Map Feedback Please?

[The Virtus Islands]

Hello everyone, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I was hoping for some feedback on this map, please list anything you like, don't like, or think I could improve, thanks!

The map can be found here: http://i.imgur.com/u1hQMT1.png

(Also, the cities will have names eventually, I just haven't got around to naming them yet)

[Lzherusskia]

It looks excellent. I wouldn't think twice if I saw that on Wikipedia, and I'd happily use a similar one if you made it for me.

[New Ravania]

Not sure if this is the place for it, but it looks good. Don't care too much for the smoothness of the Islands, but that's just a personal preference.

[Allancia]

I actually really like it. The colorization and city marking is spot on. Putting the eagle on the key was really smart.

[Spoder]

Top quality. It looks almost professional.

[Lyncanestria]

Why name the islands after seasons of the year?

[Allancia]

Why name the islands after seasons of the year?

Only French speaking people will understand.

[Phalnia]

Really nice.

[Dundee Derry]

Awesome looking map. Can you tell us what programs/ techniques you used? I'm trying to make my own maps atm, and they look a bit shoddy in comparison.

[Allancia]

Awesome looking map. Can you tell us what programs/ techniques you used? I'm trying to make my own maps atm, and they look a bit shoddy in comparison.

Now that you say that, I would like some instructions on how to make something like this.

[The Virtus Islands]

Awesome looking map. Can you tell us what programs/ techniques you used? I'm trying to make my own maps atm, and they look a bit shoddy in comparison.

I used Adobe Illustrator, you can download a trial that'll last 30 days, there's plenty of tutorials online for it.

As far as techniques go, the pen tool is your friend and so is working in phases, it's very tempting to starting positioning cities and roads immediately, but I think it's best to put details on your maps in the order they would have appeared in the real world.

Here are, roughly, the steps I took: http://i.imgur.com/b26nDKX.jpg

1 ) Decide on the basic shape of the land
2 ) Using the Add Anchor Point Tool, make more points in the line and fiddle with them a bit to make the land a bit more rugged
3 ) Begin to add terrain elevation
4 ) Complete it with extra layers of the higher peaks, remember not to go too wild
5 ) Add some final terrain touches, in this case, I added smaller islands
6 ) Begin to plot your roads, if people were to drive across your nation, which route would they most likely take?
7 ) Add more roads, they're the best way to illustrate population density
8 ) Add your major towns and cities, again, keep which areas you want to be more densly populated and your nations total population in mind (for example, in the cities shown on this map, Virtus' population is somewhere between 8 million and 17 million)

In terms of realism, keep looking at real maps, you'll get a better feel of city and road layout as well as the common design conventions of maps.

Also, if you're using islands, consider how continental drift would effect their shape, they shouldn't fit together perfectly as erosion would make this impossible, to help you get a better idea of what I mean, here is how my islands "fit" together and likely would have looked millions of years ago: http://i.imgur.com/baG8TWJ.png

Hope this helps, good luck!

[Yukonastan]

The CYOE thread is more suited for this, but that's an amazing map.

[The Virtus Islands]

The CYOE thread is more suited for this, but that's an amazing map.

Thank you, I've been away from NS for a few years so wasn't quite sure, I'll post it there

[Dundee Derry]

Thanks for the help. Bookmarked for future reference.

[Trevor Phillip Enterprises]

Just one thing I say you ought to put in are major cities names, maybe even landmarks. Otherwise you got an excellent map.

[Allied Connurist States]

Wow, that is a top-notch map! : D