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random Steamhammer notes

A few unrelated notes about Steamhammer:

The bug that causes Steamhammer to drop commands is due to a missing & in an inconspicuous declaration, causing a data structure to be copied instead of referred to. Updates are made to the copy instead of the correct data, then the copy is thrown away. Even after I deduced that something was being copied behind the scenes, it was tricky to nail the exact mistake.

I developed an opening that I feel I can properly call Fried Liverpool. Like the Fried Liver Attack from chess, mentioned in a comment, it’s crazy sharp and can put on tremendous pressure. Steamhammer can’t play it yet; it needs a couple new features. I tried it by hand and found it is effective against unprepared opponents. Maybe I’ll get it working in time for version 2.2.1 or thereabouts (the one after the upcoming 2.2).

Steamhammer just lost a game against the cannon bot Jakub Trancik. I don’t remember another loss against Jakub Trancik since early last year (maybe I have a bad memory). During the tournament I can’t log in to fetch the game records, but I assume it is the first game against this opponent since version 2.0. It takes a long time to collect enough game records. I’m glad I fixed the proxy recognition bug, or Steamhammer might have lost the next game too.

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Jay Scott on :

Wow, around the time I posted, PurpleWave also lost a game against Jakub Trancik. It’s not a strong opponent, but somehow it is still tricky!

Dan on :

Yeah, PurpleWave's cannon rush defense doesn't recognize when it's scouting a cannon contain too late to stop it, and thus suicides the workers. So PurpleWave loses near-100% to krasi0p as well, making the trio of krasi0p/Killerbot/BananaBrain the bots with the best chances of eliminating me; Killerbot is about 50/50 and BananaBrain 60/40 for me, which in a BO3/5/7 is a toss-up.

PurpleWave used to not pull workers to defend against proxies that far away. But I extended the range to answer BananaBrain proxying Gateways in my natural, and that has resulted in the weakness you see here.

I'm checking every day whether krasi0p's likely to face someone who can take it out -- fortunately, for the moment, that's Steamhammer.

Ironically, I worked on making CherryPi's cannon rush defense safe against late discovery (it doesn't pull workers for cannons in range of completed cannons, but does keep workers fighting cannons as cannons in range of them finish), but never ported that logic back to PurpleWave as I was working up to the deadline on trying to beat Locutus/BananaBrain more reliably. There's never enough time.

Barcode on :

So a (C++) programming bug? The compiler gave no warnings?
Seems like cannonrushing is still a valid approach in 2018-2019 (happy new year btw!).

Jay Scott on :

Cannon rushes happen in pro games too, though all-in cannon rushes are rare.

Joseph Huang on :

You lost vs Jacob.

Thomas on :

I like this new method of strategy development where, instead of saying "Cool build! What should I name it?" You say "Cool name! How should I build It?"

Jay Scott on :

Any cool names to suggest? :-)

Dan on :

Starcraft's already got a Stove -- it might need a Frying Pan, or a Kitchen Sink.

Jay Scott on :

Hmm, Frying Pan, with a fallback build in case it is countered of Fire.

Jay Scott on :

On second thought, if the Stove is protoss and Fried Liverpool is zerg, then the Frying Pan ought to be terran. The Kitchen Sink of course stands for everything.

Thomas on :

How about the Queen's Gambit? (A risky build relying on quick queens.)

Jay Scott on :

Not a bad idea, though the Queen’s Gambit is not a real gambit (it only pretends to offer a pawn).

tolmar on :

I'm excited to figure out what the Fried Liverpool ended up being.

McRave on :

I really hope this is a build where you go 1 hatch lurker, kill your own spawning pool then Overlord drop their mineral line.

Jay Scott on :

The correct time to kill the spawning pool is, of course, immediately after you morph the hydra den (which is after the lair starts). You can use 4 zerglings for the killing. Bots are clue-deficient and will never guess what you are doing. “No pool, I should be safe for now.”

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