Various other thoughts and observations. First, considering the cut-scene map posted earlier in this topic and the "cloth map" shown later on, they don't totally agree with each other. The scaling is a bit odd, so I guess the latter is a reworking of the former, or they at least have a common ancestor. Not that it helps very much. Obviously the position of Fort Joy in the cloth map is ludicrous since it's barely two ship's lengths from Driftwood.

[Linked Image]

So what do I do with that? I dunno really.

The other thing I was pondering is if the Driftwood-Arx peninsula can be crammed between Cyseal and Yuthul Gor. I was starting to think it couldn't, and maybe it should be a separate landmass anyway. Both might be wrong. First, does it fit? Oo-er missus etc. Here's the "cloth" map outline superimposed over the above map. It reveals nothing useful in terms of how it might be integrated but it does show that there's room for it, using Fort Joy as a useful reference for scale.

[Linked Image]

But that does leave the gnarly issue of the gnarly coastline in the "differences" picture. I'm not really sure how to view that. Was it simply for dramatic effect? Actually, I think it was. But I also can't help noticing the huge oval that the outline of the coasts and islands creates, as illustrated a bit more clearly below in my inept map-merging effort: seems to be a design decision, but I dunno if that was with something in particular in mind or just a convenient way of arranging things. My inclination is to go with the "dramatic effect" explanation because it's more convenient!

[Linked Image]

And why not make it another landmass? I may have misremembered the comment that Arx is south of Aleroth, or taken it much too literally as meaning due south, but I rather like the idea. I also like the idea of DD's Dark Forest and DOS's Haunted/Phantom/whatevs forest being one and the same, which is what I'd originally suggested, and actually I think the scary forest to the north-west of DOS2's map with its werewolves and deathfog and so on may also be a part of the same murky and tangled woodland. I'm sure there was other stuff but I've forgotten in the time it took me to type this.

It does seem that there's a lot of interpretation involved, so I could theoretically squash it in wherever I want: "all I need is a big enough hammer". I'd just prefer to do so in a way that actually makes some sense.

J'aime le fromage.