Post your mapmaking strategy here. I use Civilization IV. The base game contains multiple map scripts like 'archipelago' or 'highlands,' but despite being balanced for gameplay they're horrible at producing realistic terrain. What you need to do is to get a player-made map script called 'perfectworld.' It's available as a standalone download, but I'd recommend using the mod Rise of Mankind: A New Dawn instead. This mod includes perfectworld, and also adds marsh terrain. You want swamps in your setting, don't you? I can't speak for any other game, I'm afraid - but perfectworld is a reliable choice.
I feel like this has only gotten better with time, as far as Civilization V and VI. I'm much the same way, actually. Been thinking about writing some fan-fiction for fun following my single-player campaign as Scythia. As far as map-making, for my current universe I'm using a dystopian version of the real world. Most of the physical terrain is still the same with the exception of one planned story. Borders are different though. I tend to be more of a pantser, so not a lot of planning goes into it for me.
I haven't written a lot but this is something I'm going to have to think about at some point, so if it were me... I'd likely decide several key locations that relate to the actual story, and have several sub locations in between the key points. I'd take various aspects of the places and randomize them somehow (Algorithm? Draw of the hat? Closing eyes and pointing?) Keeping climate and such in account. If your destination is snowy and your starting out some place hot it's fairly easy to generate the in-between for some aspects like that. .. Your method is probably better. Great game too.
I get a name generator and pick a name, then I think of what it would look like and unless it is extremely important (like having them go through some area in the book) I don't make a map. If I do make a map I usually just use Microsoft Paint or Photoshop to make a general map. Don't really need anything fancy to know which ways to go.
Age of wonders 3 map editor. Hex based with a few different colours, different terrain types, as well as the ability to put down cities, monuments and roads.
There's an awesome generator that turns simple colored areas into realistic terrain (but I'm not sure if you can actually use it yourself). Just thought I'd mention it.
Luckily, I'm the brother of a somewhat well-known fantasy mapmaker. You may have heard of Clichea and Realm of the Old Gods from Reddit. I myself use Inkarnate (funnily enough my brother also worked on this project).
Call me old fashion, but I like using a wide sheet of paper and pencils. I'm a big picture thinker/planner and have to see all the the moving parts in front of me to make decisions.
I don't use maps in books anymore because personally I can't stand them (I think the story should be clear enough as to where character's are going if its that important), BUT when I was in High School and made maps for stories I wrote, I had a friend with art skills that I'd slip a $10 to and have them make a nice hand drawn map. I liked it because it gave it that old school feel (because I typically wrote fantasy where maps would have been drawn by hand in the story).
I don't use generators or video games, nor do I refer to actual maps. Instead I pull the geography of my settings from you-know-which orifice (which might be why they generally look like shit) while sketching on paper or in Photo-Paint (Adobe PS equivalent) before refining them in CorelDraw. The great thing about vector graphics is that you can cram pretty much endless information into your illustrations. This means you can make a world map that zooms down to individual cottages, if you're so inclined, all in the same graphic, without having to worry a bit about things like resolution. I love working this way. Not that my maps are great, or anything. I would never put them in my books. Strictly for my own reference, at least for now.
I usually both draw my maps in Sai and make them in Inkarnate (not always in that order). Sometimes I draw by hand to. It doesn't usually turn out to great but it's just to give me a general idea.
