Starcraft AI blog

I have finally finished adjusting the terran openings, and I’m working on protoss. Initial signs are that protoss will be easier, but we’ll see. After that I need to make some changes to building placement.

It’s boring to work on openings all the time, so I diverted myself with a few other refinements. The biggest is another round of improvements to the tank siege/unsiege logic. The last round was a tiny tweak that made a difference only in rare cases. Tanks continued to fall into ludicrous siege-unsiege loops, often without firing a shot. This round I was more thorough. The decision to siege analyzes the situation to avoid common mistakes. The decision to unsiege is more strict; part of that I achieved as a side effect of improving tank targeting. The results are easy to see, and tank play is more consequent. Tank micro is still far from good, but the siege/unsiege logic is no longer the weakest link. Now the bigger problems are attack/retreat decisions, positioning, and the issue that Steamhammer has no understanding whatever of visibility.

In between the fixed openings—some are now stronger than they ever were before—and the fixed tank play, Steamhammer’s terran is looking up. I don’t think it’s hugely improved, because too many other problems drag it down, but to me the difference is unmissable.

I was intending the upcoming version 2.2.1 to be nearly the same as 2.2, with only the minimal updates to play on SSCAIT, but it is turning into something more.