Ganymede

Ganymede center its the first of its kind, the map features a very unexplored mix of checkerboard pattern with bridges explored by many later Superouman maps, and my own style of using many ramps and high ground advantage to control the general map and flow and army engagements into very specific and limited sets which can be finely tuned to maintain a balanced yet very interesting environment for the players.

Yet to me, the most interesting aspect of this new mix of ideas is that I came to them by apparent accident while working on my TLMC#4 submissions, at the time I was stuck on older ideas invoked by Samarra Mines (The central high grounds), and was searching for feedback regarding the general idea which I was not very comfortable with, and Lefix (A very experienced mapmaker, creator of very impressive maps like Sun Cross and Evergreen Terrace alongside Timmay (Creator of the well known Ladder map Catallena) suggested that I inverted the terrain levels of the layout I had, and even when that original idea didn’t prove to be successful, it did gave me the inspiration to arrive at what we know now as Ganymede and the mixed terrain checkerboard like layouts. This is one of the many showcases where many mapmaker’s ideas converge to do big breakthroughs.

The way the layout works in Ganymede is very cool because of the big amount of pathways and high ground differences in the map make for an incredibly large amount of different types of engagements, which coupled with the mildly safe Main and Natural set up means that the map supports a very wide variety of different strategies and timing pushes where it is up the the players and their particular strengths to decide which style they believe is best for the map.

In the aesthetic side Ganymede takes from the sadly almost forgotten TPW Lunar Colony by SmashHammer, and still with all the work put into it I can’t but feel that I couldn’t control the theme and flow of the aesthetics giving Gany a more messy and player unfriendly look than the one I was looking for initially. Still interestingly enough, even when the map does not achieve the exact requirements I initially had, the finish aesthetics of the map have a very special Je ne sais quoi about them that makes the map very eye catching. A couple months after publishing Ganymede I tried to “fix” the tileset of the map, but while doing so, some of the character of the map was lost, and at the end I decided to keep the original aesthetics, even when they are not the exact materialization of the idea behind a Terran base on a desert lunar landscape.

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Progames played on the map

Youtube List.

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Useful Links

TeamLiquid Thread: KTV Ganymede
TeamLiquid Map Contest #5: Finalist 2nd Place
Liquipedia Page: Ganymede

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Changelog of the map

V 1.20
♦ Small aesthetic changes.
♦ Removed duplicated doodads.
♦ Improved map pathing
♦ Fixed small FPS issues.

V 1.10
♦ Fixed a small problem with the Battle.net overview.

V 1.00
♦ Published.
♦ Map Submitted to the TLMC#5.