Starcraft AI blog

ZerGreenBot has been updated repeatedly, and now plays a richer game. I liked its PvZ best; it opens with a forge fast expand and follows up with corsairs, reavers, and zealots, a strategy that is somewhat similar to mainline human play.

Here are shots from a game on Benzene against Tscmoo zerg. ZerGreenBot opened pylon, forge, cannon, nexus, gateway, cannon. It looks to me like a sound wall-in in the correct place (a couple spots need blocking units to be tight). On maps that don’t allow a wall-in, like Destination, it necessarily builds something looser.

ZerGreenBot’s first tech choice at the next level was stargate, starting air attack +1 before the stargate finished warping. Normal would be ground attack +1, but its choice seemed justified because the corsairs killed overlords throughout the game despite determined resistance. ZerGreenBot still tries its reaver drops versus zerg, but overlord hunting has become its top skill.

Unfortunately ZerGreenBot’s ground units fought so poorly that their code must be buggy. Even the air units showed some stuck-in-a-loop behaviors. Tscmoo won a crushing ground victory in the center and easily took it home. If its author keeps up the good work, though, ZerGreenBot is a threat to reach the top ranks. It has reaver drop and overlord hunting skills beyond any other bot. I think it also has the best protoss wall.

Meanwhile, Bereaver is already a top bot. I watched it battle Tscmoo protoss on the 2-player map Destination. Bereaver made an ill-advised attack across the bridges into Tscmoo’s natural and lost too much army. Tscmoo should have consolidated its advantage by expanding and containing, but instead tried to cash it in immediately with its own attack across Bereaver’s bridges. It could have worked against a weaker bot, but Bereaver defended efficiently with cannons, a reaver, and a handful of troops. Tscmoo overpressed, fell behind, and lost. It was a decent win against a tough opponent.

Next: SSCAIT map comparisons.