Looking for an old MOBA-style map

[DaneTheBeast]

I made a quick picture of the layout (yes yes it's beautiful isn't it)

At game start you'd choose your hero. There were 4 bases, one in each of the 4 corners, with undead being bottom-left. You could take a direct narrow path towards an enemy base or go to the center where all 4 ways intersect. The blue parts are water.

One thing that is special is that as you killed enemy creeps you would get lumber (but the lumber icon was replaced with an icon of 3 heads(?) from 3 races(?), i'm pretty sure you all saw that icon before) and you could use that lumber to upgrade the units that came out of your base.

 

[Retera]

I wrote a computer program to scan my computer's backup drives for maps with custom lumber icons and allow me to browse what those icons were. This led me to a map that is loosely similar to your description but not the same. Here is a picture of me playing the map from my backup drive:

Is this the Lumber Icon you had in mind? I picked it out while sorting through a list of file paths because it caught my eye:
- ReplaceableTextures\WorldEditUI\Editor-MultipleUnits.blp

When I looked at that path, I imagined in my head it was probably what you were describing, and that led me to fire up this map in an old version of the Warcraft III game that I had backed up from around that time.

But I am not necessarily convinced it is the map you had in mind. Yet, this screenshot might help other people find the map you are really looking for if this is the same Lumber Icon. Is this the Lumber Icon you were looking for? There was only one map in my 15 years of map backups with this Lumber Icon, and that was this map. My version of the map was called ArthasArena2v1.84.w3x and I was unable to start the map on the Reforged game. However, there is a similar-looking version of the map here [note, I did not test the map at this link, but the minimap looks like mine]:

Arthas Arena 2 v2.41 - TUE

[color2]Fully support custom AI no need to go battle need to get good enemy. :) I Created AI too because some people like fill empty slots them and get good enemy.[/color] PLEASE COME TO OFFICIAL ARTHAS ARENA 2 FORUM SECTION IN Revolutional Arts Website You are welcome to talk new...

www.hiveworkshop.com

That file upload here on on the Hive is listed as v2.41 whereas the file on my hard drive was v1.84 and it was last modified 2006. So the one on my hard drive is probably even older. But I was surprised to see that this file on the Hive says it is still meant to be played on Patch 1.22 [like my backup] which might mean that this was a map lost in the big wave of changes in 1.23-1.24 in 2009. Those patches killed support for a large number of custom maps at the time.

So, this might be a map that only works on the backup version of Warcraft III that I had alongside the map. Also, given the minimap layout, this map is not totally similar to your description and is quite possibly not the correct map.
But when I looked for the Lumber Icon that you were describing, this is what I found.

Edit: if it helps, I told the computer to generate a graphic of all the lumber icons on all the maps in my backup directory, and here is what it created:

So, if your map is using any of those other lumber icons listed there, it might be one of the ones on my computer that I would be able to do an automated search for

 

[DaneTheBeast]

Is this the Lumber Icon you were looking for?

Yes, yes that's exactly it.
Oooh boy, didn't expect you to do something like this, damn, I'm impressed. You're a Man of Focus, Commitment and Sheer Fucking Will.

The map seems to be really similar, though I can't test it right now, but if you can spend that lumber to upgrade units that might be the map.

It's very possible my memory replaced some details overtime, so what I remember might be wrong, but I will add some more details:
-One of the playable heroes was Pandaren Brewmaster (meaning it was made in Frozen Throne(?))
-The map overall seemed way more detailed than the map you showed
-Possible Sunken Ruins tileset, with those palm trees

I'll see if I can test the map sometime soon, and in case it's the one, well.. I can only say you did an amazing job

 

[Ralle]

Haha that is fucking gold.

 

[DaneTheBeast]

Tested the map, it's really similar, but it doesn't feel right, the map I remember was much larger and had bigger bases that actually looked like proper bases, and creeps that would attack automatically.
Of course these maps are so old that I'd bet less than 1000 people world-wide know about it and even less remember it, but for now it is what it is.
Thanks again though ;D

 

[Retera]

Maybe Ralle can search the Hive database by lumber icon? :O

 

[Ralle]

I mean I could, but it'd require custom stuff like you did. I'd love to take credit for finding the map but I think someone like @TriggerHappy might have more time. It'd also be a good place for him to link to the exact map on his site if he finds it . I know he has like over 1 TB of maps.

 

[erfaned]

I wrote a computer program to scan my computer's backup drives for maps with custom lumber icons and allow me to browse what those icons were.

Is there a way to download that program? I am also searching for a old map which I cant find, maybe that program will help.