I saw this at GenCon last year and was already out of money, so I didn't spring for it. Now I'm thinking about it again, and I'd like to hear reviews.

Has anybody used CC3, and what do you think of it? Does the basic software allow you to make floor plans, or just large-scale maps? Is it fairly easy to use, or is the learning curve pretty steep?

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

I have it. The interface is a nightmare. Sorting for options is virtually non-existent. If you don't know exactly what you want to do, you're not going to accomplish much. It's not good for creatively playing around with.

Also, the tricks to make your map look presentable aren't very intuitive (stuff like changing the glow level of a line's shadow to create the appearance of a beach on the coast).

Keep in mind, though, that I'm not a visual artist and I never got the hang of photoshop either. It could be that it's relatively easy to use and I just don't have the wiring for it.

Yep. I've tried some of the various options out there and none seem to be much better. Autorealm comes close. It's freeware, but hasn't been touched in years (someone is rewriting it though). It's also pretty difficult and in my experience rather unstable. If you're not sure how much you're going to use it, I'd start there and see if it's worth $40 for something that may only offer features you won't use and may not add much you don't already have.

I can't speak for it now as it's been years since I've been involved, but http://www.cartographersguild.com/ used to have a number of excellent tutorials and a helpful community. They aren't specific to any one of them (some of the best work I've seen there is straight photoshop/gimp). Their forum has a section discussing the various options, and they can give better pros and cons than I can.

There's a fairly steep learning curve, but people who know how to use it have created some pretty amazing things with it.

-- Ben