I originally ordered Campaign Cartographer at the urging of  friend in Germany and the recommendations of several others in the MERP (Middle-earth Role Playing) community. It's supposed to be a great tool for making maps of all kinds.

I went as far as ordered the "Whole Shebang" bundle (everything they have).

The goal was to have it in time for MerpCon III in the last weekend of July 2007.

Well, it wasn't even close. They didn't even ship it untilthe end of August and it didn't arrive at Spokane until the middle of September. Which then was too late for that address.

So I had to request them to reship it (in September). It only arrived (finally!) at my house November 1st!

It was a box of MANY separate CDs. What a mess, and they accidentally left out one item that I'll now have to request they ship.

The outer shipping box seemed to be fine. but the plastic inner cd cases, well, more than half of them were broken in one way or another (cd center retainer broken), clip that holds the box closed broken, etc.

All together there are 16 boxes/CDs to install! Why they can't just bundle it all on one DVD is beyond me. These are nowhere near full Cd installs and it would save a lot in shipping, packaging, and hassle.

I initially tried to get CC3 (and add ons) to install under Codeweavers Cross Office demo but alas it wouldn't even get past the initial installation screen before an error. I'm hoping I can help in making it run on Linux eventually. So i resorted to botting up the previously never used dual boot option of Vista Home Premium on the laptop. Turns out installation under Vista for CC (like almost every other application and driver out there) doesn't work in a straight forward fashion either.

You need to run each install as "Run as Administrator".

Also you have to install the older .NET framework 1.1 (2.0 is native to Vista), as well as the SP1.1 patches and other patches before several of the add ons can install.

Also while installing Symbol Set 1 (Fantasy Overland), after the install it closed with an error "FCW32: FCW32.exe - Entry Point Not Found" - "The procedure entry point _ShowChanges#0 could not be located in the dynamic link library fcw32.exe". So I don't even know (yet) if it is going to be a corrupted install and need to be reinstalled, or if I have to start the whole thing over.

Additionally, after (nearly) finishing the installation of Symbol Set 2 (Floorplans), as you click on the final "OK" dialog button (doesn't matter if the two checkboxes for "view important last minute information" and "run CC" are checked), an error is generated: "Error 00000007F loading XP module - AdvanvedCC2.dll. Upon clicking the only option "OK" for that dialog, another appears "Error 00000007F loading XP module - BMPTOOLS.DLSS", and upon clicking that OK yet another appears: "Error 00000007F loading XP module - CD2.dll", and even ANOTHER appears "Error 00000007F loading XP module - Dungeons.dll", and then again with "Error 00000007F loading XP module - Effects.dll", then House.dll, then House_cc2.dll, then XPDD2.dll, XPDD2_cc2.dll, xphelp.dll, and finally xppict2.dll."

I'll have more on this review as I finish installing and learning to use the product. I sure hope it's worth all this hassle.

Cheers!

-Hawke