Starcraft AI blog

Steamhammer is feature-frozen for AIIDE 2021, so that I don’t risk breaking my good version. Well, maybe not entirely frozen, but reduced to a low temperature (keyword simulated annealing). I will fix bugs and prepare for specific opponents, and I’ll probably also make small feature tweaks if they are safe.

My change list right now has 54 items on it, 14 of them marked as important changes that significantly improve play. With that many, obviously none of them is a big project—there hasn’t been time! But major weaknesses are fixed or reduced, affecting the whole range of strategy, tactics, and micro; all levels have important improvements. I’m pleased and optimistic. (Of course I was optimistic before AIST S4, and then Steamhammer lost 0-4, so....)

For one new feature, I ran a test that involved adding a spore colony at every base. At supply 7 (very early, before the spawning pool), Steamhammer started an evolution chamber and made a spore in the main, and then added a spore at every new base for the rest of the game. The opponent didn’t matter for the test, so I ran it against the protoss built-in AI. I was tickled that, even with the giant handicap, Steamhammer won several games in a row with apparent ease.