Hey everybody. I was basically just messing around with the map guides, and decided to practice by making a map of Middle Earth. I kept having more and more ideas come to me, and now I'm making one as a real project instead of just goofing off.

I've almost finished with Mordor, I still need to fix some of the borders with the mountains. Everything outside of Mordor is just draft sketches while I try to figure out territory borders and names.

One thing I really want to do with this map is focus on the aesthetics, since Middle Earth is such a beautiful place. I'm not the best artist, or very experienced with Inkscape, but I'm relatively happy with how the mountains turned out.

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!



Link to image of full map: http://i.imgur.com/9DvjNfm.jpg

Working on a way to represent forests



Would need to make some areas coniferous, some deciduous, and some a mix, but I need to play around with mixing trees and territories.

looks great, so far. there should be more visual appealing maps like yours.
recently I have made a little sketch for NinjaNic. Maybe it will be helpfull for you as well:

http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer?PreviewMap=38318

http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer?PreviewMap=38478

Thanks. That gives me some new ideas for tweaks and variety. It would be nice to create a palette of sorts of different styles for showing environments like those, but with more styles and SVGs.

Trying to figure out the best way to show river crossings and bridges, and have it feel like part of the map rather than something stuck on for Warlight. I don't want to use a separate territory for it but I'm not pleased with any of my attempts so far.



I know I can make a separate territory and combine it with one of the two territories at the bridge, it's just annoying to have to route the line for the country's edge along the edge of the bridge. Wonder if there's a better way.





Back to the map, I finished Khand, Harad, Umbar, Rhun, and the Iron Hills(mostly). Borders and names are subject to change. I don't like having to go to the Expanded Universe for names, as well as plain old making stuff up, but I don't see how that can be helped with the size I'm going for.

I also added the water contour lines from the maps, I think it makes a big difference.



Having a lot of fun, just starting to realize how much work this is.
Updated full image: http://i.imgur.com/LuK7yFl.jpg

I can already tell it'll be a 5/5 map! Keep it up!

Thanks Yeezus.

I've outlined the Grey Mountains, Misty Mountains, White Mountains, and Mountains of Angmar. Sketched out rough borders for Mirkwood and the rest of Rhovanion, The Anduin Vale, Moria, Lothlorien, Fangorn, Isengard, Rohan. Finished Harondor, Ithilien, Dagorlad. Sitting around 170 territories at the moment.

I've had a lot of fun looking at different maps and researching places that I either forgot about, or never knew of in the first place. I'm trying to give more focus to some regions that, in my opinion, have been too glossed-over for how epic they are. For instance, Moria will probably have 6 territories if I can manage to fit them in, Lothlorien has 6.

I want to have more than 1 territory for Helm's deep, but I may have to take a little extra license with the White Mountains to accomplish it. I at least want the Hornburg and Glittering Caves.

I'm also setting up specific river crossings to be more faithful to Middle Earth and hopefully add more strategy to the map.

Featured Addition: Smaug!



Updated full image: http://i.imgur.com/gRpZged.png

Still amazing, you will be getting 5 stars from me when it launches

It looks great ill rate it 5 stars when it comes out :)

Hmmm i was just thinking maybe someone that is a great map maker can make a map like this with all features in a world map... its gonna so long tho.

Edited 12/3/2014 13:48:55

This looks great. We really need a good looking middle Earth, I find the others are a bit bland.

So, everything east of the Misty Mountains is done. Outlined the rest of the mountains, hills, and rivers. Still have to do the detail layer on half the mountains, but I've been a bit busy.

I scaled the map up slightly larger to max resolution, to have more space in some areas. I've also been having to go back and fix a bunch of things that I didn't do right the first time, cause I hate crappy borders and gaps and whatnot.

In the mean time, I've been working on some extra environmental eye-candy.

Barad-dur - I'm really happy with this one, just plan on adding a few windows/spires for detail.


Black Gate - Haven't done the outer towers, don't know if I will. It's meh.


Minas Tirith - Screw the white city, it's kicking my butt. I just can't get the basic structure to look right, and there's not a ton of space on the map to work with either.

Going to deviate from my blocky style and try working with the circle tool to see if I can't get something looking decent.

awesome!

4th try starting from scratch. It's super effective!



I finally found a reference image that was relatively close to the perspective I wanted, so I didn't have to do much spatial crap in my head. That always helps.

I'll probably just have to combine Minas Tirith and the Pelennor Fields, unless somebody has an idea for where to actually put the territory. Maybe the rock face, it would be interesting to see that change colors :P

Remember, the maximum file size is 2MB. If you carry on with the detail you're doing, it might go over. Often, text can take up a massive amount of memory without realising due to the curved edges.

Yeah, I'm aware of the limit, thanks. At more than halfway done, my file is 1.1 megabytes, but 0.5 of that is the temporary text of all the territory names, so I should be fine :)

Edited 12/6/2014 08:57:37

God damn, this is absolutely beautiful so far. The Elven Script writing on the territories is a great touch, and those water contour lines are absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to play on the map, if not examine it in detail.

This map..... is just awesome

Love it. Nice job man

Almost done assigning territories. Everything outlined is named, I just have the northernmost lands left.

Doing the area around the Shire/Bree was just painful. So many places in such a small area, it was very difficult to figure out what to actually use. I also had to take out the drawn hills for all the downs, tower hills, and a few others. Would have liked to keep them but there just isn't enough room.

I don't have an exact count, but I think there will be around 35 possible factions.

Map Preview: https://www.warlight.net/SinglePlayer?PreviewMap=38403

Still procrastinating on doing the north :/

Realized I'm retarded, and didn't plan for territories being forced to the top layer of a map when I drew things like Barad-dur, Minas Tirith, etc. Barad-dur was easy to fix, the others are varying degrees of more difficult or unsatisfying. Simply outlining things has a tendency to look pretty stupid IMO.

Barad-dur: Just extended the mountain range in the background.


Minas Tirith: Again, extended the mountain range. I'm not in love with it, but I like it more than when I tried just outlining it with the territory.


Black Gate: Don't know how I feel about this one, was trying out a few different things. Finished the left side, not the right. Made a background layer that matches the border color, put that behind the Black Gate layer. Then I roughly outlined the Black Gate, and the fill layer just hides the gaps.



Notes for future maps... either make sure I incorporate a background other than territory land, or draw things from a top-down perspective.