Questions tagged [map-making]
For questions that have to do with the science or practice of drawing maps. If the question has to do with making maps this tag is a good fit. Note: This tag is about creating maps of physical features, not creating the physical features themselves nor using the maps for navigation. For that see the geography tag or navigation tag..
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Encrypting maps
Encrypting texts is a very old technique, which is known already from the time of the Romans, if not earlier. Now a simple text cypher is easily done with low-tech means, as long as those trying to ...
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What would be used for "coordinates" on a large asteroid?
Assuming we had a non-spherical asteroid that doesn't have a magnetic "north", how would the inhabitants define areas on the asteroid? How would they explain to a visitor to go to a very specific ...
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The magical map - how to stop it being too powerful
In a Middle Earth type world, there exists a magical map. It has the property that anything that happens to the map also happens in the real world.
The map can be 'zoomed' in or out to get the right ...
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What software is available for map creation?
I'm looking for recommendations for software to build my world, physically. I want to be able to create maps of the entire world and then drill down to individual areas and define the towns and ...
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How to go about creating an "inaccurate" map?
We have a professional cartographer, who travels, creates maps, duplicates them, and sells them to people as he travels. Unfortunately, he is not the best at his job - and he has nothing other than a ...
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Mapping a fantasy/horror building where rooms overlap
A group of people have stumbled into one of those classic fantasy/horror houses where the usual rules of space don't seem to apply and is very confusing. Bits of the building appear to overlap with ...
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Destruction by design - how best to go about crafting a ruined landscape?
Ruins of many kinds are a staple of stories whether for games or tales of high adventure. My question is about the design process behind such structures: should one start with a city or building and ...
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How can I indicate a third dimension on a map of outer space?
I'm working on a map of several star systems (with the stars, planets, etc. not to scale with the map), and I'd like to show that they don't all lie in the same plane. Some orbits are perpendicular to ...
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Best places to be on Earth when an all out nuclear World War III breaks out?
This is a world building question in a preventative context because those people or countries would be left fully functional while others are gone and the safe areas are where the world building would ...
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How can I create a map of an underground city?
This question is, like How long will it take to form a new dialect and language in underground steampunk London?, part of an experiment I'm conducting on Worldbuilding. I'm temporarily switching gears ...
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Less boring classifications of earth-like terrain when making maps
When creating a map for a fantasy world, I typically add broad top-level descriptions for terrain. Mountains here, forests there, a river, a swamp etc.
Watch any nature documentary, and each terrain ...
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What would influence an alien race to map their planet in a way other than the traditional map of the Earth
I was looking through a bunch of different ways we can shape a map of the Earth and it got me thinking. We map out planet as a stretched rectangle with NSEW as Up Down Right Left, with the Equator ...
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How would mapmakers deal with moving cities?
Imagine a city on treads; if you've seen or read Mortal Engines, imagine that instead.
beep beep losers here I come
They're constantly moving, and have decent populations. Don't worry about how it ...
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Explaining uphill rivers scientifically?
I see this in so many maps. Normally, the water flows downhill because of gravity but here it is the opposite, rivers will go above the hills. When you mention this incoherence, the authors refuse to ...
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How could bird people map the air?
For sentient avians, knowing the location and behavior of currents in the air would be vitally important. Jet streams, thermals, downdrafts, and shear layers would all be important in their daily ...
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How to create accurate map with white spaces?
Several times I had idea for a medieval-like world where the people living on the planet did not discover all the world yet.
I know the first two steps:
Create a map of whole world, for worldbuilder'...
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"Globe to draw on" software?
Looking for a desktop application that lets me draw on a sphere with my mouse, which I find very much needed for geography on a whole planet.
With a world grid and showing coordinates and all, ...
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How can I create a map of a rapidly-changing world?
I have a basic setup for my world consisting of about five continents. I know their shapes pretty well, and their positions relative to one another. I also have the basic geography down (this is all ...
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When starting a new village, what are the sequence of buildings built?
Obviously I know that everyone who is living there is going to want a house but what comes after? Do they build a butcher’s building next or maybe a blacksmith’s building? And what comes after that? ...
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Is my world map unrealistic?
Just to say this first, the map is intentionally on a slant, and so the Northern cold areas are displayed at more of a North-West Angle, for example.
I am designing the world from scratch, and am ...
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How do I put a rectangular map onto a globe?
I've spent time hand-drawing, and then scanning, and colorizing a world map using Paint.Net. The map uses a rectangular projection (something like an Equirectangular, Plate Caree, or Behrmann ...
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Can my spaceship figure out its position using Cepheid Variables?
In my story, reasonably far in the future, an intrepid group of explorers are on the first manned mission to the Andromeda galaxy, travelling close to the speed of light. They slumbered in suspended ...
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What are the known algorithms to create a planet with a subterranean cave network?
I know a few algorithms to build an elevation map for a planet, but most of them do not take into account the underground aspects of the planet (caves, tunnels, ...).
Are there any algorithms to take ...
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Bringing Hot and Cold climates together
I'm building a map for a tabletop RPG (Pathfinder specifically), the aim of which is that my players will be trekking around and visiting interesting places. As part of that, I'd love to portray a ...
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Ratio between planet-size and terrain elevation?
Let's imagine we have an algorithm that produce an elevation-map for a sphere. I wonder if the ratio between the planet radius and the delta between the highest and lowest altitude is a constant or ...
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Is this map realistic/believeable?
I'm working on this map right now. Is this map realistic/believable? The continent would be about 5 million km² and lies in the temperate climate zone. (I intended it to be smaller than Australia; my ...
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Map generator for big world
There are several programs available that will generate a random map of an Earth-sized planet, complete with a choice of projections from sphere to 2-D representation.
Are there any available that ...
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Architectural encoding of maps
Picture a band of explorers deep underground in huge dwarven underground complex they have been exploring for what to most of them feels like an eternity. They come to hub like chamber with a dozen or ...
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World Map - How can I tell if the Ecosystems are realistic?
I'm trying to create a world map for my fantasy novel. My problem is that I love designing things, and I'm finding myself bogged down with figuring out how desert A got where it is, and how plain B's ...
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Can a low-tech sailing ship tell how deep the water is?
I'm trying to figure out the challenges faced by a low-tech civilization mapping its world. They have access to roughly Renaissance level technology, plus some (not very abundant) magic.
One question ...
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Hollow Earth - how to measure it?
I'm making a map for my friend - I drew a pretty neat cartographic grid with a proper map projection - and then he reminded me that his world is actually an inverted Earth with a glowing ball of ...
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How to name places that have multiple names?
When designing a world it is convenient to decide how places will be named: Elements like the continents and the oceans.
However, it is likely that the different cultures of the world will not agree ...
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How to navigate without magnetism?
Suppose a team of explorers touched down on an Earth-like planet which do not generate its own magnetic field and there are always a thick layer of cloud covering the sky at all time. My question is ...
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What is a good reference size for a settlement?
I have been sporadically building a particular world, mainly by developing its cultures with events (often paralleling Earth history) and individuals, rather than shaping the cultures beforehand. One ...
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Is My Map Realistic?
I'm creating a continent for a story I'm developing. I was just wondering if this map looked realistic from a geographical point of view (weather, city placement, environment, etc.)? Thanks for any ...
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Maps in a portalized island group
This is my first time posting on Worldbuilding, so please, if I make any mistakes or don't provide enough / the proper type of information, do not hesitate to tell me.
Introductions aside, let's jump ...
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Mapping the far side of the galaxy
Humans got a one time ticket to the other side of the galaxy, traveling $2r$ in just a few days (where $r$ is the distance from earth to the super massive black hole: 28,000 lightyears)
The stars we ...
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Site for online custom map with tags or labels
I am looking for a site that will do the following for free:
Allow me to upload a map of a world (either URL or file, I don't
mind).
Allow me to tag/label that map, to mark the locations of thing
(...
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Where do hydrothermal vents form inside icy ocean worlds?
Context:
In a near-future version of our solar system, humans have established multiple underwater colonies on Jupiter's moon Europa. Many of these outposts are situated next to hydrothermal vents ...
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What would the star chart be like if earth had a ring?
Recently, I've seen those pictures showing what Earth would be like if it had rings, and that made me wonder, what would the sky map be like? This ring would appear as a fixed object (pretty much as ...
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Underground Terrain Types / Biomes / Agriculture
I'm creating a fantasy-world generator. So far I've got it generating a reasonably good surface map, complete with terrain, cities, and borders. Here's a link for anybody who wants to try it: https://...
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Is there any planet modelling software?
I am searching for a software capable of creating any planet ( like universe sandbox) with the ability of shaping the landscape and adding tags to any coordinates I wish to in order to represent ...
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Realistic Landmass Formation on Torus-Shaped Planet
Having recently discovered that torus-shaped planets can actually form, I've started to consider using that design as a setting for a map(no real purpose in mind, just map making for the sake of it). ...
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Finding the area of a nation
How can I find the area of an irregular shape while taking into account the distortions of Equirectangular projection?
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Would it be possible to make a custom zoomable world map (kinda like google maps)?
Would it be possible to make a custom zoomable world map (kinda like google maps), where you can have all the cities of the world but are able to zoom out to the whole world (and no longer see the ...
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Drawing Maps; flat distortion
One of my main problems when it comes to drawing maps is how landmasses get distorted at different points. One of the continents in my story stretches almost to the north pole, but it looked very ...
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A water cycle in an underground setting
The ozone layer depleted beyond reasonable levels and life on the surface has become impossible and life migrated underground in giant caves connected together by tunnels.
Some of those caves have ...
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How would a world with drifting land-masses be mapped/charted for navigation?
Context
The world is made of floating islands suspended in the atmosphere. For all intents and purposes, the world doesn't have a solid surface.
Due to a magical influence, islands rise from the ...
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How do I design a map that looks old?
I'm in the process of designing an old map (18th or 19th century) and I would like it to look worn out. But then I was wondering where it should be more damaged. I would prefer to avoid damaging the ...
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What tools can I use to draw a battle map?
I want to draw a battle map for the cover of my book.
By battle map I mean an image like this:
What tools can I use in order to draw such map easily?
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