Still haven't touched the map since June.
No way going to be finished by Xmas - I'm busy with uni assignments and there's just too many triple A console games coming out this month that I want to play.
I really want to make the map as perfect as I possibly can, which means I need to make the map in large chunks of single sittings. I can't spend 20 minutes one day, 10 the next, then 15 after that - it's too hard trying to figure out where I finished the day before. When map making, I find it most effective to have the editor open for several hours at a time - I make considerable progress this way. But this just won't happen at the present moment, not with my schedule and lack of motivation.
I had a feeling that I should have delayed the map's announcement until it was nearly complete - I foresaw the map would be postponed several times, and it has. Hopefully I'll get back to working on it after the new year, and try to finish it before June/July.
Regarding the map's contents...
The landscape won't be filled with green grass like it's shown in the minimap - I prefer to use grass as my 'empty canvas' instead of the default desert ground that Crusader provides. So, the map still contains a lot of empty areas to be filled.
The northern mountains were one of the first things created (nearly two years ago) and they're horrible. The whole northern section needs to be wiped clean and re-created.
(Not sure if I revealed this detail before...) The city is up on Maximum Height, giving a real sense of epic scale. Dug into the length of the city is a deep gorge containing a river at the bottom with lush bushes, trees and ferns. I've spent an unbelievable amount of hours crafting every tile of the city, and while it doesn't look like much from the minimap, I think everyone will see what I'm talking about when they get their hands on it.
The natural landscape will be a dynamic mix of green oasis and distinguished sand dunes. For the dunes, look at surajsubba's North to Camralakh series for an idea of what they'll look like. I'm going to make the landscape as realistic as it can possibly be.
But for now, the Crusader disc is buried in some far away bottom drawer.
The Dragonheart[This message has been edited by The Dragonheart (edited 11-05-2012 @ 01:01 AM).]