POGRE ASKS AND I RESPOND!
For those of you who aren't planning on going into business as a cartographer (including me) or those who do (and want to work something out privately with Fluid), the software is great.
There is a lot of art, and more art packs under development.
The fans have already added a bunch of art as well. I've yoinked a bunch of it and it's easy to incorporate into the system.
The tools are easy and straightforward. You can create a ton of different style maps for use in 'underground' or above ground environments. By toying with settings and tools you can create a bunch of different effects for both battlemaps 1" = 5 ft. (Like on your game mats) and for printed maps for DM or player handout purposes. You can supress the printing of items so that maps print more or less detail.
In addition to a mapping tool, the objects have properties that you can put game information in to. For example a Door can be given Thickness/Hardness/HitPoints. Stuck, Locked and Secret DC's and a description.
Traps, Pits, Rooms, Treasure, Characters and Creatures can all be given d20 data. You can print the adventure keyed to the map. This is pretty cool.
You can import XML data for characters from eTools if you like.
The platinum version comes with stats from the d20 SRD, The Book of Fiends by Green Ronin and the Monsternomicon by Privateer Press. It also comes with what they call Tokens, which are pictures of cool Reaper mini's you can associate on a map or print to use as "mini's".
3 caveats:
1. Currently this is only a tactical detail mapping tool. In other words, areas where the characters will interact. Rooms or areas that battle might take place or where location is important (like a tavern). Without custom art, you can't use it to make geographical maps, etc. The art packs for this kind of map are under construction, if my sources are correct, and some fans are building art to create geographic area type maps.
2. The tool bars get in the way a lot (like another poster said). I'd like to be able to anchor the toolbars or change them from vertical to horizontal or something.
3. Being as graphic intensive as it is the system is resource intensive too. If your machine doesn't have a good bit of RAM, you will see lots of hourglasses. The two machines that I've worked on have handled it well, but every once in awhile I've done something that will require some serious rendering by the computer and I'll have to wait it out. Once I understand what causes those, I can save them up for when I want to rest my eyes anyway...
I hope this helps.
(By the way... Fluid has posted its End User License Agreement statement on their Forums. Please read them for yourself before making any judgements.)
I bought the Platinum version and feel it's well worth the money for me.
I made a map, added stats and monsters and printed the battlemap last night for my game. It worked flawlessly! I'm currently taking my scribbled map and redo-ing it in Dundjinni for next week's game.
GAME ON!
Nyrfherdr
