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Like you I enjoy making maps (so much so I started my own Facebook page to share maps with a select few people). And, like you, I started on CC2.
However, I progressed to CC3+ years ago. From what I recall of CC2, CC3+ isn't too much different. More refined, maybe. And it's got plenty more symbol sets and styles. And the ProFantasy website offers some pretty good assistance.
I'd never heard of Dungeon Draft, so can't really compare the two. One of the main problems I have with CC3+ is the tendency to freeze or close the program when your maps start getting overly large and complex. Part of that is my old computer, though.
I also have no experience with DungeonDraft. Looking at it very quickly the takeaway is that it appears to produce some nice battlemap style maps but is not easily expandable to other types of fantasy maps (e.g., cities, overland). Looks like it has a great asset library.
I have been a CC3+ (and its predecessors) user for many, many years and have been very happy with it. What it can do, compared to CC2, is much, much nicer looking stuff and if you're already used to figuring out how to use CC2 you can use CC3. Because it is a fantasy mapper UI over CAD, it still can take a lot of steps and a lot of frustration and shenanigans to get exactly what you want, especially if it's something complex, but nonetheless you can also really do anything you want with it and once you get the feel for it (as you are aware) it is great. Tutorials abound on their site and on YouTube. I'm also just a big fan of Profantasy as a company--they have very responsive customer service and have never tried to screw their customers over with weird DRM or licensing shenanigans (I bought CC3 and was able to upgrade to CC3+ for free when it first came out). You really get what you pay for with them in my experience and I am happy to throw some money at them when I am able. (Which is not to say that you should, per se, just that I would and I don't say that lightly.)
At the risk of continuing to sound like a commercial (I am really not, I swear), if you're doing primarily battlemaps I would definitely pay for the additional Dungeon Designer add on, as well as the Dungeons of Schley Symbol Set (which is $25). Right now CC3 plus the City Designer and Dungeon Designer addons are on sale for $74, or slightly more than the cost of a good high end video game. There are additional assets you can purchase (symbol sets and various things in their Cartographer's Annuals). City Designer is also super amazing.
As for free assets, Profantasy often gives free updates to their existing stuff, and the community is very active. Here is a list of free community resources on their forum. You can also run some searches for assets people have made both in a general search engine and in their forum. You can also make your own in the program without too much difficulty, either drawing your own or converting an image (I think either a BMP or PNG, but don't quote me on that).
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Oh, a second question if you don't mind my asking! Do you have any go-to sites for CC3+ assets? DungeonDraft has the Forgotten Adventures site for example, and I could always Google CC3+ assets, but since you've been using this software for a while, do you have any sound advice? I like to have many, many assets. 50 desks, 100 chairs, all sorts of statues, multiple floor/door/window types, magic doodads, toilet/bath fixtures, you name it. So if there's a really good source for my 3rd-party assets, I'd very much appreciate finding them.
I've enhanced my CC3+ a lot. The City Designer. The Dungeon Designer. And bought most of the symbol add-ons and several Annuals. Between those, I typically have most of the stuff I need.
I have, on occasion, done searches for certain symbols (especially stairs, which CC3 has been kind of weak on) so I know there's stuff out there. Specific websites I don't know, other than the ProFantasy message forums where people sometimes post links to stuff. I know there are ways to turn stuff into symbols, but my old-man brain never was conducive to learning such esoteric sorcery.
Nice, Generic Villain! Hope you share some of the stuff you come up with in the gamer talk or homebrew forums. It does take awhile to install all those exes but fortunately I recall last time I reinstalled on a newer computer it didn't take too long.
Perspectives 3 I think is the isometric mapping tool. So if you want to make something a little more 3d looking, it should be handy. I've never used it but I've seen really nice stuff people have made with it.
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Perspectives 3 I think is the isometric mapping tool. So if you want to make something a little more 3d looking, it should be handy. I've never used it but I've seen really nice stuff people have made with it.
The most recent of the Symbol Sets (#6 I think) is also for creating Isometric maps. I haven't bought it yet, but I've been tempted. I don't think you need Perspectives to use it, but haven't looked into it too much to be sure.
The most recent of the Symbol Sets (#6 I think) is also for creating Isometric maps. I haven't bought it yet, but I've been tempted. I don't think you need Perspectives to use it, but haven't looked into it too much to be sure.
Perspectives 3 I think is the isometric mapping tool. So if you want to make something a little more 3d looking, it should be handy. I've never used it but I've seen really nice stuff people have made with it.
Per their blog about the Isometric Cities set, "Symbol Set 6 can be used with or without City Designer 3 and Perspectives 3."
My general sense is that the Symbol Sets will always work with CC3+ alone--and you can even use the pngs included in them without CC3+--but they will work better with the add-ons that provide specialized tools for certain map projects. So like you could buy the SS2: Fantasy Floorplans set if you don't have Dungeon Designer 3, and you could still use the symbols in it with CC3, it's just that with DD3 as well it is easier to set up the dungeon map to begin with to get going.
And yes, it looks AWESOME. I have a big ol coffee table book of old hand-drawn city maps that this reminds me of and it would be fun to use this to recreate some (and/or use them to riff off of for my own maps).
In general, I love the partnership they've made with Mike Schley, who is an amazing cartographer in his own right. All the stuff they've put out with his work, including what IIRC was a free overland set, has been top notch and has become my go-to set of symbols for a lot of my projects.
1. I would install what you've got first--which is a lot--and see what you have to work with before getting anything else. You've already got a ton of assets between all of those things, and you might want to see what you like and what you use before paying for any more.
2. When it's time to look at other stuff, what kind of maps do you want to make most?
Fortunately DD3, Fantasy Floorplans, and Dungeons of Schley gives you a ton of that stuff. There's a free thrones pack floating around on the site too. I might just search their blog to start with, and then the forum.