Galactic Contention

Galactic Contention is a Star Wars total conversion mod set during the Clone Wars based off of Squad (Unreal Engine 4.27) and features large scale 50 vs 50 player battles. It has a development team of over 12 people and has been in development for years. 

Production

In order to maximize detail around Umbara whilst being time efficient, I created around 20 prefabs that we could use around the map to add much needed detail to points of interest we expected players to be around. This massively increased the level of detail we could get for areas compared to what it would be otherwise.

With these prefabs, care was taken to try to minimize the performance impact of them, especially with the lighting

Sith Temple (Point Of Interest)

I am going to describe some of the thought processes (and actual processes) behind the Sith Temple and its surrounding areas to give an example of my thought processes. For the Sith Temple, I wanted it to be the central part of the map and have a lot of gameplay flow into or near it. My goal was to create engaging interior combat on the inside with some variety with the hallways, side rooms and main room without it feeling Stilted or too choke point heavy. 

To organize and create it, I divided it into several different prefabs so that the either the entire temple, or specific parts could be easily moved around.

While the temple is defend-able with key bottlenecks, multiple routes flow around the temple allowing flanking to bypass enemies on the inside or outside of the temple. These routes flow partly into the main center room and around it where the bulk of the fighting will take place. The temple flows from the small twisting hallways to the grand main room to give some variety in gameplay and aesthetics. 

On the outside of the temple, the southern courtyard contrasts heavily from the rest of umbara featuring cold open ground with no foliage and little cover to emphasize the difference of the Sith Temple from the natural and alive land all around it. A more cold windy mechanical ambience plays here, compared to the more ominous ambience within the temple and the lively ambience of the surrounding map. This area also features open enough lanes to logistics vehicles (vital to Galactic Contentions gameplay loop) to pass through. 

The East courtyard somewhat contrasts this, being overgrow and plants emerging from the stone works, blending the normal landscape and Sith Temple together to create closer quarters combat for a different feel.

Players and teams are therefore encouraged to take advantage of the varied aspects of the Sith Temple and surrounding areas to maximize their effectiveness, giving depth to gameplay.