I'm looking at purchasing some mapping software, but I'm not sure what my best option is. I know that there have been several threads on this subject already, and in fact, I have read through most of them. However, I'm still not sure what my best option is. I know that Campaign Cartographer is aimed at large scale maps, and Dundjinni is geared more toward small scale maps. The problem is I'm sort of in the middle. I'm currently running an Eberron Campaign, and as such have little need for much world or regional maps. I do, however, have plans to detail several of the cities that haven't yet been outlined in any of the books. I would also like the option of producing attractive battlemaps to layout for my players.
One very attractive function of Campaign Cartographer is the ability to link maps to locations on other maps. Even though I'm not looking to create a world map, I can see a great deal of functionality for this dealing with locations within a city. Ultimately, I think I'd be happier with CC 3 just because I tend to be a power user, however I'm not sure it's really worth the extra money for the add-ons.
I think I can boil it down to a couple of questions:
How easily/well can Dundjinni handle street level city maps?
Can I expect to make decent city and/or dungeon maps in CC 3 without buying the City Designer and Dungeon Designer add-ons?
If I do go with CC 3, and I create city maps, is it possible to link those city maps back to a large world map at some later date if I ever get up the gumption to create a CC 3 map of Khorvaire?
Is there a fan created CC 3 map of Khorvaire? I realize that's probably skating legalities, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway.
Thanks for your input.
I only used the Demo of CC2 but I bought Dundjinni. So I will talk about Dundjinni: For Citys it is only good for doing a backstreet or a yard. You cannot do a whole quarter in a town. Second downside is: Dundjinni is incredibly slow due to being written in Java (although it is still not portable to Linux, grr!). So if you do not own a fast computer with lots of RAM it could become quite difficult to use Dundjinni. In my memory CC2 had just normal speed for a program. On the other hand, the dungeon maps you do with dundjinni look really nice, although printing battlemaps could become quite expensive...
Hope this helps and always remember, you could download a demo of Dundjinni to test by yourself. I think in the demo you have limited objects to place and you cannot print but you will see if your computer is up to the task.
Hope I could help!
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I don't have Dundjinni, so I'll have to leave comparisons to others. Also, I have CC2, so my experience may not be on point. So, armed with not very much, I enter the fray. 8-)
Can I expect to make decent city and/or dungeon maps in CC 3 without buying the City Designer and Dungeon Designer add-ons?
You can, but it's quite a bit more work. City Designer and Dungeon Designer are mostly libraries of pre-made objects that you can use relatively easily. (They also have a few tools that can be useful.) You can create those same objects yourself, if you wish. Given the number of objects in each package, I don't think it's cost effective to do it yourself unless you either really like building primitives or value your time only minimally.
If I do go with CC 3, and I create city maps, is it possible to link those city maps back to a large world map at some later date if I ever get up the gumption to create a CC 3 map of Khorvaire?
The links are added to the overland map and you can add a link to whatever map you like either at original creation or by later editing.
Finally, like any art project, building a map with any tool is always more work than you think it will be. Decent tools make it easier than it would otherwise be, but they don't make it easy. It can be fun, though.
I own both CC3 and Dunjinni, and what's been said so far is right on. Dunjinni is pretty slow, even on a fast computer, but you can do some pretty nice stuff with it right out of the box. The learning curve for CC3 is much steeper, but you can do a lot more with it. For cities, CC3 is definitely superior.
--Fang