Bolingard (67L+24S) Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

Hey folks! This is my first shot at doing a Dominions map. It's probably totally unbalanced, but let me know what you think!

Download link right here if you want to try it.

I like the look of it a lot. I'm always a fan of unique art styles and it appears so far in the life of Dom4 we are being spoiled for choice.

Love the ports (big big fan of ports).

One thing I noticed, completely separate from the great artwork, of course, is that it would seem to hugely benefit underwater nations, or at least naturally amphibious ones as the ratio of sea to land provinces is higher than one usually sees. I would suggest larger but fewer ocean provinces, but with the recent changes to sailing I'm no authority on if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Thanks for creating and sharing this!

-Marcus

This is really nice, love the style too

MAurelius11 wrote:

One thing I noticed, completely separate from the great artwork, of course, is that it would seem to hugely benefit underwater nations, or at least naturally amphibious ones as the ratio of sea to land provinces is higher than one usually sees. I would suggest larger but fewer ocean provinces, but with the recent changes to sailing I'm no authority on if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

It's not yet a too strange ratio. It can accomodate 1.5-2 UW nation (0.5 being things like EA Agartha or LA Mictlan who have decent amphibious troop). 1 alone UW nation might need to warn players beforehand.

@HottiePippen

Did you draw this map per hand first and then scanned it? The map looks good. Not too much details so you have good overview over the map, but enough details to see what terrain each pile contains.

Oh wow, that is beautiful. It's very easy to read, but it's got a pleasing aesthetic to it! Sorta kinda looks like a real map. Nice amount of plains, too. No caves, though?

@MAurelius11
Thanks! I don't think the ratio is crazy (it's comparable to some that come with the game, at least), but I'm not sure how having the water wrapping the land will actually play out.

@Pymous
I appreciate it! Your maps are gorgeous, so it's nice to hear you like the style!

@Legion69
I drew this in Sketchbook Pro on a Microsoft Surface Pro. Sketchbook is a great piece of illustration software... the UI is really good for using a stylus, so this kind of thing is pretty quick to put together.

@Metrark
I did mark the center of most of the mountain ranges as a cave, although it's admittedly tough to tell from the illustration. I may do another version that makes that slightly clearer.

This map has an interesting style. I really like the contour lines along the coasts. Hopefully, we will see more artwork from you in the future.

A couple of observations:
(*) There seems to be an incomplete river on the middle continent - it does not reach the sea or the swamp.
(*) The forests seem too "blobby" to my eye. Perhaps having some that either span multiple provinces or else have somewhat more irregular shapes might help. Not sure though - I don't have an artistic eye....

This has my vote for prettiest pony in the Pretty Showpony Show.

Looks very nice!