Starcraft AI blog

We got a new bot! We got a new bot! Protoss Slater is not very strong yet, but it has some nice initial skills and I expect it could jump up from the bottom of the ranking with fixes for a few of the bigger weaknesses.

Java bot Slater seems to play a fixed build: One zealot, cybernetics core, unit mix of dragoons and zealots, adding in reavers with shuttles. It’s not an aggressive build, but one that builds up strength over time. The build seems well-executed for a beginner, and Slater is good at keeping its money down. It gets upgrades like dragoon range and shuttle speed. Like most new bots, it is weak in combat skills.

This reaver drop was almost devastating. The reavers are in range, it’s too bad that scarabs can’t reach down the cliff.

Slater pulls nearly all probes to chase the enemy scouting worker in the early game, losing far too much mining time at a critical phase. That might be the biggest easy-to-fix weakness. I recommend ignoring the enemy scout unless it attacks something, at least until you have a unit that can catch it like a dragoon.

Update: Here is Slater’s best game so far, Slater-ZZZKBot by Chris Coxe on Tau Cross, played on BASIL. Slater’s build is adaptive; it played differently against the zergling rush.