New map for Mygeeto image - Empire at War Expanded: Fall of the Republic mod for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

Making Mygeeto was an interesting experience for me. I went through several different heightmaps before finding the right one and, at the start, really struggled on how to put the map together. With help from fellow devs (and rewatching Attack of the Clones and playing 2005 Battlefront II), I got a good plan on how to make a start.

To start, I placed all the platforms and bridges into their final positions; this was to know where to adjust the height of the terrain around just the platforms and added the hole (Invisible) texture as the texture clipped through the platform props. After adjusting that for longer than I'd like to admit, I made corrections to the heightmap, making sure the terrain matched the height of the bridges.

Once that was done, I could add the nice towers and structure props. With these, gameplay did become a priority to ensure a large enough playable area, and I restricted them to the edges of the platforms. Once the main playable area was done, I added more platforms to the non-playable area; I could be more lenient with where I placed the towers. As I played Battlefront II, I wanted to add the shield gates as an Easter egg (See top right pic), luckily doing so blocked off half the platform, which was a nice bonus.

The map tricks a players eye by making them think the bridges and platforms are floating, and this is achieved by the hole texture and raising the water level to the height of the platforms and making it render invisible. This is to ensure that when units such as the LAAT go off the platforms and bridges, they keep their height and don't suddenly jolt downwards (See bottom right pic). Mygeeto relies on well-placed props more than complex texturing, as only four textures are used.

Map: Rhino
Mygeeto Props: Collin
Sandbag Props: Skye/CatGirlSkye