Starcraft AI blog

Insanitybot was also updated today. It is another terran fork of Steamhammer, and it is not particularly strong but it has been growing more interesting with every update. It has some play improvements over Steamhammer, but it appears that the author has put more effort into adding terran skills like wraith cloak, spider mines, irradiate, and more. This version also makes ghosts and cloaks them; I’m guessing that nukes may be coming down the pike.

This BASIL game against zerg CUNYbot by Bryan Weber shows off its ability to use optical flare. Optical flare research finishes a little after 11:00 into the game, and the first optical flare that I saw was about a minute later (because the cowardly medics had retreated from the front). Starting at 16:25, more overlords are blinded. CUNYbot does not seem to notice, but maneuvers the blinded overlords as usual—no doubt many other bots would also fail to react. Steamhammer doesn’t notice blind units either; it has never mattered.

Optical flare is similar to parasite in that it is more fun than useful. There are occasional situations where it can be valuable, but usually something else is more important. But that’s in human play; bots may be different. If nukes are coming, as I guessed, then maybe insanitybot will cloak the ghost, blind every detector that shows itself, and nuke in safety.

Few bots have the ability to destroy an undetected unit. Maybe I’ll write about that soon.