Starcraft AI blog

The major feature for Steamhammer 3.1 will be a new scout boss which will take care of scouting, detection, and providing vision. It’s next because it meets 2 needs: First, scouting must be improved for strategy adaption. You can only predict the opponent’s moves from what you have seen, and the current scouting does not see enough. As one example, the initial scouting overlord hovers in a fixed position over the enemy base, and some protoss bots are smart enough to hide buildings from it. Second, a major weakness in current Steamhammer is that it loses overlords at a high rate. Today, overlords for different purposes are controlled by different code, and only some of the code knows about avoiding dangers. An overlord being sent to watch over a distant base goes there in a straight line, and then so does its replacement and so on, and sometimes an overlord is unassigned from a task and simply stops in a random location. With unified control, overlords will both see more and expose themselves to fewer risks.

The scout boss will also simplify the codebase. It will centralize the functions of the current scout manager and the overlord squad, and of scattered code that controls squad detectors. I expect the 3.1 version to have less total code even though it will be more capable. It will definitely have simpler interfaces with the rest of the program, I have already implemented most of that aspect.

The current scout manager that handles early game scouting knows how to control one worker and one overlord, and that’s all. The scout boss will take command of all flying detectors (including overlords) and floating buildings (I want to add this feature soon), plus whatever units you assign to it. In the opening it will automatically send the second overlord to scout a different base. If you do BBS in the center of the map, you’ll be able to scout with both SCVs to find the enemy faster, as Liquipedia recommends. Many bots already have these skills, Steamhammer has lagged behind.

3.1 should not take as long as 3.0. Unless I fall to temptation and add more features.