northern most island.

You say you have used plate tectonics. Not saying it cannot happen, but the two mountain ranges are perpendicular to each other. Might they not be formed by the same forces, and more likely a continuation of each other?

What is the source of the big river on the southern most strip of island? Also the river on the southern island heading northeast, does not make it to the ocean. Probably it would, or there would be a big lake there. And, since there is a gap between the two islands, it would indicate that is the direction of lower ground, so the river should probably go north to the water. Were these made volcanically, like the Hawaiian islands? Or are they really part of the same plate peaking out above the water?

I think, so long as you got the basics right, stuff can form in many weird ways. I have certainly seen things on earth that I would have thought could not be if things formed using the models I would use. And sometimes crazy stuff happens, like a meteor strike, or an earth quake that causes weird stuff to form. So, who can say this could not happen this way?

Good to have both the B/W and color. Sometimes you need one and sometimes the other.

 

[pmmg]

Actually, the river heading northeast would probably not exist the way this is drawn. The rivers coming from the mountains get to the ocean in the south. If the northeast shoot was the lowest ground, it would all go that direction. So the northeast one would have to be a source, and there by on higher ground. But there is no mountain there. It would be highly unusual for that to happen.

 

[pmmg]

Same for the river on the north western side.

Rivers tend to flow from mountains to the sea, and not split into two areas of lower ground, one area of lower ground usually prevails over the other. So the instead of splitting, it would be more likely the rivers were joining as they came from the mountain and flowed towards the sea. That would make the off shoots sources and not destinations. Hope that makes sense.


And last....the gap in the mountains of the southern Island would probably come from a meteor hit, or the mountains would more likely be connected. Which means you could have some crater detail there.

 

[sgbii]

Thanks for the feedback! When I got into elevations I was unsure of what was what so I'll definitely take your advice. As for the northern island... I have rivers in my paper sketch and apparently I forgot to draw them on the digital map haha.

I imagine the lower island to be a similar climate to say Cuba or Florida. I wish I could remember the scale it's drawn in, I'll look when I get off work, but I want to say the main island is somewhere around 5000 miles long maybe?

 

[Rexenm]

What is the scale? It looks like the Hokkaido and Kyushu islands of Japan, did this come into the inspiration?

 

[ThinkerX]

Rivers on the lower continent are misplaced. They would flow from the mountains to the sea via the shortest route...unless you had a range of tall hills or low mountains along the eastern coast. The river flowing south is acceptable.

Given the variety of terrain shown, to me it looks like the map extends a good 3000-4000 miles on a north south axis - upper tropics to subarctic.

 

[sgbii]

This is exactly what I wanted! Now I can't wait to get home and start revising and editing. If anyone was wondering I drew this in Other World Mapper software.

Honestly I just drew random lines until I liked something. Then just kept getting more jagged until I ended up with this rough shape. If it looks like any real lands it's totally coincidence.

 

[Rexenm]

You know, from the look of the trees, the mountains look gorgeous.

 

[NotesAndBooks]

It looks pretty good to me, just some issues with the rivers, but I like it a lot, also, the top island looks like a bird in flight.

 

[Finchbearer]

Is this just a vast wilderness or are there villages, towns, cities?

The mountains in the northern cold region look disproportionately large in comparison to the land mass, especially if your southern region is basically tropical or sub-tropical.

Other than that, to me it’s looks like a fun map. I personally don’t bother with all the tectonic research stuff, it’s a fantasy map, it doesn’t matter too much imo.

 

[Devor]

A couple of things that you should really fix:

- Rivers move from high ground and rush to the coast, joining with other rivers along the way. The streams and rivers that feed the main river are called the river's watershed (google "map {any river name} watershed"). Rivers don't really split, and they don't die out before they hit the coast.

- Most of the rain and weather in any place comes from one direction, more of a curve than a line, usually from the coast. The weather then crashes into the mountains. So one side of a mountain range is going to have a lot more forests and life than the other side. The backside can range from mostly empty fields to a full desert; this is called the mountain's rain shadow.

I think fantasy writers have a lot of leeway with maps and such. But unless water works differently in your world, I'd want to get these two things straightened up.

 

[Ban]

Looks good at first glance. I'll echo the remarks regarding the rivers, but I think the mountains are fine as is. The map is not to scale so it's fine to make them nice and sizable. The way that the forests are displayed on this map I am assuming the wind comes from the South-East, explaining the gap above the northern mountains and the dry areas to the west of the southern mountains. The east of that southern island seems to have been cleared for agriculture, which would make sense.

 

[sgbii]

World layout

here's my entire world layout in progress. I made edits to the Mountain ranges on the original islands. Still working on some other edits. The scale is about 3000miles per 6" on the other maps.

 

[sgbii]

Updated Color

Here are some adjustments i made. I dried out the west some more and I think I fixed all the rivers, as well as making the mountains in the north more of a continuation of the Southern Ones. I added thin streams to hills on the wetside and a couple lakes for flavor. I also have a scale that's 1inch is 500 miles

 

[sgbii]

Updated Color

Here are some adjustments i made. I dried out the west some more and I think I fixed all the rivers, as well as making the mountains in the north more of a continuation of the Southern Ones. I added thin streams to hills on the wetside and a couple lakes for flavor. I also have a scale that's 1inch is 500 miles

Sorry. That's not the right link for some reason. This is the right link Actually updated Color

 

[Devor]

The rivers and the rain shadow look a lot better.

Personally I kind of liked it better wtih the gap in the mountains and have something similar in my own map. I think it's pretty easy to assume that tectonic plates and mountains work differently or might have been made by magic or a slain army of giants or something. It's just the rivers and rain shadow that made me feel dumb when I made mine, since water is still, y'know, water.

On another note, there's a bit of a boxiness to it. A lot of maps have that quality. It happens because you're working on a rectangular screen or a sheet of paper. My map is different than yours of course, but I had to rotate it like 200 degrees and flip it to get rid of the boxiness. Then I had to redo a lot of things to adjust to the new north and south. You've got islands, so you'd probably want to tinker with flipping/rotating/adjust each island separately. I wouldn't consider it a must, though, the way I would have with the other things I mentioned. It all depends on how much you want to put into it.

 

[TheKillerBs]

I have absolutely zero issues with the rivers, except one. The river on the northwest of the southern continent, does it end in a marsh or other kind of wetland? Otherwise, it's kinda strange that the river stops there. Not saying it's impossible, but it would require an explanation (which could be an opportunity for more cool world ideas)

 

[sgbii]

I have absolutely zero issues with the rivers, except one. The river on the northwest of the southern continent, does it end in a marsh or other kind of wetland? Otherwise, it's kinda strange that the river stops there. Not saying it's impossible, but it would require an explanation (which could be an opportunity for more cool world ideas)

Yeah the texture is hard to understand but it empties into a swampland

 

[sgbii]

Also, I have no idea how all my links got messed up. Here is the World Map