Is now a good time to buy CC3?

[DK13]

Apologies if this has been covered in a topic elsewhere, my quick look didn't seem to find it, anyways, is now a good time to buy CC3? I will wear my noobness on my sleeve when I say I believe a plus version is coming out and that CC3+ isn't at this stage compatible with the existing add ons for CC3. While the cost is high for CC3 I believe that I will put in the time and effort to make it work so I think I'll be purchasing it in the near future I was wondering if there were advantages to wait on it (and possible get a bundle of plus addons at the same time). I'm curious to see what the more experienced amongst the forums thinks.

[Mark Oliva]

Question back: What makes a time good for you to buy a software package?

CC3+ is available, and the Dungeon Designer 3 compatibility upgrade already is available free to DD3 owners. The CD3 upgrade (also free to CD3 owners) supposedly will be released soon. I haven't seen a timetable for a CA3 upgrade or upgrades of the annuals.

[DK13]

So if I buy CC3+, DD3 and CD3 I'll have a full suite (well, most of the capabilities I'll probably need)? I read somewhere that DD3 and CD3 don't currently work with CC3+ but that has been rectified? Thanks for the help.

[Chick]

If you are sure that CC3 and its related packages are what you want, now is as good a time as any. I think most people who start with that end up moving on to things like GIMP and Photoshop, so if you are long-term serious, you might consider getting GIMP first. GIMP is free and you can see if it meets your needs, and then decide if you want to move up in the direction of CC3 or of Photoshop.

[Mark Oliva]

So if I buy CC3+, DD3 and CD3 I'll have a full suite (well, most of the capabilities I'll probably need)? I read somewhere that DD3 and CD3 don't currently work with CC3+ but that has been rectified? Thanks for the help.

It's been rectified with DD3 and will be in short order with CD3.

I think most people who start with that end up moving on to things like GIMP and Photoshop,

I doubt that very much, although some CC3 users certainly do that. That notwithstanding ...

so if you are long-term serious, you might consider getting GIMP first. GIMP is free and you can see if it meets your needs, and then decide if you want to move up in the direction of CC3 or of Photoshop.

This is pretty decent advice.

[DK13]

Thanks for the help, looking at the tutorials out there that are available I think I'm going to give GIMP a go. I liked the plug and play nature of CC3 (despite the learning curve!) but it seems with a lot of practise you can achieve amazing results with GIMP so, when I get some time I'll get drawing.... I just don't expect my first few attempts to be postable!

[jpstod]

I am a Campaign Cartographer User who never moved to a Graphics Illustrator.
I believe most people who Move to a Graphics Illustrator are Commercial Artist..

The limitations for Commercial Artist is to heavy for People to use it...For free Maps Dundjinni and Profantasy Maps are great..Sadly there is No Program Support for Dundjinni any More and it won't work straight out of the Box so to speak on Windows 8.

[Mark Oliva]

For free Maps Dundjinni and Profantasy Maps are great..Sadly there is No Program Support for Dundjinni any More and it won't work straight out of the Box so to speak on Windows 8.

This is quite true as long as one is talking about distributing exported flat maps (i.e. JPG, PNG). If you want to distribute editable maps, only Dundjinni and Fractal Mapper 8 among the Big 3 are suitable.

Some people claim to have brought Dundjinni to run under Windows 8 and 8.1 after a bit of technical manipulation, but remember that the current version 1.07 is seven years old, dating from 2008. As a result, the abilities of Dundjinni become ever more dated and limited as time goes on, in comparison to CC3/CC3+ and FM8. Whether one will be able to use Dundjinni under the forthcoming Windows 10 is anyone's guess. I've seen no reports to date from anyone who has tested it with current betas.

For the record, I have and use The GIMP, Paint.net, CC3, CC3+, DD3, CD3, CA3 and FM8. I also have Dundjinni 1.07, but I haven't used it for quite some time now.


It's true that there no longer is official program support for Dundjinni, but there still is excellent support from users on the Dundjinni forums.

[zeichen]

It broke my heart when dundjinni stopped updating. It is still a pretty good program and can do a lot of things. There are 1000's of resources for it and you can make good quality maps in a very short period of time.

I personally, love photoshop for everything and still use CS3 which is 10 years old now and still does everything I need it to.

[Mark Oliva]

It broke my heart when dundjinni stopped updating. It is still a pretty good program and can do a lot of things. There are 1000's of resources for it and you can make good quality maps in a very short period of time.

I certainly have to agree. Dundjinni did and still does well those things for which it was designed, battlemap and dungeon scenarios, as seen in new Dundjinni maps that continue to be posted here. However, its abilities in making overland maps or maps of cities, villages and larger settlements are quite limited when compared to FM8 or CC3/CC3+ with CD3.