A lot of interesting bots were submitted to the StarCraft AI Competition. However, even the best could not beat a skilled human player.
But what about amateur players? Kotaku claimed that most casual StarCraft players would be unable to defeat the bots. The goal of this thread is to test that claim. To do so, I played against the winner of each of the four tournaments. My crowning achievement in StarCraft is once reaching D+ on ICCup, so my skill is much less than that of DoGo, who previously played against the bots.
Tournament 1: Micromanagement The first tournament focuses on micromanagement in flat-terrain environments. The winner was FreScBot, which uses a multi-agent, finite-state-machine approach. The results are shown in the video below:
Winner: Bot While I was able to win 2 of the games, the bot's micro was too beastly for my skill.
Tournament 2: Small-Scale Combat The second tournament builds on the first tournament by adding interesting terrain to the maps. The winner was again FreScBot and my encounter versus the bot is shown below:
Match 1 - Dragoons: 1-0 man advantage Match 2 - Marine/Medic: 1-0 man advantage Match 3 - Dragoons: 1-0 man advantage
Winner: Man Adding complex terrain into the mix really offset the skill of the bot. While I was unable to defeat the bot's dragoons micro in the first tournament, I was able to use the topology of the map to my advantage in the second tournament.
Tournament 3: Tech-limited Game The tech-limited game tournament evaluates bots in a simplified StarCraft environment. The winner was Mimic Bot, which attempts to mirror your build while also stealing your gas and expanding as necessary:
Winner: Man This match was surprisingly difficult. The first game I went goons and was simply out microed by the bot. In the second game, I focused on zealots and used the lack of collecting gas to gain a slight advantage in zealot count. In the third game, I had some fun with the bot, and somehow pulled out a win.
While I was able to win a majority of the matches, the games were very entertaining and I enjoyed the challenge provided by the bot.
Tournament 4: Full Gameplay The complete StarCraft tournament evaluates bots in the full-blown StarCraft game. The winner was Berkeley's Overmind, a bot too complicated to try to explain:
Terran: 1-0 man advantage Protoss: 1-0 man advantage Zerg: 1-0 man advantage
Winner: Man In the first game, I went for a fantasy style build with a vulture drop. I had several issues with my build, such as a failed wall-off, but I was still able to pull out a victory, eventually. Once the mutalisk get out, it is relentless pounding on your base, so it took me awhile to deal with the opponent's expansions. In game two, the bot simply could not handle the zealot timing. Part of the issue is that the bot went for a 12-pool instead of a 9-pool, even though it scouts quite early in the game. And in the final game, the bot could not handle my zergling speed while trying to tech too quickly.
Conclusion: Despite advances in AI, man still reigns supreme, even at an amateur level. I'm not showing this result as a spoiler, because man's supremacy has already been demonstrated. There are a few interesting takeaways from this experiment:
1. These bots are really fun to play against! Overmind and MimicBot challenged me in ways I never imagined, and it really required adapting my strategy to overcome the opponent.
2. Building a zerg bot is hard! Berkeley was pretty ballsy in deciding to go with Zerg and I commend them for their effort.
I'd like to encourage people to play against the bots, but the setup is a little challenging. All bots are now available on the tournament website.
You'll also need to find out which version of BWAPI to use for each Participant.
Unfortunately, it takes two machines to play against a bot. One machine runs the bot, assuming the human player's controls. and the other machine for the human to play. More details at BWAPI.
You'll also need to find out which version of BWAPI to use for each Participant.
Unfortunately, it takes two machines to play against a bot. One machine runs the bot, assuming the human player's controls. and the other machine for the human to play. More details at BWAPI.
have you tried running the bot on a virtual machine while the player uses the real machine?
You'll also need to find out which version of BWAPI to use for each Participant.
Unfortunately, it takes two machines to play against a bot. One machine runs the bot, assuming the human player's controls. and the other machine for the human to play. More details at BWAPI.
have you tried running the bot on a virtual machine while the player uses the real machine?
You'll also need to find out which version of BWAPI to use for each Participant.
Unfortunately, it takes two machines to play against a bot. One machine runs the bot, assuming the human player's controls. and the other machine for the human to play. More details at BWAPI.
have you tried running the bot on a virtual machine while the player uses the real machine?
Should work! I recommend Virtual box. I've tired bot vs bot on one machine, but not man vs bot:
You'll also need to find out which version of BWAPI to use for each Participant.
Unfortunately, it takes two machines to play against a bot. One machine runs the bot, assuming the human player's controls. and the other machine for the human to play. More details at BWAPI.
have you tried running the bot on a virtual machine while the player uses the real machine?
thanks! seems kind of complicated though
I'm working towards being able to host these on a server so that players don't need to run two machines; they can just connect to a server. Therefore, playing against all these bots would just require adding an additional gateway address.
On October 31 2010 07:37 Xeofreestyler wrote: Will these tourneys be held in the coming years aswell?
Yes, AIIDE 2011 will have a competition hosted by the University of Alberta. And we are working towards making these systems more accessible. The goal is to have something similar to computer chess servers, expect for StarCraft, and with matchmaking!
On October 31 2010 08:10 MangoTango wrote: I thought your link for man's domination over computer was Jaedong's computer opponent.
People are now saying Jaedong is a robot? I throught Flash was the only machine allowed to participate. But yeah, Jaedong does have crazy foresight and seems to win when he is behind.
On October 31 2010 08:10 MangoTango wrote: I thought your link for man's domination over computer was Jaedong's computer opponent.
People are now saying Jaedong is a robot? I throught Flash was the only machine allowed to participate. But yeah, Jaedong does have crazy foresight and seems to win when he is behind.
You're welcome to try fighting my ZAPOC AI and tell me how it goes for you.
This was not made with BWAPI and is thus ineligable for that contest. As such it does not have any of the advantages the BWAPI AI has. It has other advantages. It was made to destroy other AI's. But I suspect that ZAPOC could confidently defeat most teams of 7 human players under C level so long as they don't worker cheese it or nuke cheese it.
I did a small video documentary on some of our AI's, which would be considered fairly phased out by BWAPI of similar calibur. But AFAIK no one has attempted to make a serious cheating BWAPI AI along the lines of what we made, though. A BWAPI AI with micro capacity fused with ZAPOC's as-is functionality would certainly be an unkillable AI.
On October 31 2010 11:46 IskatuMesk wrote: You're welcome to try fighting my ZAPOC AI and tell me how it goes for you.
This was not made with BWAPI and is thus ineligable for that contest. As such it does not have any of the advantages the BWAPI AI has. It has other advantages. It was made to destroy other AI's. But I suspect that ZAPOC could confidently defeat most teams of 7 human players under C level so long as they don't worker cheese it or nuke cheese it.
I did a small video documentary on some of our AI's, which would be considered fairly phased out by BWAPI of similar calibur. But AFAIK no one has attempted to make a serious cheating BWAPI AI along the lines of what we made, though. A BWAPI AI with micro capacity fused with ZAPOC's as-is functionality would certainly be an unkillable AI.
EPT
