Knights and Merchants.net Forum

Okay Ben I hope you don't mind, but I'll post it here so maybe others can learn something from it as well.

Lets start with the never-ending story about the back side of mountains.

As you can see in both images, tiles are overlapping each other and it looks weird. Those lines in the second picture should never cross eachother.

Our next stop will be at this coal field, where an excessive amount of little rocks has been placed.

Some objects are nice and make the terrain more interesting, but this is too much of the same. Also, mind the shape of your coal fields and mountains. Don't make them too rectangular because it will look unnatural.


I hope you agree that the first coal field doesn't look good. Its shape isn't nice and the density of coal does not increase steadily, it's just one 'not-so-much-coal-here'-tile and then right after that an 'I-want-my-coal-mine-there'-tile. The second coal field looks much better and gets my Dark Mark of Approval.


Randomness! What was the idea behind this area? I bet there wasn't one, because it's just some random trees, tiles and objects put together. Don't mix things up unless it's intended!


You should avoid placing objects in shadows.

And another never-ending story: tile transitions!

I don't think this requires explanation.


And to complete our first journey across your map, I have a riddle: which way does water never flow?


Obviously these are just fragments, you should scan your map for more of these issues. If you've fixed them I could look at it again and give some more tips if you like.

Thank you very much, Dark Lord. I see I have much to improve! Do you mean as a rule, or is this some trivia about my map?

I guess both - TDL wanted to make a litlle joke about the fact that the water on the picture flows upwards

(I guess. Can't be certain seeing just the picture - I have no idea how exactly the flowing water looks like in KaM)

In that last picture that he posted, the water flows down the mountain but then bends north towards a swamp. I thought it seemed weird to have water flow upwards in KaM, but it seemed to make more sense then the swamp water flowing into the mountain.

Sado is right, I meant the elevation of the water itself near the mountains; not the direction in which the whole river flows.

Not sure if I will release Unclaimed Territory. The map is done; I'm just making adjustments here and there. The thing is that all of my maps (with the exception of borderlands) have a special theme to them. Unclaimed Territory was just going to be a huge map that was heavily forested so plays wouldn't feel the need to trade for tree-trunks (which isn't an issue anymore). Also, the started resources and laborers was high so players could get off to a really quick start. It just seems like it isn't enough; though.
Borderlands I really don't like. I hate it, actually. The only reason I made it was because of the lack of 8 player maps in the early days of the Remake. Obviously, that isn't a problem anymore.

Thank you TDL for this excourse Some young mapmaker can also learn many thing from your post.

I uploaded another map, but nobody will know if I don't write another post
Information on the map can be found on the first post in this topic.

Great idea, let's try it.