Mission Specific Software Question

[qoonpooka]

I am looking for a mapping solution that fits my experience and skill level, as well as my time and particular gaming needs.

To date my mapping experience consists of CC2 (and I think a little CC3) with which I was rather disappointed (more on why in a moment). I have since relied nearly exclusively on hand-drawn maps. Suffice it to say these hand-draws look utterly vomit-worthy. They are functional - but only barely just. They are abstracted to the point of near uselessness, but convey spatial relationships generally. The only exception to this are floorplans I've done on engineering paper, and/or battle maps (which look like tripe anyway but you're done with them in a matter of minutes or hours so who cares...).

I have no background in geology, astrophysics, or anthropology.

My disappointment with CC2 and it's associated Fractal World Generator was the amount of labor that was required to generate useful maps. I would become frustrated and give up when my best efforts produced something that looked only marginally better than the hand-draws I would create, and I'd sunk nearly thirty working hours into it over the course of a month. I run games on a weekly schedule, and simply don't have 60+ hours a week to dedicate to making the map look good. For a while i would simply grab USGS maps and play with zoom until it was unrecognizable to all but the most geographically savvy. This works just fine, assuming I'm okay with earthlike terrain.

My problem with the fractal world generator was simply a matter of output. The ease of use was amazing and I was generally very pleased with the resulting world and its information about ecology an so forth. What was less impressive was the extremely low resolution of the map. Any time I tried to use a portion of it the results were so horribly pixellated that it became hard to distinguish important features like islands as distinct from the coast they were off of and so forth. It makes a great teaser, but not a good map.

So then. What do I need/use maps for in gaming? By far my biggest need for maps comes from running Battletech. I require a program (or multiple programs) that meets these specifications:

- Can create entire planets from scratch, with attention to geologic realism and terrain diversity based upon parameters input by the user.
- Can take those gross-level maps and usefully add cities, towns, and resources to a map, again guided by use parameters.
- Can produce topographical maps (USGS styled being the ideal) at virtually any resolution to cover any size of area the user requires. (I.E. I can produce a topo map of a 100'x100' square, or a 1,000km x 1,000km square with equal ease.
- Can accept map symbols with attached text and arrows such as in these examples:
http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugus...erlordmap1.jpg
http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Yo...i_war_map1.jpg
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/wordp...p_2007_nov.jpg

The purpose of these maps being to facilitate strategic and tactical planning, convey important intelligence data on fictional planets to the players who will then form operational guidelines for their military unit based upon this data.

Barring there being a single program that does this, a compatible collection of programs that can do this with my (very limited) skill level and time is fine. Generally speaking I will require two or three planetary maps a month, as many as four tactical maps per week, and every now and then a detailed street map for urban warfare scenarios.

Floorplans I can continue to do on my own, but anything that makes the process faster than the dozen-hours or so it takes to design a medium-sized bunker complex would be appreciated.

Also, if I'm being entirely too picky that is fair feedback as well.