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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 7001346" data-attributes="member: 85870">I'll throw in my two cents --- I started off with Campaign Cartographer, ran it through its paces, managed to produce some low-grade quality work with it that would have been "good enough" for my own use, but certainly wasn't anywhere near "pro" quality. Ultimately my problem with the CC programs was that there was no transference of knowledge or skill --- nothing I learned in CC was going to help me in my web and graphic design content skills that I use daily at work. At that point I realized that the real solution for my fantasy mapping was to simply learn to use actual vector and raster drawing programs. I plunged into Illustrator, Photoshop, Serif DrawPlus, Xara, etc. Until two months ago, I might have had some interest in a map-making program that A) wasn't Campaign Cartographer, and B) actually worked like a "standard" raster/vector application, but this past December, Serif finally released their new vector and raster drawing "twin" applications, Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, for Windows. And having used and tested them both extensively while in beta, I doubt I will be in the market for anything new for a long, long time. The coolest thing about the Affinity apps is that the files you create in either Designer or Photo can be opened natively in the corresponding app. This is a HUUUUUUUGE benefit for mapping, because it means I can start out doing land mass and city shaping in vector, close it in Designer, then immediately open it in Affinity Photo without having to export the file, change it to a different output format, etc., and immediately just keep adding layers and effects, save it, then seamlessly reopen the EXACT SAME FILE in Designer. Affinity Photo is as close as you're going to come to duplicating Photoshop's feature set, but does so at a FRACTION of the cost----a single, $40 purchase for a license vs. $120 a year subscription. With these tools, plus the assets/textures I already paid for in CC, plus the free Genetica Viewer program for windows which lets me generate my own seamless textures, plus the huge amount of material available in public domain, I pretty much don't need anything else.Truly, if anyone were to ask me about looking at "map making" software, I'd say "Don't waste your time. Spend the money for Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, learn them inside and out, then do some tutorials on Cartographer's Guild.com." With the Affinity apps on the market now for both Mac and PC, with how powerful they are, how inexpensive they are, and how much more versatile they are for doing actual graphic design work and not just mapping, I really wouldn't ever recommend anything else to someone interested in mapmaking.</blockquote>

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