New to Digital Cartography? Software General Information

[Gandwarf]

There is one question that I have though. I really need a good city mapping software and I am really liking the look of City Designer. Of course it requires Campaign Cartographer 3 as well. So then my questions are... what is the cheapest I can hope to get those two for (and can I get just those two by themselves as I have no use for the others... well other than the dungeon mapper maybe)? Also, how hard would it be to learn (I do have some CAD experience)?

Indeed, for prices check the website. Profantasy maintains a money-back guarantee if you don't like your purchase, even for the digital download.

You can get just CC3 and CD3. I first purchased CC3. Then Dungeon Designer 3 came out and I purchased that one. And last year CD3 came out and I purchased that. So I have CC3 and two addons, but you could have only CC3 with CD3. DD3 is really only necessary if you want to map buildings or dungeons.

CC3/CD3 has a learning curve and I had to teach myself to use the software. But it's the same with other software, like Photoshop. There's some excellent video tutorials for CC3 and DD3 that will teach you at least the basics (those weren't around when I started using the software!). And if you have any questions about CD3 you can always ask on this forum.

One thing I want to stress: you can use CC3/CD3 right from the start to create maps. It's really that easy and its the biggest compliment I can give this software. To master it however you will need to practice a lot.

That's the big difference between CD3 and Photoshop for example. With no skills in CD3 I could still use it to crank out a decent looking village. With no skills in Photoshop I would crank out a VERY poor looking map.
I think if you are very good in software like Photoshop or Gimp you can make more unique looking maps of course, but to master software like that.....