Shattered World Maps

Shadow Knight · Nov 11, 2005

I an effort to improve my general map making skills (and I found the maps sometimes conflicting with other maps and the TL) I redid the maps for the Shattered World Timline, these are a first draft effort and need some redoing in choice a color scheming for a few nations, border changes, a few spelling errors, etc.

Some feedback would be appreciated.

World *Not full size, but do to hosting limit it is squished down.

1936
5-18-1943
9-15-1946

Europe

1936
9-1-1937
2-15-1938
9-8-1938
12-12-1938
2-10-1939
4-15-1939
7-29-1939
11-14-1939
2-13-1940
8-29-1940
12-6-1940
2-16-1941
7-5-1941
9-20-1941
12-4-1941
8-4-1942
12-12-1942
5-24-1944
5-18-1945
11-22-1945
2-5-1947
7-14-1947
7-11-1948
11-15-1948

Middle East

Persia - 1942
Persia 5-4-1943
Persia 5-12-1943
Persia 7-12-1944
11-15-1948

South America

1936
12-13-1940
3-12-1944
9-11-1945
5-2-1946
7-7-1946
9-27-1948

Far East

1936
1938
9-20-1941
8-4-1942
9-12-1946
Malaysia Campaign
7-14-1947
1-3-1948
7-11-1948
11-15-1948

**I decided to link them instead of uploading them to save downloading cost for our dial-up members and no need to overload Ian's board when photobucket is already hosting them. That and as you can see there are quite a few of them.

Diamond · Nov 11, 2005

Hey, those are pretty damn amazing. Did you do the world maps with that aquarius.geomar map-making tool?

Thande · Nov 11, 2005

The Europe ones are awesome, although I think you could have used a better world map template.

The other thing is your colour scheme (although I know you said you were going to change that). In particular, having Italy, Romania and Bulgaria shades of blue when the Alliance for Democracy is also shades of blue seems a bit...bizarre.

That last Middle East one is also great.

Shadow Knight · Nov 11, 2005

Diamond said:
Hey, those are pretty damn amazing. Did you do the world maps with that aquarius.geomar map-making tool?

Thanks, coming from the master map maker that means a lot. Yeah I used that program for the Far East, World, and Middle East maps (not the Persia ones though)--took a while but it creates a pretty good map, but do to hosting contraints at photobucket and the limit here it squishes them down from the larger size to the one given when you click on the link.

Thande said:
The Europe ones are awesome, although I think you could have used a better world map template.

The other thing is your colour scheme (although I know you said you were going to change that). In particular, having Italy, Romania and Bulgaria shades of blue when the Alliance for Democracy is also shades of blue seems a bit...bizarre.

That last Middle East one is also great.

Yeah I really need to change that color scheme (I had left them that color from a WWI map I was working on at the time and didn't even give thought to it till I was on map 20.), but when you have 30+ maps that all you have to do is change the color procrastination is a serious hump to overcome, particularly when the text gets all fubared when the color changes.

As I said the World Map template is one I hashed together from the program Diamond mentioned above. It is actually a rather large map, half of it is the Far East map for a rough idea on how large it is.

The Middle East map is actually one I did upon request for Bobby, the TL's author, although I believe he is altering it a bit to better reflect his TL (accuracy on maps is a hit or miss sometimes when it is not the author making the map).

Thande · Nov 11, 2005

Shadow Knight said:
Yeah I really need to change that color scheme (I had left them that color from a WWI map I was working on at the time and didn't even give thought to it till I was on map 20.), but when you have 30+ maps that all you have to do is change the color procrastination is a serious hump to overcome, particularly when the text gets all fubared when the color changes.

Hey, know the feeling. I recently had to change half the colour schemes of my "OTL Periodic Maps" for the OTL map thread...annoying. There are some MSPaint shortcuts that let you change the colour of say, the entire British Empire at once on one map...unless of course you already know them. Still a bit time-consuming, though.

Thande · Nov 11, 2005

As an example of what I mean, I took your last Europe map and redid the colour scheme to be closer to Bobby Hardenbrook's own one he uses on his maps. Thanks to the tricks I mentioned, this only took me a few minutes, and note that the text isn't "fubared" as you put it.

The other thing is, I think you wrote in the labels for Italian North Africa, Iran, Vichy, Aquitaine etc.? These were in Times New Roman, whereas the rest of the map's (original) labels are in Arial. Apart from the fact that matching fonts makes it look neater, it's wise to stick with Arial or Verdana because the edges of the letters are smooth black-on-background colour, whereas Times New Roman blurs at the edges into a dozen shades of colour that makes it difficult to recolour the background afterwards. I changed the Times New Roman labels to Arial to avoid this and make it match up better.

See what I mean?

Nicole · Nov 11, 2005

You seem to have switched the Vichy/Aquitanie labels...

Thande · Nov 11, 2005

*embarrassed cough*

Okay, I've fixed it now.

Glen · Nov 11, 2005

Are the 1936 maps OTL?

Guess not...I just noticed that the Baltics are part of the USSR. And I believe that Albania is depicted as a part of Italy...bit early for that.

What's the POD for Shattered World again?

Shadow Knight · Nov 11, 2005

Glen Finney said:
Are the 1936 maps OTL?

Guess not...I just noticed that the Baltics are part of the USSR. And I believe that Albania is depicted as a part of Italy...bit early for that.

What's the POD for Shattered World again?

The main POD is Stalin invades Poland in 1937(IIRC it is 1937), however supposedly the author states the POD is earlier in the 30's and the Balkan's fell early to the Soviets. The author states that at some point he is going to write up the prologue that explains what happened for that outcome to occur.

Glen · Nov 11, 2005

Shadow Knight said:
The main POD is Stalin invades Poland in 1937(IIRC it is 1937), however supposedly the author states the POD is earlier in the 30's and the Balkan's fell early to the Soviets. The author states that at some point he is going to write up the prologue that explains what happened for that outcome to occur.

And what of Albania?

Constantinople · Nov 11, 2005

HOnestly, to me besides empty america, it is the best TL out there.
You can go there at : www.shatteredworld.net

Tetsu · Nov 12, 2005

Yeah, that timeline is damn cool.

Has it actually been finished?

I'd like to find out what the postwar world looks like, dammit!

Thande · Nov 12, 2005

Tetsu Katana said:
Has it actually been finished?

Nope, Hardenbrook's still in early 1949 I think. I agree with everyone - this is just about the best TL out there on the Web I know of.

Shadow Knight · Nov 12, 2005

Glen Finney said:
And what of Albania?

I'd imagine it was a similiar deal to that of the Baltic nations...Mussolini did an earlier grab for whatever reason Bobby comes up with.

I agree SW is one of the best TLs out there. IMHO only DoD by KWIII or Prince of Peace by Faeelin come close (although Empty America on SHWI is pretty damn good too).

Wendell · Nov 12, 2005

Thande said:
As an example of what I mean, I took your last Europe map and redid the colour scheme to be closer to Bobby Hardenbrook's own one he uses on his maps. Thanks to the tricks I mentioned, this only took me a few minutes, and note that the text isn't "fubared" as you put it.

The other thing is, I think you wrote in the labels for Italian North Africa, Iran, Vichy, Aquitaine etc.? These were in Times New Roman, whereas the rest of the map's (original) labels are in Arial. Apart from the fact that matching fonts makes it look neater, it's wise to stick with Arial or Verdana because the edges of the letters are smooth black-on-background colour, whereas Times New Roman blurs at the edges into a dozen shades of colour that makes it difficult to recolour the background afterwards. I changed the Times New Roman labels to Arial to avoid this and make it match up better.

See what I mean?

Well, I think your Serbia needs revision...

Shadow Knight · Nov 12, 2005

Wendell said:
Well, I think your Serbia needs revision...

How so? That is what the author of the TL has decreed the border of Serbia to be. Although if you refering to fact that Hungary seems to be getting the real shaft out of this then I agree but that is what the author indicates as the borders.

Thande · Nov 12, 2005

What Shadow Knight said. Don't shoot the cartographer.

Wendell · Nov 12, 2005

Shadow Knight said:
How so? That is what the author of the TL has decreed the border of Serbia to be. Although if you refering to fact that Hungary seems to be getting the real shaft out of this then I agree but that is what the author indicates as the borders.

You're right on both counts. I was also thinking about provisional Croatia's gains during the war in OTL...

Constantinople · Nov 13, 2005

As for Hungary, Romania is a much more important ally in both the Eurasian and second world war, and Bobby seemed to indicated because of this, they got to keep their territories.

And Croatia and the whole Yugoslavia area, is the way it is because of the fact that in the early 40s Hitler allowed a more powerful Italy to gain much more, to keep il Duce from attacking Greece. For awhile.

*Ptss hey Wendell how is OTL these days?*