Making a greyscale region, need help to improve it

[Pinstar 13]

A few questions. I know the basics of HOW to do it. (I already have one on the STEX, I'm looking to imrove it)

 

1. In my original region... I find it VERY hard to place land/sea buildings (like seaports) something about the height of the land and height of the sea makes good spots few and far between...this is particularlly annoying because the map I made would be PERFECT for extensive Ferry use.

What colors would you reccomend for creating flat sea-level land and ocean floor level water that would be more flexible to placing land/water buildings?

 

2. My original map is flat, but could do with some height in a few select areas in specific patterns. When I originally experimented with this, I found that either the patterns were lost to the flat land...or (if the contrast was too sharp) would create these unnaturally sharp mountains that would look terrible. Is there a good contrast between flat sea-level land and hills that would allow a pattern to keep its shape, but without creating gigantic mountains. (It's okay if the pattern creates areas too steep to build on, so long as it looks decent)

 

 

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Take your prototype gray-scale map into Spend some time with the readme for this program.  It can help you by giving you a view of how you are doing.  When you get done, you can use this tool also to help create your config.bmp file.  It is quite a snazzy goodie if you take the time to really understand it.