Starcraft AI blog

Steamhammer is almost ready for AIIDE. I have fixed all the major bugs and weaknesses that I have time for—the last was a newly-introduced bug in mutalisks caused by tightening up the micro, it was a bad one. The rest will be simple low-risk fixes and testing to make sure I don’t have another disaster like in CIG (it’s a risk, I wrote a bunch of new code and my change log records over 80 items).

Steamhammer is still weaker against some opponents, though not by as wide a margin as in my last update. It still crushes some opponents that it used to lose to. I can’t foresee which way the balance will fall, definitely not in this tournament with so many new names. My ambition remains to finish in the top 3rd, about the same as last year, which will mean that I am keeping up with the blazing fast progress in the scene.

There are changes at all levels. I have the highest hopes for improvements to the opponent model (key for a long tournament), the squad structure (sounder in principle than the old one), and certain of the micro optimizations (not fully exploited yet, but a firmer foundation).

Regardless how well Steamhammer performs in AIIDE, looking back over the past year I feel I’ve gotten a good amount done. Steamhammer is still short on basic skills, but compared to a year ago it is smarter in most ways. There is a mountain left to move, but I am that much closer to having moved it.

Steamhammer 2.0 for AIIDE will be specialized for zerg only. There won’t be stuff for the other races in the config file, and I haven’t tested that terran and protoss work at all. I’ll upload it to SSCAIT shortly after the AIIDE deadline, only turning on a few of the screen drawing options. Since it plays so differently, I’ll erase the learned opponent data again. A few days after that, depending on how wiped out I feel and whether any surprises turn up, expect Steamhammer 2.1 and its identical twin Randomhammer that plays all races. Along with, of course, a series of posts about the details of my work, the unexpected problems that cropped up, and the known problems that I would have solved if only there were more time.