🖌️ Brush Control
Three-Pass Approach
Advanced painters never finish a region in one stroke. Build the map in three passes so each layer supports the next.
- Base: plains and meadow fill the whole area first
- Middle: hills, rivers and lakes carve the structure in
- Top: mountains, forests and detail sit on the finished land
Scale Matching
Your brush size should match the detail level you want. A single large stroke that is twice the width of the target region reads as a deliberate bold shape. A small stroke across a huge area reads as a mistake.
- Small brush for coastlines and river ends
- Large brush for mountain ranges and open plains
Fade, Do Not Cut
Hard edges are the giveaway of an amateur map. Taper your strokes so terrain blends into its neighbour instead of stopping abruptly.
- Reduce pressure at the end of every stroke
- Overlap edges by a small amount to blend
- Leave a band of transition between biome types
Undo as a Design Tool
The undo brush is not only for mistakes. It lets you carve natural-looking shorelines by removing a little material and letting the edge settle.
- Use it to soften a blunt lake edge into a bay
- Use it to carve a narrow land bridge between two banks
- Use it to erase an accidental structure before it spawns
📐 Terrain Ratios That Actually Work
Recommended Land Mix
| Terrain | Share of Map | What It Produces | Why That Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plains | 30 to 35% | Farms, manors, markets | The backbone. Too little and the kingdom has no food base. |
| Hills | 20 to 25% | Orchards, windmills, churches | The most versatile terrain, so it deserves the second largest share. |
| Forest | 20 to 25% | Sawmills, hunting lodges | Keep it varied in density. Solid blocks look flat. |
| Water | 15 to 20% | Mills, fisheries, bridges | Rivers carry the composition, so keep them connected. |
| Mountains | 10 to 15% | Quarries, watchtowers | Best used as a frame around the edge rather than a centrepiece. |
The 1:1 Rule
For every water feature you draw, plan one adjacent meadow or plain. Water without nearby flat land produces fisheries but no housing, and the settlement looks abandoned.
The River Spine
One long river crossing the map gives you mills, bridges and a natural transport line. Then add two or three short tributaries rather than several separate rivers.
The Frame Rule
Put mountains or dense forest along two edges of the map. A framed kingdom looks finished, while an open-edged one looks like a work in progress.
🖼️ Composition and Visual Flow
Reading a Map Like a Painter
The most satisfying Brushland kingdoms have a clear visual hierarchy. Your eye should travel through the map in a deliberate order rather than landing randomly on whichever cluster is densest.
- • Establish a focal point. A village hall or a fountain at the centre gives the eye somewhere to land first.
- • Create a path. A clear route from the outer cottages toward the centre makes the kingdom feel like a place people live.
- • Break the symmetry. Perfectly mirrored layouts read as artificial. Offset one district slightly.
- • Use elevation as hierarchy. Put humble cottages low and landmark buildings high.
- • Leave breathing room. Empty meadow between districts is what makes the dense areas look intentional.
Transition Zones
Where two terrain types meet, leave a narrow band that belongs to neither. Real landscapes have hedges, beaches and tree lines at their borders, and this one detail does more for believability than any single building.
Varied Cluster Size
Repeat a motif but vary its scale. A village of five cottages, then a village of two, then a market square of one, creates rhythm. Ten identical clusters create wallpaper.
⚖️ Resource Balancing
| If you need more... | Add this terrain | Near this | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lumber | Denser forest | Hills or plains edge | Solid forest blocks look flat, so vary the density |
| Food | More plains | River or lake | Farms without nearby water underperform |
| Stone | Mountains | Hills | Central mountains block flat land for housing |
| Fishing | Wider lake or river | Plains or meadow | Narrow streams cannot support a fishery |
| Population | Cottages and manors | Plains near water and amenities | Housing far from food and oxygen slows growth |
Troubleshooting Advanced Problems
Buildings still not spawning after a big repaint
Some structures need the terrain around them, not just under them. A fishery wants a wide water body. A sawmill wants forest with depth. Repaint a small test patch with a larger brush, wait for growth to catch up, and check the requirements in the building guide.
Water does not flow where you expect
Water follows the land you drew. If a river stops in the middle of nowhere, the ground beneath it is not descending. Lengthen the slope with a couple of gentle strokes before extending the channel.
Pro Tips
- ★ Work in greyscale first: lay down all the land shapes, then add the terrain colours
- ★ Draw the river network first, then build the land it flows through around it
- ★ Zoom out regularly to check the composition, then zoom back in for detail
- ★ Cluster decorations in threes or fives, since odd groups look more natural than even ones
- ★ Keep a second map as a blank canvas for experiments before committing to a full design
- ★ Try the same terrain recipe at different scales, since a small kingdom and a large one need different ratios