Starcraft AI blog

Last night I dreamed that my hatcheries came under air attack by fire-breathing dragons. I had to defeat them with scourge. Did you know that dragons are as tough as battlecruisers or carriers? Six scourge each, it takes a lot of gas to shoot them down!

Meanwhile, Steamhammer is ready for SSCAIT, and has been for a few days. I have been running tests, finding that all is good enough, and refusing to make other fixes or changes. SCHNAIL recently added a file so that bots can recognize when they are running under it, and I even skipped checking for that to reduce the small risk. The Killer Feature works as intended and causes headaches for some opponents, though by no means all. I expect it will be good for several wins, and certain amount of “Ah, now I have to be ready for THAT?” Whatever makes Steamhammer’s play more complex and interesting is worth having.

Immediate plans: Steamhammer 2.4.1 change list shortly after SSCAIT submission closes. Then Steamhammer 2.4.2 a little after with one more change, SCHNAIL recognition so that running under SCHNAIL automatically turns on the HumanOpponent flag. I’ll release source for the 2.4.2 version.

What should I do next? Here are the fixes that would make the biggest difference in the short run:

• Overlords, surprisingly, are not handed out for free. Keep them safe.
• Don’t transfer drones by the dozen through the enemy army.
• Correct gross weaknesses in defense.

The development plan calls for strategy adaptation work. Next steps I could take toward that include:

• Improved scouting.
• Production goals.
• Opening timing for decision making.

Then there’s the fun stuff. I wrote down about a dozen different tactical tricks suitable for zerg (and a few more that only other races can play), ranging from proxy hatchery to stop lurkers. Three of them are played by current bots, one other in past years by a long-defunct bot, so there is opportunity to surprise opponents. I imagine a bag-of-tricks meta-skill that combines information to decide when to try a trick: Map analysis (“aha, the main has a back door”), cost estimates and success rates, the game situation, and opponent model data. Of course it would record results in the opponent model, so it could learn how to exploit different opponents. That would be cool in itself, and it would also provide a way for forks to customize their behavior.

Looking over the possible next steps, I see some overlap. Overlord safety, drone transfers, and improved scouting all benefit from pathfinding skills. Pathfinding is basic and can improve all movement decisions, so sooner is better. Path analysis skills are useful for many of the tricks. Also overlords are good for scouting, so overlord safety and scouting are closely related. I think I will add pathfinding and overlord skills soon.