Starcraft AI blog

Yay, we got a new bot!

Zerg bot Boris gives its author as “Airstrike” Ivanov, and says “first attempt at a bot! Isn’t very smart at the moment.” Boris was made from scratch and its repo is open, and the author’s profile says “Wannabe programmer! Amateur game developer.”

Boris’s build seems to vary slightly from game to game, but it always starts with 9 pool, usually adds a second hatchery, and sometimes makes a third hatchery (I’ve only seen it do that when it is about to be attacked). All hatcheries are in base; it does not expand. It also never takes gas. It doesn’t have any kind of combat evaluation; units go find the enemy base and attack willy-nilly. The micro is not much, and if the initial zerglings make no impression then the enemy will swallow the followup zerglings, arriving 2 by 2, with no effort. In fact, as I write Boris has lost every game on BASIL (0-21) and its wins on SSCAIT (3-6) are all against opponents that failed to play.

In short, what we have here is a basic bot. It can play a complete game, but does not yet have much in the way of winning skills. It is a vehicle for something more interesting; it has gotten out of the driveway and onto the road, and has not yet driven anywhere. The path to make a top bot is long and steep, but the way to a bot that can win some games is not long at all. It’s in sight just down the street, getting out of the driveway was the hard part! Boris can probably start to win games with no more than a few bug fixes or refinements. I read the micro code that decides on targets, and I think it can be simplified and improved, and that that is probably all it will take to start winning. Keep at it!