Sell me on Campaign Cartographer II Pro

I'll have some gaming money again in a few months and I'm considering getting CC2 Pro with fractal mapper and city-thingy and dungeon-mapping program.

Any advice? Should I? Should I not? Is there something better for the same tasks?
 
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I like it and I use it and it is the most powerful mapping software you can get, and while the learning curve has gone down, there is still one there. Everyone's mapping needs are different so, download the demo and play with it. You may also want to look at NBOS' Fractal Mapper at www.nbos.com or the free AutoRealm's mapper.
 

It's a great mapping program, but HoE is right, the interface is anti-intuative for most people. Playing with the demo may just be frustrating. The manual comes with an excellent tutorial, however, and once you've done that, creating awesome maps is a breeze (well, usually a time-consuming breeze, but I have yet to see decent mapping software that makes quick maps).
 

so it's worth the price then?

And also, which components do you recommend? I run fantasy campaigns exclusively and would like to create world maps with links to city maps with links to maps of individual buildings and dungeons. I have at least one world already created on paper that I'd like to digitize for reference, and I definetly want create at least one, perhaps as many as half-a-dozen more typical prime-material worlds whole-cloth.
 

I use it, I enjoy it, it works for me.

I find that it creates good looking maps in a moderate amount of time.

It took me several attempts, and quite a few hours to ge to the level of mastery I have. And I would bet I'm only using about 40% of the apps features.



Everything you have heard about the learning curve is correct. Your knowledge of Photoshop, Quark, and such will not transfer to this program. "Just playing around" will be a frustrating experience. But the tutorial is excellent, and you will pick things up and be able to create nice maps if you follow it.

This is the sort of program is slower and much harder to use that it's rivals when you pick it up, but is faster and creates better results once you know alot about it.
 

There are a zillion add ons for this thing...

Campaign Cartographer Pro - The base program. Has everything you need to generate a basic wilderness map or simple dungeon. Covers the basics.

City Designer Pro - An add on that focuses on towns, cities, and villages. Includes elements that allow for the creation of orc, elf, and other theamed settlements. Includes tools to random generate the buildings on a street when you want to fill in a big city quickly.

Dungeon Designer Pro - An add on that focuses on subterrainian areas and building interiors. Lots of furniture, traps, statues and such. Includes a rapid room and corridor generator which speeds underground mapping considerably.

Character Artist - Add on. Lets you create simple "paper doll" style character illos. I'd pass on this if you are more interested in mapping.

Dioramas - Add on, but requires lots of specialized functions. Lets you create limited 3-d views of your maps. Very cool, but a whole new learning curve. I'd wait on this one.

Perspectives - Create 3/4 view maps (kind of like those late 2nd edition ones from TSR). Very cool, but like Dioramas there is a whole new learning curve. Walk before you fly.

Symbol Packs (Overland, Fantasy Floorplans, Modern) - Bundles of Hundreds of additional symbols. When you are sick of using the same mountains, trees, and such over and over again, these bundles give you other options. Easy to get confused by all the options when you start, but once you have a half-dozen maps under your belt you *will* want the additional symbol choices.

Cosmographer - Add on, A bunch of extras that assist in creating space stations, starships, sector maps and "Computer Readout" style planetary maps. Very cool, but not what you are probably looking for.



And in it's own category, Fractal Terrains.
This very cool app lets you random generate planet-scale maps complete with basic weather, climate, and rainfall. You can edit the planets, then export them into Campaign Cartographer for more detailed mapping. A standalone app, you can use this for basic landmass generation.
Awesome for sci-fi games where you need lots of planet maps. Also good for fantasy world generation. I'd master CC2 first, but I'm a big fan of this program.
 
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