LucasArts and Star Wars: Empire at War developer Petroglyph have released a map editor for the real-time strategy title.
It means that fans of the game with a creative streak can now design custom Empire at War battlegrounds and unique units. Elaborating on map editor features, the powers that be have stated that it "enables players to create both ground- and space-based skirmish maps from scratch, and also allows them to modify any of the existing game maps. All of the terrain, space features, buildings, vehicles and characters from Star Wars: Empire at War are available in the Map Editor for players to develop custom maps."
In addition, the download includes a bonus plug-in for 3D Studio Max that allows players to design their own unit models and import them for use on the maps."
Note that the latest patch for Empire at War, 1.04, is required to use custom maps created with the map editor. The update also addresses a handful of issues, includes a number of balance changes and additionally "adds support for auto-downloading of maps. Players who need to download a custom map to play a particular multiplayer game will do so automatically when joining that game."
The 1.04 patch is available from LucasArts' website and apparently "enables the optional Map Editor download" - the map editor can be downloaded on its own from the usual download websites too.