I've spent the last few days putting together my world map and I think I've gotten it done pretty good. I've been studying things like plate tectonics and ocean currents, but I'm still not sure how the climate would be if this was a real world. If anyone has any critiques of the map, please share.
If you want it to be ‘realistic’ - as in following geological patterns we know - you’ll need to place mountains. It you look at south america you can see that the coast west of the andes is quite dry. The precipitation comes when the clouds pass over the mountains due to pressure changes etc. Also, glacial areas extend further on land. So the land mass you have in top left will probably be covered in ice (especially er altitudes). As it is a made up world you can bend the rules by hinting at unusual seasonal cycles (axis wobble and such which could be shown by talking about the ‘cycle of the heavens’ or something by referring to the variability of the nightsky).
If you haven't already, do research. Youtube, as example, has quite some videos about worldbuilding with detailed explanations for nearly all aspects. I did a quick search and typed "worldbuilding climate" into youtube, the first two videos seemed to be very detailed on climate. Aside from that, there can be many other factors depending on your setting. In fantasy, you can easily come up with magical shenanigans that influence climate. In sci-fi, terra-forming can help your population to customize their world as they like. I personally use maps only to 'roughly' pin point important locations or points of interests, thus not bothering with the exact specifics. The reader probably doesn't want a detailed discourse about a world anyway, so I keep it vague and apply specifics only where needed for a story.
As your map is basically a distorted version of the real world, the climate should probably mirror that of the real world. Of course, with no Africa to break up the ocean current, everything between the two southern continents will probably be like the Roaring Forties.
Archipelagos are oddly unconnected with the continents. Coasts are not detailed enough to look big, so reduce the spatial coorellation. If you make a height field and place the ocean level randomly, this shape is unlikely to happen as the result of thresholding. How games generate worlds: * Begin with a flat ground below ocean. * Paint additive height brushes at random locations where asteroids hit. * Extra mountain peaks can be placed around edges between distorted voronoi segments representing the tectonic plates. * Simulate the flow of rain water above the ocean to erode the ground into sharper mountains and create rivers, oxbow lakes and deltas.
This shows part of what I was talking about: If you want to see dramatic climate change just try and stay alive for another 20-30 ... well, it’s already happening. Africa will get greener for sure. Northern Europe will likely have a cold snap then shift to a mediterranean climate. It’s gonna be a helluva rollercoaster ride and not everyone has seat belts - who knows though, maybe scientific progression will strap us in safely?
