[Jade Raven]

Wow this is great stuff. Good work D'rek.

Having just read Assail I've gotta say though that that continent seems to me to be more on the size scale of Jacuruku than Korel-Stratem.

Some technical advice too. Regarding "fuzziness" some of that may well be what is known as "compression artefacts" that are caused by saving as a .jpg extension. .jpg (JPEG) was designed with photographs in mind and in fact should only be used for photographs as in all other situations .png compression provides a much better result (less to artefacts for the same file size).

Spoiler

Can I use it on the wiki btw?

[D'rek]

Jade Raven, on 06 October 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:

Having just read Assail I've gotta say though that that continent seems to me to be more on the size scale of Jacuruku than Korel-Stratem.

Yeah, common consensus now that a lot of people have read Assail is that it needs to shrink. For now I'll make it somewhere between Jacuruku and Korel-Stratem size-wise, as I don't think Assail has ever been referred to as an Isle like Jacuruku has. Later on I'll try and find more specific ideas of exact size if I can, based on any distance or travel time quotes there are to be found.

Jade Raven, on 06 October 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:

Some technical advice too. Regarding "fuzziness" some of that may well be what is known as "compression artefacts" that are caused by saving as a .jpg extension. .jpg (JPEG) was designed with photographs in mind and in fact should only be used for photographs as in all other situations .png compression provides a much better result (less to artefacts for the same file size).

Yup, and I do have some PNG exports of the image. JPG just uploads to this site better (and with smaller filesize).

That being said, there really is a lot of specky artifacts along the coastlines - groups of pixels that were just a bit too off-white to be caught by the magic select tool when blue-ing the oceans - but if I'd set the threshold any higher it'd have shaved off the coastlines themselves too much!

Also, today I learned that PNG actually stands for something, and isn't just Picture Not GIF.

Jade Raven, on 06 October 2014 - 03:01 AM, said:

Can I use it on the wiki btw?

Sure!

[Egwene]

I think SE should get involved with this map business. Wouldn't it be great to have a full colour large Malazan map with lots of additional info from the authors? I'd buy it - then deal with the raised eyebrows of the non-Malazan crowd when I hang it up in pride of place!

[D'rek]

Finished cleaning up the shorelines, and resized Assail.

(spoiler'd for size)

Spoiler

 Map of the World Phase 10.png (1.23MB)
Number of downloads: 34

I think the next thing I want to do is try colouring the terrain. Not really sure waht a good way to do that is... anyone have some ideas?

What I've tried so far is just plain colours in semi-transparent layers overlaid over the existing terrain features, like this:

 colour pre 11.png (38.22K)
Number of downloads: 12


Not sure if that's the best approach or what colours would work best on plains, islands, grasslands, etc

[Andorion]

Would a colour by topography scheme be practical? Deep Green for sea level and, lighter green with altitude, fading into light brown, and increasing into deep brown with high peaks, with white showing above snowline areas and shaded white showing low snowfields?

[korik]

D, on 01 November 2014 - 10:06 PM, said:

Finished cleaning up the shorelines, and resized Assail.

(spoiler'd for size)

Spoiler

Map of the World Phase 10.png

I think the next thing I want to do is try colouring the terrain. Not really sure waht a good way to do that is... anyone have some ideas?

What I've tried so far is just plain colours in semi-transparent layers overlaid over the existing terrain features, like this:

colour pre 11.png


Not sure if that's the best approach or what colours would work best on plains, islands, grasslands, etc

I love your work D'rek, I think it is amazing..... but to amuse myself during a slow day I played around with your map on paint, I hope I am not treading on your toes. There were a few niggles in how I see things that I decided to adjust, only based on my feelings, if there are quotes that contradict what I have done then I would be happy to hear them.

• Biggest change is location of Lether, I don't like that it was so close to Seven Cities continent - doesn't this mean that Tavore sailed right passed her ultimate objective of the CG's heart during the Bonehunters to get to Malaz island? (I know it is a gross over simplification but I am trying to make more sense of their journey) Putting it here means that the ocean to the west of Kolanse can be bigger and explains the huge overland trip somewhat. It also makes Kolanse feel more remote to other lands as I got the impression it was
• Tweaked rotation and size of Genebackis and brought it closer to Seven cities to reflect why the Malazans decided to land in Genebaris/Nathilog during expansion
• Tweaked position and size of other continents making the folk who show up in Assail make more sense (i.e. nearest few continents)
• Shrunk Umryg, I know we got little desciption but I never got the feeling it was much bigger than an island

I am interested in your thoughts

Spoiler

 Map of the World Phase 10.png (1.4MB)
Number of downloads: 2

This post has been edited by korik: 03 November 2014 - 07:11 PM

[Esa1996]

That's awesome. As others have pointed out, however, I think that Assail should be smaller (Though that's just because of seeing the previous maps, I'm only around 150 pages into it. (Seems you've already edited it, just haven't yet updated the first page's post)). Reading the other comments about Assail, I've got a question: Is Korel/Stratem really that big? My other point of improvement would've been to make it smaller

This post has been edited by Esa1996: 04 November 2014 - 06:18 PM

[D'rek]

korik, on 03 November 2014 - 07:09 PM, said:

I love your work D'rek, I think it is amazing..... but to amuse myself during a slow day I played around with your map on paint, I hope I am not treading on your toes. There were a few niggles in how I see things that I decided to adjust, only based on my feelings, if there are quotes that contradict what I have done then I would be happy to hear them.

You can toy around with it as much as you want. And I promise to give fair consideration to any changes, but I'm not promising to ultimately agree with any of them

And, of course, don't pass it off as your own (which I know no one around here would ever do, just making sure I cover my butt for any sneaky lurkers)

korik, on 03 November 2014 - 07:09 PM, said:

[*]Biggest change is location of Lether, I don't like that it was so close to Seven Cities continent - doesn't this mean that Tavore sailed right passed her ultimate objective of the CG's heart during the Bonehunters to get to Malaz island? (I know it is a gross over simplification but I am trying to make more sense of their journey) Putting it here means that the ocean to the west of Kolanse can be bigger and explains the huge overland trip somewhat. It also makes Kolanse feel more remote to other lands as I got the impression it was

Pretty sure this whole Lether-continent-is-directly-south-west-of-the-Seven-Cities-continent is word of god - it came from SE's own sketched world maps a while ago.

The Bonehunters sailed east immediately after Malaz City - we know they went to Theft first. From there they *could* have gone west, past Jacuruku and around Kolanse, but IMO it'd be weird if they sailed right past Kolanse, to get to Lether, to get to Kolanse. Plus there's the Stormriders in the way. Plus in the early chapters of RG they are in the ocean heading eastwards, and soon thereafter they land on the west coast of Lether.

In general, it seems there is very little naval passage by anyone north of Jacuruku/west of Korel during the time of the series, probably mostly due to the Stormriders and no one is trading/coming from Kolanse because everyone there are starving Forkrul Assail slaves (and before that there was drought). That's also partially why I decided to put Cabal in-between the Seven Cities and Lether continents, as the constant civil war there would be an additional obstacle to regular naval traffic between them (or even to news and knowledge of Kolanse making its way to Quon Tali).

So I figure like most of the other boats we've seen in the series they stuck to the main thoroughfare that runs from eastern Seven Cities, all around Quon Tali, to Genebackis and eastern Korel/Stratem, dodges the Wrecker's Coast and wends down to western Lether.

korik, on 03 November 2014 - 07:09 PM, said:

[*]Tweaked rotation and size of Genebackis and brought it closer to Seven cities to reflect why the Malazans decided to land in Genebaris/Nathilog during expansion

The Genebackis maps in the books have a North pointer on them - I would not recommend rotation it.

Pretty sure the Malazans would find it easier to spend an extra week sailing around the continent to land troops on the east side than having those troops spend a month or more fighting across land to reach the same spot, no matter how far east or west the continent is.

What was wrong with the size? All the continents whose maps have scale bars in the books I matched up the scale bars to be properly relative.

korik, on 03 November 2014 - 07:09 PM, said:

[*]Tweaked position and size of other continents making the folk who show up in Assail make more sense (i.e. nearest few continents)

Haven't read Assail, but it's supposed to be pretty remote according to all the other books, and only the rumours in that book are what get people to go there, no?

Also note that, IIRC, in RotCG the Second Company is noted as sailing north-west on their way from Bael to Stratem

korik, on 03 November 2014 - 07:09 PM, said:

[*]Shrunk Umryg, I know we got little desciption but I never got the feeling it was much bigger than an island

It has "vast caverns", "inland mountain peaks" and enough of a population that they had a big enough military to contend with an entire Company of the Crimson Guard being hired by Timmel's sister seeking to usurp the throne.

Plus I stuck it way up north because I was planning to cover a lot of the northern island with ice (coming down from the mountains), which would reduce the liveable land amount (and align well with the Umrygian Jaghut lineage).

Esa1996, on 04 November 2014 - 06:12 PM, said:

That's awesome. As others have pointed out, however, I think that Assail should be smaller (Though that's just because of seeing the previous maps, I'm only around 150 pages into it. (Seems you've already edited it, just haven't yet updated the first page's post)). Reading the other comments about Assail, I've got a question: Is Korel/Stratem really that big? My other point of improvement would've been to make it smaller

Ooops, yeah I should update the first post.

You mean make the entire Korel+Stratem continent smaller? Any particular reasons?

[Egwene]

D'rek, have you thought of adding your map to the Wiki?

Werthead's map is there already. Yours would be a great addition to the imagery of Wu.

http://malazan.wikia...i/Malazan_world

I assume that is you, asking SE about feedback for your map on the TOR re-read thread? Hope he comes back to you about it. We're all dying to read that feedback. If he does, will you post a link here? Just in case we miss his answer!

[D'rek]

Egwene, on 08 November 2014 - 02:24 PM, said:

D'rek, have you thought of adding your map to the Wiki?

Werthead's map is there already. Yours would be a great addition to the imagery of Wu.

http://malazan.wikia...i/Malazan_world

I assume that is you, asking SE about feedback for your map on the TOR re-read thread? Hope he comes back to you about it. We're all dying to read that feedback. If he does, will you post a link here? Just in case we miss his answer!

I think Jade Raven already asked if it could be used on the wiki? But yes, go for it!

And yup, that was me in the tor re-read. If we get any answers from SE this time I will repost it here.

[Imperial Historian]

You're never going to get a straight answer out of Steve about this map are you? One of the things I was most looking forward to in the Q&A but no joy...

For those who missed it Steve couldn't open any of the 9 links!

[D'rek]

Imperial Historian, on 11 November 2014 - 10:25 PM, said:

You're never going to get a straight answer out of Steve about this map are you? One of the things I was most looking forward to in the Q&A but no joy...

For those who missed it Steve couldn't open any of the 9 links!

I'm skeptical of his answer in this... how could he possibly have a web browser that is capable of loading and posting on the Tor website (including dynamic text boxes, ads and captchas) but this browser is incapable of displaying a .png or .jpg? And supposedly this is on his new Mac laptop...? That new computer should have Safari installed by default which should have no problems displaying a simple .png via URL. Heck, even Netscape Navigator can do that without issue.

If he has some reason he just doesn't want to answer about it would be fine, I guess, but he could at least say so. I don't know what to think now... maybe this whole thing was sort of a waste of time after all.

[Imperial Historian]

Yeah my first thought on this was if you don't want to answer say, don't cop out like that. One day we might get an answer.

I don't think it was a waste of time though, I and many others have really appreciated your maps, even if Steve looks at maps and timelines in the same manner!

[Egwene]

Yeah, I am with you on this one, D'rek. Just read that bit and not sure what to think about it either. It's a pretty disappointing reply to say the least.

Like Imperial Historian said, WE appreciate your efforts and the fact that this topic has over 8000 views in itself tells you how many are interested in your map!

Maybe some of the people here who have had closer dealings with SE could give him a nudge... or something a bit stronger...

[Gothos]

Disappointing doesn't even begin to describe it.

Me, I love your work on this. Please keep up the good work.

[Egwene]

How is it going with the map, D'rek?

Will you be doing a version with all the details added, like towns, rivers, landmarks etc...?

[D'rek]

Egwene, on 19 November 2014 - 08:51 PM, said:

How is it going with the map, D'rek?

Will you be doing a version with all the details added, like towns, rivers, landmarks etc...?

Slowly, but I'm not giving up!

And yeah, the plan is to add the towns and landmarks back in - similar to how they are already on the official maps (but possibly not quite so many of them in the really busy places). Everything will be added in different layers so I can easily make versions with any combination of landmarks, terrain, colouring, names, etc etc.

I'm not sure what to use as icons for the town, though. Has to look good when very small, and preferably I don't want to use anything that will cover a lot of the terrain beneath it. Any suggestions are welcome!

[Andorion]

D, on 19 November 2014 - 09:41 PM, said:

Egwene, on 19 November 2014 - 08:51 PM, said:

How is it going with the map, D'rek?

Will you be doing a version with all the details added, like towns, rivers, landmarks etc...?

Slowly, but I'm not giving up!

And yeah, the plan is to add the towns and landmarks back in - similar to how they are already on the official maps (but possibly not quite so many of them in the really busy places). Everything will be added in different layers so I can easily make versions with any combination of landmarks, terrain, colouring, names, etc etc.

I'm not sure what to use as icons for the town, though. Has to look good when very small, and preferably I don't want to use anything that will cover a lot of the terrain beneath it. Any suggestions are welcome!

How aobut the Oxford Atlas format? Big dot for town, circled big dot for city, double circle big dot for capital.

[Egwene]

Or if you want to really keep it really small, dots of different colours, though that won't be any good if anyone prints out a map in black and white... I like Andorion's suggestion.

[Gorefest]

D, on 11 November 2014 - 10:46 PM, said:

If he has some reason he just doesn't want to answer about it would be fine, I guess, but he could at least say so. I don't know what to think now... maybe this whole thing was sort of a waste of time after all.

It could simply be a copyright issue, to be fair. If he acknowledges that he has seen the map in some shape or form, regardless of its accuracy, or even acknowledges that he knows of its existence without having seen it, he might open himself up to legal copyright problems further down the line in case he and ICE want to publish their own maps. I wouldn't take it personally, he may actually be doing you a favour by playing ignorant. I remember a while ago reading about a sort of similar issue. There exists a fan-generated text-based MUD dedicated to Terry Pratchett's Discworld. It has been around for quite some time now (since the early 90'ies I believe) and over the years various players and game creators asked Pratchett if he was aware of its existence and if he liked the look and the contents of it. He would always answer 'no' and hint that, if he would be aware of it, he would probably find himself forced to take legal steps as it would consist a direct breach of copyright and might create all sorts of complicated legislative problems in the future. Not acknowledging its existence while allowing this entity to continue existing can in itself be considered a compliment to the makers, as it was clear to everyone that there is no way that he could have not known about it. So instead of feeling aggrieved by SE's lack of response, maybe it should be regarded as a subtle nod of approval to the excellent work done by a not-for-profit fan which SE doesn't want to destroy.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 20 November 2014 - 10:39 AM