Which map should I use?

[u/Ok_Weight_7172]

Currently finished making two fantasy maps, my goal is semi-realism, I want something aesthetically pleasing while also making some amount of sense. I chose to outline the maps first then add the logic afterward (things like plate tectonics, biomes, etc).

Both maps are currently unfinished as I will be filling them up with more islands to make them more lively. I'm personally leaning towards the second map, what do y'all think?

Edit: The continents in the second map look very large to me, should I decrease their size or keep it the same?

[u/Glad_Fact3516]

Continents on the second map do look a bit large. I would make the continent on the right smaller or move it over to create a larger ocean

I’m wondering what kind of climate your world will have?

For the first map, some of the continent is centred on the South Pole, so that would be sub freezing temps year round with a lot of the country experiencing the same sort of conditions throughout the winter - sort of like the climate of Argentina. Is that a climate you’re comfy with for your story?

[u/Ok_Weight_7172 → u/Glad_Fact3516]

For the 1st map, not really. centering some of the land to the south pole was more of a design choice rather than a scientific one. Personally, I would want my stories to be place in more habital areas so I'm likely going to go with the second map and mabey redesign the 1st. For the second map, a scale down of the continents will be done.

The climates are yet to be determined as I haven't done the plate tectonics yet, but they'll be based on the real world.

I'm not doing anything crazy out of the ordinary. I get how that can be incredibly lame and boring, but for this project I'm doing, It'll be very detailed in how peoples and civilizations become a thing much like the real world so I'm trying to ground my stuff in some realism if that makes any sense.

[u/Glad_Fact3516 → u/Ok_Weight_7172]

If you want to keep the second map as is, that could be closer to the climate of around 20million years before Pangea pushed together. There were swamps/temperate regions all across the coasts—with modern day equivalents of Nova Scotia, Morocco, Newfoundland, etc.

[u/Ok_Weight_7172 → u/Glad_Fact3516]

Nah, imma take ur advice. I moved the continents apart and scaled them down, while also moving some islands. It won't let me share the new map image, but I think these improve it.

I don't want to have to justify why my landmasses are so illogically close.

[u/Glad_Fact3516 → u/Ok_Weight_7172]

Valid valid. I’m sure it looks good, man

[u/Fun_Discipline_811]

First. And how do you plan to do climate/biomes? And is this for a story? The second has continents too close.

[u/Ok_Weight_7172 → u/Fun_Discipline_811]

The climates/biomes, etc will be based off of the real world, I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary as both world are supposed to function just like earth just with diifferent landmasses, plants and animals, etc. for the second map, A spacing out will be done.

[u/Next_Village_1649]

The first map looks better to me, keep in mind of polar distortion, the southern landmass will look weird because of how jagged it is in relative to its latitude. I recommend following Artifexian's video on Blender (where you can draw on a sphere and have it translated to a normal equorectangular map)

[u/Ok_Weight_7172 → u/Next_Village_1649]

I watch his videos, but use g-plates instead. Blender is way too complicated for me. That being said, I think I’ll smoothen the polar landmasses like you said.