Software Recommendations?

[JimmyDeemo]

I wondered if some of you in the know could recommend some map making software for me, as I'd like to delve into the map making world. I suppose it would be a good idea to tell you a little bit of background.

I can't draw for toffee...complete no hoper. Despite this i have a lot of cool ideas in my head for settings and I'd like some software to create battle maps for my players to play on, currently my only game is run using MapTool. MapTool has some nice drawing features but I'm not finding it user friendly enough to make maps with and I'd like to reuse/print maps if I can.

I'm aware of Dundjinni and CC3, so i wanted to find out which you thought might suit me best, or indeed if there is an alternative that i have not considered. I'm looking for something that is user friendly, intuitive and will allow me to create basic layouts in a short space of time.

For example i'd like to be able to sit down for 30mins and have a map that can be playable on (even if not that detailed), is that a realistic target? Also please bear in mind that i'm not really an artist and while i can work with GIMP or PS i'd like to not have to worry about re-sizing or tweaking textures and things like that, i'd really like the software to 'just work'.

Look forward to some responses. Thanks.

[ravells]

Sounds like a symbol driven program with a large library of symbols you can 'drag and drop' into your map is the way to go, and that's CC3 or Dundjinni. Many people find the learning curve of CC3 a hard one to climb (others take to it like a duck to water).

Another option is to buy a vector / raster hybrid (like Serif Drawplus or Xara Xtreme) and make or import the symbols you need from the internet (e.g. the Dundjinni forums). I can only speak for Drawplus as I do not use Xara, but it is the most intuitive drawing software I have ever come across.

Good luck in your search.

The attached took about 10 mins to do in Serif with stuff I had lying around.

[JimmyDeemo]

Thanks for the reply, i do like the idea of 'drag and drop' for battle map creation. Sort of like what i would do in reality with dungeon tiles and the like.

That is interesting about Drawplus/Xara, how easy is it to structure those applications to work on a grid? Such as one that would work well with D&D?

I already have a large image library gathered for use in Maptool, but its a pain to search through it. One thing i did like about the Dunjinni Demo was how it group all its assets. How easy is it to import symbols and the like into applications like Drawplus?

[ravells]

Hi Jimmy any relatively serious application (Xara and Drawplus included) will have an option of placing and snapping to a grid.

Drawplus has a tab called a 'gallery' in which you can drag and drop anything from a drawplus document. Once the image is in the gallery you can drag and drop it from the gallery into any other document, but unfortunately you can't (at least I don't think you can) import files from your computer wholesale into the gallery without putting them into a drawplus document first - you'd have to insert them as images into the document (if that makes sense).