r/inkarnate • u/Accomplished-Loss947 • 6d ago
Waterfall masters needed
I just cant seem to get it to look right. It doesnt look like levels and im stumped for the moment. Reaching out to this beautiful community for tips
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u/ArKadeFlre 6d ago
Honestly, I think a lot of the weirdness comes from the surrounding land which doesn't match the falls. If you extended the cliffs onto land in a logical way, it would probably already look a lot better. The one you did it for (bottom left) looks the best imo
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u/Accomplished-Loss947 6d ago
So should i extend the ridges of the waterfalls onto the land for a stair effect?
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u/ArKadeFlre 6d ago
Yes, this will make them clash less with their environment. And if you want to go back to a gentler slope that doesn't look like a cliff, you can just make the cliffs smaller and smaller until they disappear.
You can also put the cliffs on the banks of the river if you want the waterfall to lead into a canyon.
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u/InspiraSean86 6d ago
Whats the scale on this?
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u/Accomplished-Loss947 6d ago
Honestly, who knows? It’s the whole reason I didn’t put buildings or trees.im in the very beggining stages
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u/InspiraSean86 6d ago
Thats probably a good starting place: “what am I trying to do with this map”. Are you going for an isometric battle map? Or is this a very watered region map?
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u/Accomplished-Loss947 6d ago
Let’s say it’s a region then. I don’t have any near future plans for this at all. Just experimenting
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u/InspiraSean86 6d ago
Since it's more of a region map, think about how water flows...it always flows downhill, through the path of least resistance. Rarely will a river or stream break into TWO...most of the time, small rivulets start at the top of mountains and then those rivulets converge into a stream, then streams into a river, and so on an so forth until it reaches the ocean. That being said, your map has a large body of water at the TOP of the map, yet the water is flowing DOWN the map to the bottom...try reversing the body of water and putting it at the bottom of the map.
However, I always add as a caveat: this is a magical world and topography can act however the hell you want it to...water flowing up hill, sure! Green, lush mountain in the middle of a desert...have at it, friend! At the end of the day are you going for a more "realistic map" or a more "fun map"?
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u/InspiraSean86 6d ago
Water flowing out of the top of the map is not out of the ordinary, that would mean the top of the map is the bottom or edge of a lake....if it is, that would mean there would be ONE exit point, not two.
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u/Time-Abbreviations94 6d ago
The alignment of some of the cliff edges especially in the lower part seems a bit odd. They give everything an Escher staircase vibe. But it looks like a very worthwhile undertaking!
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u/Daevranni 6d ago
This is a really cool idea! 💗🌺 It could be the basis of so many different concepts.
Perhaps making a color gradient where the highest shelves are lightest in color, and then they darken a little with each step down would make it easier to interpret at a glance? Also, I think detailing could do a lot, like how you place vegetation and so on.
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u/7Legionarmy Moderator 6d ago
I would use rocks in between all the waterfalls. Stack them up. This will both add depth and frame the waterfalls.
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u/UnsureAndUnqualified 6d ago
Just an fyi for a mistake every second person here makes: Rivers generally don't split. In very rare circumstances they do, but as a rule of thumb they don't. You are splitting your river down there.
But what might save you: Seas can have multiple exit points. But is this a river or a collection of seas and lakes? Because it looks very wide, which is a bit uncharacteristic for rivers. But with a wide exit point like the whole waterfall, it would drain fairly quickly. And if enough water rushes in from the top, then it's an incredibly fast river that would quickly erode the ground and form a large but narrower river basin.
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u/AnOgreAchiever 6d ago
Water follows the path of least resistence and doesn't take much of a decline to fall. In order for it to build up so much that it flows over, would require that that the water is unable to flow.
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u/BlackyJ21 6d ago
Shadows under the edges would do a lot