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new bot LionGIS

New zerg bot LionGIS, by author LionGIS, is a Steamhammer fork. LionGIS posted a comment toward the end of January “I've improved on Steamhammer and currently have a win rate of around 63% against BananaBrain.” This is presumably that bot. Of course, BananaBrain has been updated since then, and possibly LionGIS has been too. Also, LionGIS was posted without learning data, so it will take time to learn how to play against each opponent. In a month or so, if LionGIS ranks high enough, we may be able to tell whether the win rate claim still holds up.

GIS stands for Geographic Information System. A quick look around suggests that LionGIS in the outside world is a small outfit that has mapped or is mapping Fiji by drone.

The 2018 protoss bot DaQin also names LionGIS as its author, and in fact LionGIS the bot uses the name DaQin in some internal files. LionGIS has a github repo with the old DaQin, but the new zerg bot is not there. DaQin claims to be forked from “Locutus and Steamhammer,” which presumably means that it was forked from Locutus, and might mean that it borrows some code from a Steamhammer version later than Locutus’s base.

LionGIS is forked from a recent Steamhammer version. There’s no reason it should not be the latest. Steamhammer’s DLL is about 1.1MB while LionGIS’s is about 1.3MB, so there is a substantial amount of new code. It might be mostly code from a new library, though, for all I know. It might include code carried over from DaQin. I see new strings in the binary mentioning lurker tactics, something I started work on—using those words—and did not finish (yet). I suspect that the author saw my unfinished code and got it functioning, no doubt with improvements.

LionGIS’s lurker play does look more complicated and stronger than Steamhammer’s. It loves its lurkers, and its strongest matchup is ZvT because of its lurker play. It sticks with lurkers even when they are eaten up by mech or dragoons. I have also seen LionGIS make blunders that Steamhammer does not make, like sending drones into the middle of the map to fight incoming zealots. Most unit maneuvering is similar to Steamhammer. Some differences I noticed: It often gathers fresh units at home, like a human, rather than sending them immediately to the front lines like Steamhammer. Scourge is willing to brave light enemy fire to reach a target, unlike Steamhammer. Zergling micro has been fixed so that zerglings don’t freeze in place for a time like Steamhammer, but it is not clear to me that it improves zergling micro overall (there’s a reason I risk stalling the lings).

LionGIS knows many openings, but only a fraction of Steamhammer’s. It sticks with the better ones, rather than Steamhammer’s approach of throwing in the kitchen sink. LionGIS does have a strange habit of going hydras in ZvZ. I see other questionable decisions, like making double sunkens next to each other to stop encroaching cannons. Steamhammer will make more than one sunken against pushing cannons only if the cannons are pushing in from different directions, and then its sunkens are widely separated.

LionGIS shows signs of being tuned against Stardust. Its play feels different than against other opponents, and it puts up a tough fight before losing. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins sometimes.

All in all, a complicated, interesting, and promising bot. May it gain many updates!

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liongis on :

Do you have a github account? I can add you to the project team.

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