new bot JJJJJ
I got tired of analyzin’ stuff and let myself get distracted by other projects.
But today we have a new bot! Of course I’m pleased with any bot that names itself after copies of me, it shows good taste. Zerg JJJJJ (also on BASIL) describes itself as “Based on Dave Churchill’s StarterBot! One week project -- 9 pool build order, Hatchery count based build/attack decisions”.
JJJJJ opens with 9 pool, 3 pairs of zerglings, extractor trick, second hatchery and soon a third hatchery. It makes a lot of drones, adds hatcheries as needed, spawns no combat units other than zerglings, and after a while gets gas and starts slowly upgrading stuff. It attacks from time to time and otherwise issues no orders to its zerglings, which sit around the base and/or get lured by nearby enemies. It never expands. It has no combat sim. Though it remembers where it has seen enemies, it sends zerglings randomly around the map when in the dark, without systematic scouting. It defends itself with a sunken (not badly placed) and a spore (not as well placed).
For all that, it plays surprisingly well. The mass of zerglings gets scary for lower-level and even mid-level bot opponents. In checking out games, I saw it beat much more complex bots, like Slater.
It also has strong macro for a bot that never expands. It keeps its minerals slow, spending all its income. It knows how to long-distance mine, though it sometimes does so when it shouldn’t. It collects more gas than it needs, too.
Excellent quick project! Will it continue?
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Tully Elliston on :
Jay Scott on :
Pathos on :
But yes, it was a 1 week project to learn C++ and I'm also surprised that it performs so well. I expected much less than 50% win rate (maybe 1%, maybe 33%), but it's pretty close to 50%, ranked 45 out of 87 on BASIL.
I should mention that the Sunken is placed randomly within a certain radius, and same for Spore.
As for long distance mining, it depends on the vision, unfortunately. It finds whatever is closest mineral is in vision, so if lings are in enemy base and there are no other minerals, the Drones will mine from the enemy base.
So yes, I have lots of figure out, for example expanding (that's why I'm searching for BWEM/BWTA), mining anywhere closer, how not to lose to lower ranked Terrans with Firebats, and worker split for starters. I also recently added a worker scout for 4 player maps.
I will probably make a new bot soon instead of expanding much more on this bot.
Jay Scott on :
Dan on :