Mouse's stuff

[rdanhenry]

Glad to see you are still a busy Mouse. I'm sure those cliffs will see a good bit of use. CC3 is probably mostly a frustration for those who think mapping software is "click a button and get a map". A lot of users make serviceable but artistically lacking maps for use in games or references while world-building/writing. That requires minimal skill, and that level of CC3 use is probably much easier to reach than the equivalent level with a general-purpose graphics program. Making a CC3 map beautiful and interesting is probably not easier than making a beautiful and interesting map with a general purpose graphics program, though it might be somewhat quicker, depending on the map.

[Tiana]

CC3 is probably mostly a frustration for those who think mapping software is "click a button and get a map".

Uh, nope, it's because the logic required is vastly different than any other program I've used, the requirements to getting an asset for making new maps in the future are far higher than just making a little drawing transparent and installing it as a brush, stylizing or even selecting a color is a several click process for something that should be 1-2 clicks max, even the fractal edges for the coastline and rivers are less severely organic by nature than I would prefer, and every single workflow within it seems to take twelve times as many steps as just drawing the thing originally would have taken me, with the exception of one tool that blew my mind: the house tube.

As someone who's used general purpose programs and other mapping programs, I think once you learn CC3 you can make maps that look just like CC3 maps and will always be recognized to anyone who knows mapping programs. That doesn't make them bad, and they might even be relatively fast (since someone can spend a ton of time to make a custom set for a specific style of map in theory you can even lose the CC3 look, but many people who use it don't get custom assets).

So yeah, it's harder to make a CC3 map beautiful. It is no less rewarding if you're just supporting your team of awesome gamers, but it's certainly frustrating for reasons other than "what? I couldn't auto generate a map and be done in two minutes?!" as that is not what I expect as an originally Photoshop mapper who later began trying the map related programs. I just expect efficiency in UI choices, which CC3 did not make. For reasons unknown to me everything is more convoluted than just drawing original assets feels.



Also yeah Mouse! Affinity is a great alternative! Not perfect but pretty impressive! I switched to it too.