Geographical reconciliation

[eliddell]

@Mountain_King: Here we go. Providing I got all the labels in the right places, I think we can declare this "finished". If you're okay with it, I'll hand over the .xcf file to you as well.

[Mountain_King]

It looks great! I'm tickled pink.

(The xcf being in there before was actually an accident) I probably should have a copy of the xcf file. If you can get in sent, then I can hold on to it. I'm not sure I'll actually need it anymore, but send it to me just in case.

[Astoria]

@Mountain_King: Here we go. Providing I got all the labels in the right places, I think we can declare this "finished". If you're okay with it, I'll hand over the .xcf file to you as well.

You forgot the border BG layer.

[Mountain_King]

don't remember that layer,
not sure if I really care
about that.
What's it do?

[eliddell]

@Mountain_King: I think LightFighter is referring to the fact that the border has a transparent background (as in your original map), rather than having an opaque parchment background (as in the main Wesnoth map), and so the geography is showing through underneath it. Adding an appropriate layer is not a big deal--I'll stick it in the .xcf, make it invisible by default, and you can decide which version you want in the campaign.

The main thing that you might want the .xcf for is easy replacement of the labels if the campaign should ever be translated. I may have to stuff it onto a file-hosting server, though, unless compression manages to get it down to about half its present size. ;P

[eliddell]

@Mountain_King: Here's the final. It turned out to be a good thing that I took a closer look at the border, 'cause it was kind of messed up. It's still not perfect, but I think you'd have to be looking very carefully to spot the mucked-up bits now without zooming in.

The .xcf has an optional layer that fits under the border and hides the portion of the map underneath it--I didn't include it in the exported .png, but flip it on to see if you like the effect. I had to use 7zip compression to get the .xcf into a <2MB package--if you can't open it, tell me and I'll stuff the uncompressed version on Megaupload or something.

I should be back to working on the ubermap tomorrow night--Reepurr, I'll be looking at your bit first (since it's relatively small), then I'll go back to AI's map of the southeast.

@Reepurr: That river of yours looks kind of weird when considered in combination with the rest of the map. Do you need that sharp elbow bend along the south edge of your desert, or is it okay for me to re-draw it as a more gradual curve running south of that little bit of forest?

[Mountain_King]

I got this map committed and you will be seeing it on the server hopefully before the week is out. This is gonna look so cool on the ubermap.
Best Regards,
Mountain_King

[Reepurr]

It's fine to make the river go between the two blobs of forest (I think that's what you're getting at), as long as the general path of the river stays so that the Drakes have to go from Mt Valvog and across the Dural Desert to reach the river.

EDIT: If you do, please remove the left blob of forest.

And I'd like to replace the name Ghoulwood with "Frostweald" if the Northlands are really cold. Otherwise, Mistweald.

[eliddell]

@Mountain_King: Glad to have been of service.

@Reepurr: Yeah, that's pretty much where I was looking at putting it. The current arrangement has it turning around to flow south for a short distance, and while that isn't completely impossible, it looks kind of weird. I'd be moving it slightly southwards, and further from Mount Valvog.

My guess is that the Northlands really aren't all that far north--the arrangement of forests suggests that there isn't likely to be permafrost even on the north coast. There might even be an arctic continent somewhere beyond the range of the map. In other words, it'll probably be "Mistweald" when I get that far, but we'll see.

Edit: This is still a hideous mess, but hopefully you can see where I'm heading.

[eliddell]

(Yeah, yeah, I know, icky doublepost, but it's been a few days . . .)

Reepurr, I'm nearly finished integrating your map. Unless you see something grossly wrong, I'll clean up a bit and add the labels, then make a 1024x768 slice centered on the area for you to use as a campaign map, if you still want it.

[Reepurr]

Looks awesome!

However, without wishing to sound annoying, the lake on the left isn't actually supposed to connect to the river, although I could tweak the actual scenario map.

[eliddell]

@Reepurr: Lakes normally have an outlet somewhere--that seemed like the best place for it, topographically speaking, but it could conceivably drain northwards, toward the coast.

If it genuinely has no outlet, then you're looking at something like the Dead Sea or that unspellably-named outlet of the Caspian Sea (Khara-bogaz-kol? Something like that), with a really high salt content 'cause it's in the process of evaporating . . . probably of evaporating down to nothing, since there aren't a heck of a lot of avenues for more water to reach it (only the areas north and east of it are likely to get much rain, and the watershed's in the wrong direction for it to get anything much from the north).

In other words, if the lake really has no outlet, then the Dural Desert has to be old lakebed left over from when that lake was larger. That sets up some issues with drainage and the location of the existing river--the lakebed has to be lower to the north, but you've got a tributary of the Oumph running westwards and *its* tributary running southish. It isn't impossible, but if you stop to think about it, it suggests some pretty weird topography. Of course, there are already plenty of sections of the ubermap whose topography makes my head hurt.

[pauxlo]

There could be an underground outlet, though. (Like how quite a bit of the water of the upper Danube flows underground to the rhine instead.)

[eliddell]

Okay, okay, I know when I'm outnumbered. I'll wait for Reepurr's final word on the subject, but I guess it's probably coming out.

[Mountain_King]

Hi, it's me again! Just wanted to send a big "thank you" and see how all was going. I also have a question for you. As I'm preparing the next release of my campaign, I was unsure what to put you under in the credits. I currently have you under cartography as "applier of awesome" or some other such nonsense. Is there a specific title you prefer?

All the Best,
Mountain_King