Well... I spent $5 to get a subscription. I probably won't keep it more than a month or two, because I won't be mapping much (if anything) after doing this, but I was amazed... it took me about an hour or so to get the hang of the interface. After which, it only took me about three hours to make my map!
Granted, it's probably not perfect (I already spotted one label I left off) and I'll likely make minor tweaks to it for the next couple of weeks. But I can't believe how quickly it all came together, and honestly, how good the result turned out. Inkarnate really is cool to use! If you want a really nice, full-color, hi-def map of your setting, and you really only need to do the one map, I highly recommend springing for the subscription, spending some time making the map, and then canceling the subscription if you don't think you'll still use it, with your really nice map as a product that you spent a few days on, or so, and $5. If you think you'll want to tinker with the thing, though, or make encounter maps or other things like that, spring for the yearly subscription (you save more than 50%) and play around with it for longer. Since it's browser based, it doesn't even install anything on your computer, although you'll probably want a decent graphics card or it will lag when you start getting lots of elements together on your bigger maps.
The other thing I didn't label was the Timischburg counties, even though my draft map had those labels. I might still mess around with the labeling, or even redo it altogether. I couldn't figure out a way to fit those labels on without them getting in the way of other labels, so I didn't.
Other than that; compared to my draft, quite a few things were relocated a fair bit, and the geography overall was a bit stretched and distorted. I knew that was going to happen, both for things I moved deliberately, and because I knew I couldn't possibly use a mouse to draw the same outline for the map on a large file that I couldn't even see all of on my screen at the same time, except in the vaguest, roughest sense. That doesn't bother me at all; in fact, I think the new set-up is better. Some of the changes are deliberate, though.
Another thing that occurred to me after putting it together is that although my Hill Country original draft didn't feel big and empty, it kind of did here. That's not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, I think it's part of the character of the Hill Country that it has a kind of Old West wilderness feel to it where settlements are fewer, sparser and farther apart. Timischburg and Baal Hamazi feel, relatively, kind of cramped with lots of stuff closer together, even though those aren't exactly meant to be the fantasy version of urban blight either. While I'm still going with a subscription, I might work up some more stuff to fill in the Hill Country area with a few more different features. There is meant to be lots of ruins and stuff; the equivalent of old Indian graveyards (although the remnant Atlantean skraelings aren't really Indians), the remnants of the old Hamazin and Kurushat expansions that are now reduced to rump states in the north and northwest... but who left stuff behind in the territory that was later colonized by the Hillmen. Not sure yet what any of it will be, and I don't really need more little settlements or anything like that; what I really want is something a bit more interesting and unique to put in that area, if I can think of what will fit the bill.
Anyway, here's the map as it stands now. It's complete... at least until I think of tweaks and changes to make to it. But those will likely be minor, and some of them merely cosmetic.
Another note; few things inspire setting development like a pretty map. Now that I've placed this stuff, I'm feeling much more motivated to start making posts about some if the listed items and, even if I'm posted about them before, updating it to be in harmony with the whole DH5 vibe.
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