When I'm doing a local detail piece, such as my Kiridin map, I have to collage together upwards of half a dozen published maps. I can't reference them to real-life locations as I do in my Rifts maps, so I have to make innumerable judgment calls. I'm a canon-adherent mapmaker, so I try to make maps that match the published maps and text as precisely as possible. My guiding principle has always been that the map with the most detail gets priority. As a result, I have to do a lot of cross-checking.
I intend to solve this issue, both for me and any other would-be Palladium Fantasy cartographers, with the project I'm starting today:
To the casual observer, this map will contain nothing new, nor will it have the kind of aesthetic appeal I try to put into most of my maps. In fact, it should end up looking pretty bare bones. This is intentional. Unlike my previous efforts, I will be making this map entirely in Inskape, a vector drawing program which allows me (and anyone else with the file) to zoom in and out without any "pixelating" effects. Anyone who wants to map a specific region could use this as a reliable and customizable starting point. It will also allow people to create prints as large as they desire while retaining a crisp look.
My intent is to render the coastlines, rivers, lakes, islands, and borders of Palladium as precisely as possible. This will match up the regional map features into a single, coherent image. The final product will be a template with lots of blank space, something a GM or other cartographer can fill.
I just finished the first step in this process, which was a rough coastal trace of the original Palladium Map*. Although this map shows up in many places, I pulled p8 of Monsters and Animals, 2nd Edition. Each landmass consists of a straight-edged polygon.
My next step is to curve the surfaces and smooth the corners to match this original map as well as is possible. After that, it's on to rivers, lakes, borders, and labels. I'll probably throw in some crude mountain markers for good measure.Then it gets really tricky. I'll have to collage in the regional maps, scale them to match the world map, re-shape the appropriate regions of the world map accordingly, and then add in regional features that don't show up on the global map. This is a "just for fun" project, so I'll work on it as my time/motivation permits.
*Note: my "in-progress" pictures will be bitmaps until the final product is finished, at which point I'll find some place I can put the vector file up for public download.