Anyone have any tips for creating realistic landmasses? I mean having deserts, forests, plains, ect where they would be in real life.

Thanks!

That's easy. Just download and install the Blue Marble Terrain mod. The textures are made from actual satellite photographs, and you can't get much more realistic than that.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140246

No, this is not what he is looking for.
Search for map scripts, but i beleave that today they are not really realistic.

What I am doing is hand building a (original, based on a story I am writing)world and want it to be realistic as possible. Basically I want deserts/forrests/tundra to be located as accurately as possible. One example would be that I am trying to create a large "Sand dune" (vs say an American SW type) type desert on a peninsula but am not sure how such a thing would be created naturally. Could it be because of it being inbetween two mountain ranges? Or is it because it is near the equator?

You could say I am looking for geology resources so I can create a natural looking world.

Other questions I have:

- Should deserts be placed on the equator or slightly off of it?
- Would large forests be placed far to the north next to tundra or should there be some sort of buffer? (plains?)
- Should peaks have some hills around them? (To simulate foothills)

Sorry if this sounds confusing.

Thanks!

Take a look at a good physical map of the earth. Generally, you get something like this going from the equator out:
jungle> plains > desert > plains > grassland > forest > tundra

I found this site about deserts useful: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/types/

...and this one too: http://weathersavvy.com/Q-Deserts1.html

Hope these are helpful!

What I am doing is hand building a (original, based on a story I am writing)world and want it to be realistic as possible. Basically I want deserts/forrests/tundra to be located as accurately as possible. One example would be that I am trying to create a large "Sand dune" (vs say an American SW type) type desert on a peninsula but am not sure how such a thing would be created naturally. Could it be because of it being inbetween two mountain ranges? Or is it because it is near the equator?

You could say I am looking for geology resources so I can create a natural looking world.

Other questions I have:

- Should deserts be placed on the equator or slightly off of it?
- Would large forests be placed far to the north next to tundra or should there be some sort of buffer? (plains?)
- Should peaks have some hills around them? (To simulate foothills)

Sorry if this sounds confusing.

Thanks!
The Blue Marble mod used satellite data from NASA's Blue Marble Project. I have to imagine that would be a good image source for your project.

SimEarth is an oldie but a goodie. Don't know how you'd find it nowadays though