Dundjinni Anyone?

[nopantsyet]

I've tried the demo and I think it looks fantasic. But to me, I'm afraid it would be useless. As much as I hate that fact, because it makes such great maps that I want any excuse to buy it.

I was going to suggest that printing them would not be practical, but now that I think about it, you're only going to use it for smaller, locale-based maps rather than atlases of entire worlds. I don't imagine printing them off at a Kinko's would be prohibitively expensive.

And I was going to say that it would be a pain to assemble a map from a stack of loose sheets, but then I remembered I just said you'd only use it for small maps. So I guess that's not an issue either.

And now that I think about it, my line-art on the battle map is ridiculously lame. Having rich, full-color maps for important locations would add a lot to the game.

Hmmm...something else to take time.

And maybe my players would decide to get minis for their characters instead of using my WotC prepainted ones.

I guess all I've got left is the price. I want it for less money. It may really be worth the money, but I don't know if I can bring myself to shell out $70 for it.

I suppose I could just get the cheapest one. Then if I like it, I can pay the difference to upgrade. (That's a really fair way of doing it.)

Hah! I'm a total fool! Did I just convince myself to buy this thing?

 

[Trainz]

How is it to create towns ?

In CC2, what takes a long time is to select each individual house and rotate it so that it's aligned with the road. You have to repeat the process for each house you put on the map and frankly, I can use photoshop to do that.

So, how is it in that regard ? Or is there a town map maker out there that does this efficiently and quickly ?

 

[Erratic K]

If you're a would be publisher though be prepared to create all of your own art. The EULA presently does not allow you to use Fluid's art in anything commercial.

What the???

How is that legal?

1) I don't think that is enforceable in some areas even if you agree to it.

2) That alone is enough reason not to buy it. Your creative output with software should not be limited. I can't believe they even tried.

That is totally rediculous. I need to phone up my lawyer buddy and ask her if that is enforceable in California. I suspect not especially if it is a click through EULA that you see after purchase.

-E

 

[Gort]

Like Grot said

Arg. In the campaign GORT plays in, Grot is a Goblin Blood Mage. Liken me not to such scum

 

[wocky]

Ran the demo and didn't like it. All the other mapping packages I saw were kinda lame "drawing" programs (that is, they use vector shapes which can be rotated, scaled or deformed at will). Dundjinni is a kinda lame "painting" program (bitmap based) that lets you stamp textures or bitmap representations of objects all over the place.

One of the problems I saw was that if, for instance, you "stamped" a table partially over a chair, you lost part of the chair's bitmap and were unable to rearrange it afterwards. The program uses different layers for floor textures and objects, but it's not enough if you're going to make small changes in your maps.

Appart from this, I'd only use it if it let me print black and white (line art) maps... which not surprisingly it doesn't seem to do. I'm not sure about the support for different scales (so a DM can have a smaller version of a battle mat with small notes).

 

[MerakSpielman]

I've yet to find mapping software that was actually faster and more convenient for tabletop games than just scribbling up a quick map with a pencil on graph paper. I can understand if you want to publish an adventure online or something... but for regular gaming, such software isn't really necessary.

 

[evildmguy]

How is it to create towns ?

In CC2, what takes a long time is to select each individual house and rotate it so that it's aligned with the road. You have to repeat the process for each house you put on the map and frankly, I can use photoshop to do that.

So, how is it in that regard ? Or is there a town map maker out there that does this efficiently and quickly ?

First of all, in response to Trainz, there is a setting in CC2, Smart Icon?, that automatically does exactly what you said above. It rotates and lines up an icon with a line. So, that is possible in CC2 and I am not an expert with it by any means! (Admittedly, it might be in the City Designer expansion, I don't know for sure. Try the mailing list if you want to find out.)

Second, I looked at Dundjinni and even though I have CC2, I really wanted to like it. However, several things stopped me from buying it.

- Price. CC2 is now half the price of the platinum version of Dundjinni, has as many symbols if not more and can do a thousand times more, even if not as pretty. (btw, PF is working on the "pretty versions" of their maps for a release later this year, last I heard.) Also, I can get the city or dungeon add on with CC2 for the same price as platinum Dundjinni and have all that added functionality as well. Further, the art packs are looking expensive. It will take a long time before I have the same symbols as what I have for CC2. And, both have free symbols and map sharing, so that's a plus for both that detracts from neither one.

- Ability. I agree that Dundjinni looks much better than CC2 for maps. Gorgeous maps. However, Dundjinni looks like it can only do small locales. Also, there is no linking that I saw in the demo to go from map to map as the PCs move. (I admit it might be there but I didn't see it.) In CC2, you can always zoom out further if needed. You can probably zoom in pretty far as well but that will have less usefulness much faster. CC2 can do maps, towns, dungeons, characters, dioramas and more. CC2 can do heraldry. I didn't see the ability to do any of these, without really pusing what Dundjinni was intended to do.

So, it was really close for me but these two items, and to some extent Fluid's reputation with eTools, kept me with CC2. This isn't to say that Dundjinni is bad! It merely isn't the tool for me, given what it can currently do, cost and what I already had. (I do cross over in many areas. CC2 can do heraldry but I bought another program to handle heraldry because it does it better.)

Again, I am not saying Dundjinni is bad or that people shouldn't buy it. Buy the tool that will help your game! Whatever it is! This wasn't for me.

Good discussion! Thanks!

Have a good one! Take care!

edg

 

[nyrfherdr]

I've started and stopped posting a reply to this thread like 10 times.

Anyway: Here are my thoughts from a happy user of the software.

Pluses:
* The software is object based. You can select and move objects at will on the map. (Now not all art is an object. Some art become part of the background, but it is easy to distinguish)
* You can print a map as a handout or for the DM. You define what prints. If you don't want the objects, secret doors, etc to print, they won't.
* You can print the map at Tactical scale. This is a 'battle map'. You can choose what you want to print at Tactical scale, so if you only want the 'main room of the BBEG' that's what you can print.
* The software is an ADVENTURE writing tool. You put D&D stats on the objects... Doors, Pits, Traps, Monsters, Characters. You can print the adventure with the rooms keyed with all of the objects associated with each room.... Basically a quick way to write your own adventures.
* There are lots of art packs and d20 stat packs included in the Platinum edition. There is a lot of free art and any PNG you have becomes art you can use in the software.
* It is quick and easy. I created a map from a scribbled note, added stats and printed an adventure in the same time it would have taken by hand, but it was really nice to look at and organized in a neat fashion with appropriate stats included.
* If you have Character or monster stats in XML format from eTools you can import them into Dundjinni.

CONS
* This is a tactical scale mapping software at the moment. You can't do cities or geographical areas yet. A new art pack is under construction to give you that.
* The tool bar cannot currently be anchored and sometimes gets in the way.
* This will be a con for some people: It is not designed for online play. It is for Pen&Paper gaming. This is not a con for me.
* The software is resource intensive on the computer. Sometimes a render will take a few moments.
* You can't create default D&D stats for doors, pits and traps. You have to create one in a map, then copy and paste it. Not a big deal to me, but may be to some people.


I find the software creates beautiful maps in short order. I can add my D&D information to the map quickly and easily and print the adventure for use in my evenings game. I can print player handouts and tactical maps for important rooms or for everything if I choose to.

I found the software to be a great value and because I can't create my own art files, will happily spend money on art packs to fill out my collection.
I guess I understand the people who prefer not to spend money on that, so don't feel that you have to.

I wanted to provide a counter opinion.
Game on!
Nyrfherdr

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

What I'm really interested in is the adventure writing side of it. anyone used it? What did you think?