OpenGeofiction
Hi All,
Following the advice of OFG Making Realistic Countries, I’m trying to draft my landscape and natural resources in detail before beginning to map human stuff. My country is Embla in Antarephia. Check out the latest draft (rough sketch) on my blog here:
https://emblaogf.blogspot.com/2018/09/revised-elevation-map.html
Let me know if you have any suggestions for the realism of terrain/river systems, placement of population centers, or advice on continuing to build detail into the terrain.
Discussion
Comment from Luciano on 22 September 2018 at 14:48
Your thoughtful approach already puts you in the top 1% of mappers on OGF.
I think the broad concept of the elevations you’re planning isn’t bad. My only comment would be: be careful with river valleys - they tend to be “shallower slopes” than you imagine. Thus rather than just drawing “chevrons” for the rivers, you might want to put in canyons, with lower elevations extending farther inland. They don’t need to be deep canyons, and they can have gentle sides to them.
Comment from Marcello on 22 September 2018 at 19:47
Excellent approach - kind of what I started to do after 1 1/2 years of mapping. Imagine.
My only queston would be about the lake about in the middle of your realm: is it to be a artificial lake with a dam ? It looks just a bit - I don’t know. Your population centers look spot-on. Really well thought of, this.
happy mapping !
Marcello
Comment from zhenkang on 23 September 2018 at 01:00
Wow, you have taken the most unconventinal (yet highly excellent) approach to your mapping. Most users usually either start with a city or plan motorways despite reading the wiki page. Even if they did, their geogrpahy isnt good at all.
Not being an expert here, I have nothing else to comment, just sending my compliments.
Maybe I should start planning out my future nations on Pointochinikia.
Comment from iiEarth on 23 September 2018 at 04:45
Your topography is highly detailed, and really realistic. Your maps are similar to mine; yes, if you look at my current editing, yours is way better, but I create maps on paper, mostly based on topography. The problem with my editing is that I can’t get it NEARLY as detailed in Opengeofiction. I just want to add one thing; I sometimes see, in maps, that in some places of high elevations, there is a sudden drop in elevation. I think so that the drop is interesting, but I’m just suggesting.
Good luck in mapping in Embla!
-Sincerely, iiEarth
Comment from Meg11 on 26 September 2018 at 23:57
Thanks for your advice!
@Marcello you have a good point about the lake. It’s really there because I like lakes rather than any geographically justified reason. I hadn’t thought of a dam before though, I might work the lake into one of the rivers then!
Comment from Portopolis on 28 September 2018 at 16:02
You might be interested in contacting Paxtar and the owner of Guai and their project AN146 about fitting your country into the region culturally and historically if you want.