Mygeeto Center

Description
"Mygeeto Center" is Felixxx's SWBF2 mapping debut, and, to my pleasant surprise, is not set on Yavin (IV). Hooray!

Obviously it is always good to see a new mapper try branching out from the standard "grassy hills & plains" map that is so often the first map of a new modder. Mygeeto Center is - you guessed it - set in the [i]center[/i] of [i]Mygeeto.[/i] It's a pretty large map - there are a lot of command posts and there is a lot of open space. This isn't as detrimental as it might be on a grassy map (here things at least look less boring), but from a gameplay standpoint it doesn't succeed as well as it could in keeping the battle tight and continuous. The mapper makes good (if spaced-out) use of the stock Mygeeto assets in constructing this large battlefield.

The physical layout is, however, the map's strong point. There are a number of other deficiencies which scream "first map" much more than the map layout - this isn't necessarily bad, but they don't make the map good and they should definitely be improved upon in future releases (of this map or anything else).

For starters - the sky. [i]Yes,[/i] I know I say this all the time, but it is especially bad here since there is no real terrain horizon. You can see even more of the discontinuous sky that the default sky has, and it looks really bad and sloppy.

Secondly - sounds. This can be a big thing for a beginner to tackle, especially since he has to create a custom sound level since no sound lvls by default load starfighter sounds. It's almost essential that they are there, though - I know when I started out mapping, I didn't think they made a big deal, but I have come to see otherwise - having sounds where they might otherwise be missing is an integral part of having a map that feels "complete."

Thirdly - size. This is a HUGE download and entirely unnecessary. The download is a quarter of a gigabyte, and when unarchived is over 600 MB. Uncalled for. Please don't include entire stock sides with your modmap.

Finally, some of the textures. There are some unit textures that are, no way around it, downright bad. They are paintbucketed colors onto stock unit textures, and they look really, really sloppy. Retexturing units is one of the first things a lot of people learn to do, because it has a very shallow learning curve - it is essential to at least be able to make passable retextures, though, if you want your map or mod to look good. Textures are very, very easy to spot flaws in.

So all in all, probably a moderately-better-than-normal beginner map, but there are some serious deficiencies that need to be addressed as the mapper moves on in creating newer versions of this or new maps altogether. Give it a download if it looks interesting.

-Mav