Starcraft AI blog

My hope for Steamhammer 1.4 is to release it shortly after SSCAIT ends. Whether it is then or later, 1.4 will come out when it is “done enough.” I have finally decided what “done enough” means.

The headline feature is of course the opponent model. I turned off the extensive game record for this version, and kept only the brief summary of each game against each opponent, largely a list of numbers like when air units came out. The game summaries are already so rich with information that it’s difficult to exploit it all.

The opponent model will initially support 3 features: 1. The plan recognizer to figure out what the enemy is doing. This is in the tournament version and is being improved. 2. Specific strategy reactions to recorded information about this opponent. 3. The largest addition over the tournament version will be opening selection based on the opponent model. My first cut at this will be simple, but it will be able to hard-counter some opponents in the second game played while still choosing openings randomly. The opponent model will allow Steamhammer to play specialized openings that aren’t safe against the average opponent.

Choosing openings according to the opponent model is turning out harder than I expected. The decisions are not hard; I wrote a very simple first try. Refactoring so that the right information is available at the right time for each decision, that’s the tricky part. The codebase remains on a different model. I’ll have to take care to avoid bugs.

I don’t want to ignore terran and protoss. They have been falling behind in skills. Well, they’re going to keep falling behind, but more slowly. All the opponent model features are supported to some extent by every race. I have added new strategy adaptations and emergency reactions so that terran and protoss should be a little less fragile. Today I am trying to get shield batteries working and fix protoss emergency zealot production.

As usual, bug fixes are making a big contribution. The Steamhammer development version is noticeably stronger than the tournament version, to my eyes. The BuildingManager fix helps all races with macro, and the chooseTechTarget() fix (briefly mentioned here) helps zerg avoid strategy blunders.

Steamhammer 1.4 will be the first of the 1.4.x series. I want to make more progress before I move on to the next major feature.