Starcraft AI blog

Steamhammer 2.4 is almost ready. I’ll upload it tomorrow. It has accumulated enough critical bug fixes and changes; it is time to put it on the road and see how it drives.

New are 4 variants of the “Styx” opening (popularized, not invented, by StyxZ—as Ogden Nash said, “Don’t be a discoverer, be a promoter.”). A later post will analyze and compare the variants. And I wrote 3 counter-Styx openings designed to defend and come out ahead.

Steamhammer’s SSCAIT prospects

In 2016, when Steamhammer was brand new, it squeaked into the SSCAIT final playoffs through a tiebreaker match. In 2017 and 2018, it was clear to me ahead of time that Steamhammer would make it into the finals. This year, my life and schedule have been disrupted and I made less progress. Some of the work I put in, like queen skills, was more about having fun than about playing better, because I need some fun. The bottom line is, Steamhammer is failing to keep up with advances. Its rank is sliding.

I think that Steamhammer is still likely to make it into the SSCAIT round of 16, but it may be a close call. There’s a real risk that it may fall short. The fixes in version 2.4 may claw back a rank or two, but not enough to eliminate the risk. It’s possible that I can change Steamhammer’s prospects before then by implementing a killer skill (I have one in mind), but that’s risky in itself, and my past attempts to code killer skills before a deadline have fallen short. But we’ll see.