Show HN: Generating fantasy maps – an interactive exploration • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Generating fantasy maps – an interactive exploration

#61

Post by jessaustin » Thu, Aug 11, 2016, 12:42 PM UTC

vacri wrote: post #56

oska wrote: post #54

Even as a child, I found Tolkien's maps of Middle Earth geographically implausible, in terms of river flows and mountain placement.

I only really had a problem with the convenient 'box' of mountains around Mordor. Well, that and the fact that everything was so far apart that the main trilogy spent more pages talking about walking than talking about events :D

They didn't have automobiles, you know. b^) As I understand it, one of Tolkien's primary concerns was to resist the easy shortcuts of modernity, both in transportation and in thought.

Re: Show HN: Generating fantasy maps – an interactive exploration

#62

Post by michaelscott » Thu, Aug 11, 2016, 1:21 PM UTC

This is insanely cool! I'm totally making a conversion of this into Elm my next pet project. One nice thing to see would be generation of terrain types (such as deserts or tundras) and the affect these have on the algorithms that place cities etc.

Will definitely share if I manage it

Re: Show HN: Generating fantasy maps – an interactive exploration

#63

Post by Null-Set » Thu, Aug 11, 2016, 2:35 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #61

vacri wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only really had a problem with the convenient 'box' of mountains around Mordor. Well, that and the fact that everything was so far apart that the main trilogy spent more pages talking about walking than talking about events :D

They didn't have automobiles, you know. b^) As I understand it, one of Tolkien's primary concerns was to resist the easy shortcuts of modernity, both in transportation and in thought.

He also just really liked writing about landscapes.

Re: Show HN: Generating fantasy maps – an interactive exploration

#64

Post by critiqjo » Thu, Aug 11, 2016, 7:39 PM UTC

chippy wrote: post #22

If you like making fiction maps by hand (but not fantasy maps) - have a look at this great mapping project: Open Geo Fiction: http://www.opengeofiction.net From the about page: "This world is set in modern times, so it doesn't have orcs or elves, but rather power plants, motorways and housing projects. But also picturesque old towns, beautiful national parks and lonely beaches. " It's essentially a fictional OpenStre…

I was just randomly zooming in and found a city called Auflington (http://www.opengeofiction.net/node/19913404) --- that's a work of art!!

Update: And there are so many like that --- incredibly detailed, ordered and organic!

Re: Show HN: Generating fantasy maps – an interactive exploration

#65

Post by kevinkimball » Fri, Aug 12, 2016, 4:33 AM UTC

caio1982 wrote: post #5

Your http://mewo2.com/notes/naming-language is equally interesting, great work!

my desire to tweet this article and have my followers click on it led me to write a forwarder: https://medium.com/@kevinkimball/building-a-tiny-node-app-to...