Starcraft AI blog

The AITT S2 tournament (not to be confused with AIST S2) has been announced, AI Tinycraft Tournament for bots with under 4000 bytes of source. Registration deadline is 1 April, submission is 1 May. For this edition, the maps are air oriented, with starting bases that are islands, or that begin isolated by ground with exits blocked by minerals that can be mined, or neutral buildings that can be destroyed. All 5 maps are difficult, and they have common points but they are quite different from each other.

• (2) Paradoxxx is an old island map with 2 bases worth of resources in each main: 14 mineral patches and 2 gas geysers. The only other gas expansions are overlooked by a wide high ground area that the players are to fight over. If you can control the central high ground, which has no resources itself, you can probably control both gas expansions in the long run.

• (2) Coulee is a Blizzard map from way back. Each starting base has a main and natural that are somewhat far by ground and close by air, and which together are blocked from the rest of the map by a row of mineral patches with 500 minerals each. There are corner bases blocked by a mineral patch of 24 minerals (modern maps generally have 8 or 0 minerals in that kind of blocking patch). And there are center bases that you can try to hold if you somehow gain enough map control. The 2 center gas geysers, with no minerals nearby, have only 2000 gas each. It takes a long time to mine through 500 minerals, so you probably want to go drop or air. You could also push 3 workers through the minerals (or build a command center and float it outside, then make 3 workers there) and take a corner base, but you’ll be lacking mobility.

• (3) Plasma from 2008 has several tricky features. The main is small, so not all your buildings will fit there. The ramp is narrow, so that large units cannot pass. There are arrays of neutral eggs blocking the paths between bases. You can mineral walk workers through the eggs, because there are mineral patches placed in view on both sides. Other units can only pass once eggs are destroyed to clear a path, and eggs are tough so that takes time. (Well, can only pass easily. It’s possible to push units through the eggs, but it’s not quick or reliable.) Next to each main are a mineral only natural near the ramp and a gas natural on the opposite side. The center area provides access to 3 high ground expansions, each of which overlooks 2 starting bases.

• (4) Sparkle is the 2018 island map that attempts to be fair to zerg. Each base comes with a natural that has a blocking building that must be destroyed before you can mine the gas. It also comes with a third that has 3 mineral patches and a geyser that only zerg can mine from. There are 4 center islands with a base each, but it is often preferable to take a second main because it has more resources.

• (4) Arkanoid is about destroying neutral stuff. Each starting position comes with 3 bases, a main and 2 equal naturals, one to each side. Each of the dual naturals is blocked by 4 neutral chrysalis units, though I’ve seen a number of games where players mine with an offset resource depot instead of clearing the position. There are 3 paths out of each base, but each path is blocked by neutral buildings, and then you have to destroy further neutral buildings to get anywhere else. It is key to know where you are going so that you can destroy the right buildings. Arkanoid historically favors terran and sneers at protoss.

Useful skills are drop, pushing units through minerals, mineral-walking workers through neutral units, destroying neutral stuff that is in the way, and floating terran buildings for scouting and for mobility. For example, on Coulee a terran could float a factory out of the base and make 1 tank to prevent the enemy from mining its own blocking minerals; there are unbuildable areas on the map, but not just outside the bases, so add turrets and more units and the enemy will be forced to stick with air or drop.

I expect we’re going to see some wacky strategies from the tiny bots. Carriers versus battlecruisers will not surprise me. On the downside, the maps have bad imbalances in human play, although bot play is known to be different. I expect that we will see mostly terran and protoss and few zerg.