Map Creation Tips

[St Leo]

I thought we should make a thread for beginners about making maps.:-)

<OL>[*]Use the most useless terrain (usually Glaciers) when doing the basic land outline.[*]I recommend adding rivers right after the outlines are done so that the following terrain is easier to integrate.[*]Place the final terrain square by square in logical and aesthetic patches so that the product will feel natural and not forced.[/list=a]

What do you guys have to say?;-)

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St. Leo
http://ziggurat.sidgames.com/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/

[Captain Nemo]

I usually take a less used terrain, replace it with a bright red/yellow square (In the .gif file) and use it to place the cities from the map editor.

You can now see your city locations on the overview and assess if the map proportions are right...

How often have I drawn a perfect map and started placing cities only to find out that Washington DC is North of New York or some other major geographic blunder.

Of course it requires changing the terrain back to some useful type before building each city (If you don't you're out of luck since you can't edit terrain under a city!)

[Mercator]

I usually try to find a detailed map of the area I want to draw on the Internet (the links section at http://civ2.sidgames.com has some great map resource sites). I then draw a grid over it using PSP and then open the MapEditor to make a map of it. After that has been done I pick up my atlas, or perhaps some other digital maps to do the rivers, then the elevation bit (hills and mountains) and finish it with the rest of the terrains.

I usually use grassland to fill the map, since I draw my maps in a very orderly fashion I really don't have the problem of missing a grassland square.

Have a look at my map making guide (again at http://civ2.sidgames.com) for some details.