Starcraft AI blog

The latest Steamhammer is uploaded to SSCAIT, descriptions of its new pathfinding and new combat sim smoothing are in the wings, Dave Churchill has been quietly turning out new tools, but it all must wait because we have a new bot! And it’s an unusual one.

Zerg Vyrebot accurately describes itself as “?????????” It was disabled on SSCAIT after 3 games, but remains active on BASIL for now. It follows a unique game plan. Early on, it makes a single sunken colony for defense, placed without regard to covering all buildings or to the enemy’s line of approach. It slowly techs up to lurkers for further defense and expands to its natural. Though slowed by gas shortages as it adds ever more lurkers, plus a spire for scourge in case it needs air defense, it progresses to hive, makes defilers, and researches consume. Then the game is on: It attempts a coordinated lurker-swarm attack! I thought it was an advanced skill, but no, for Vyrebot it’s the first skill that it attempts to master. And, though unpolished and slow-moving, it’s not bad at it, far better than I expect for a brand-new bot with no other significant skills. Dark swarm is difficult to use well, and I’ve seen tscmoo play more weakly with it.

Vyrebot has a public github repo. A comment mentions YouTube videos, but I didn’t find any.

The Vyrebot game that I liked best is Vyrebot-Slater on Heartbreak Ridge, played on BASIL. But of course other games are less impressive. Usually Vyrebot loses, as you should expect for a bot whose best skill doesn’t come into play until the late game. Any opponent that attacks early, or that attacks in the midgame and knows how to defeat lurkers, or that attacks by air before the late spire finishes, is likely to have an easy time of it. If you want to win, then early game skills are more important than late game skills, because you always have to play the early game and only sometimes reach the late game in a survivable position.

Still, I appreciate a creative approach. Go Vyrebot!