• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 15:32
CEST 21:32
KST 04:32
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!9[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Evil Geniuses - shutting down14ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier5Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1[$1250] International ShieldBattery League59Weekly Cups (October 5-11): Farewell to 5.0.167
StarCraft 2
General
No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? REPORT: StarCraft 2: Remastered In Development Evil Geniuses - shutting down How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? Daily SC2 Player Grid - feedback wanted
Tourneys
ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WORTEX Challenger Series — Open SC2 LAN in Budapes
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players [M] (2) Sweltering Sands
External Content
Mutation # 548 Shining Bright The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 547 Temple Of Terror Mutation # 546 Catch the Train
Brood War
General
Bot on ladder Battle.net abbreviations list Starcraft player cRuZa Passed away. Young Players Tournament Announced by SOOP Do we even care about balance?
Tourneys
[$1250] International ShieldBattery League [BSL23] RO24 Group C Small VOD Thread 2.0 2v2v2v2 Tournament
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) 50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Armies of Exigo - YesYes? General RTS Discussion Thread Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Canadian Politics Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Artificial Intelligence Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 9510 users

APM isn't everything for Bots

Forum Index > BW General
Post a Reply
1 2 3 Next All
djsherman
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States140 Posts
May 09 2011 17:47 GMT
#1
One of the comments that has frequently come up when discussing the StarCraft AI Competition is that bots should be APM-limited, to prevent bots from exploiting behavior that would be impossible for a human to perform. An example of this is the mutalisk control exhibited by Berkeley's Overmind bot. However, APM isn't everything, which is demonstrated in the match below between EISBot (Protoss) and Overmind (Zerg):



[image loading]

The APM of each bot during the match is shown in the chart above. EISBot was able to win with an average APM of 207 against a bot with 3397. While demonstrating high APM in StarCraft is impressive, it seems that a larger APM does not always equate to better performance for bots. At what point does increasing APM no longer improve performance? And is there a significant difference between effective APM and actual APM?
StarCraft AI Competition Organizer
bITt.mAN
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Switzerland3701 Posts
May 09 2011 18:03 GMT
#2
Oh man I always love these AI projects, they make playing against the computer so much more of an exciting idea (Blizzard AI's = :{ ).

Well I don't think a game of mass goon versus 2-hatch mutas is super indicative, it's still nice to see the Overmind dine some time (it was against a Toss no wonder ).


Simple questions: Are you able to simply tweak the normal AI (nothing too intrusive) to only fix major issues, such as staying on 3-base max, mineral-blocked islands and mineral/neutral walls, because with those gone I wouldn't feel so bad playing against the computer to kill time (and can't reach iCCup)?

Also, why hasn't anyone made some insane AI's to pull off the most orgasmic, trans-Boxer MnM micro yet seen by man? Imagine, 1 marine > 5 lurkers (is there even a Marine v Lurker AI?). Or am I missing something?
In any case, just because your APM isint 340 3397 doesn't mean you're bad (says the guy with the low-ish AMP)
BW4LYF . . . . . . PM me, I LOVE PMs. . . . . . Long live "NaDa's Body" . . . . . . Fantasy | Bisu/Best | Jaedong . . . . .
Deleted User 101379
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
4849 Posts
May 09 2011 18:06 GMT
#3
Nah, it just shows that with perfect play Protoss are OP in BW :p

Just kidding

A lot actually comes down to decision making and how the APM are used. For example in the first minute or so i see the overlord changing direction 10 times in 2 seconds, which is clearly useless. It seems that the Overmind Bot just has horrible decision making and strategy, while EISBot is quite good.
No amount of micro can let you win with bad decision making.
foxmeep
Profile Joined July 2009
Australia2338 Posts
May 09 2011 18:07 GMT
#4
Fundamentally there is no difference between a human or a bot playing. The exact same factors that determine success in a human vs human game apply to a bot vs bot game. We all know that a strong strategy and build order is more important than the difference between good and perfect execution.
djsherman
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States140 Posts
May 09 2011 18:08 GMT
#5
On May 10 2011 03:03 bITt.mAN wrote:
Simple questions: Are you able to simply tweak the normal AI (nothing too intrusive) to only fix major issues, such as staying on 3-base max, mineral-blocked islands and mineral/neutral walls, because with those gone I wouldn't feel so bad playing against the computer to kill time (and can't reach iCCup)?


To write bots that can perform actions at the unit level, it is necessary to use BWAPI. Given this configuration it is not possible to just modify the existing AI, it would be necessary to first reimplement the AI with BWAPI and then add micro capabilities.

On a different note, limiting APM may cause bots to act more like humans, but this may or may not be a desirable quality.
StarCraft AI Competition Organizer
MangoTango
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States3670 Posts
May 09 2011 18:08 GMT
#6
PvZ imba discussion inc

Cool video, it was fun watching computers play each other. I used to watch AIs fight each other in BW, back with their original AIs. Fun stuff.
"One fish, two fish, red fish, BLUE TANK!" - Artosis
Endymion
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States3701 Posts
May 09 2011 18:08 GMT
#7
That muta control... So scary, I remember seeing a video with wraiths vs hydralisks with similar AI..
Have you considered the MMO-Champion forum? You are just as irrational and delusional with the right portion of nostalgic populism. By the way: The old Brood War was absolutely unplayable
djsherman
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States140 Posts
May 09 2011 18:11 GMT
#8
On May 10 2011 03:06 Morfildur wrote:
No amount of micro can let you win with bad decision making.


Is this generally agreed upon? What if you have godly zergling micro, such that your opponents can never react in time? Perhaps a 4-pooling bot can eliminate the need for strategic decision making.
StarCraft AI Competition Organizer
G_Wen
Profile Joined September 2009
Canada525 Posts
May 09 2011 18:12 GMT
#9
As for creating bots I would argue a large number of the apm used is efficient. Obviously the APM from the overmind bot comes from microing the mutaslisks which require fewer apm than controlling dragoons.

The point where increasing apm no longer benefits depends on a how fast units take to respond. For example if you attack with a mutalisk are no matter what you input in the next 10 frames will not matter. If it takes 5 frames to change direction but 3 frames to cancel the change in direction and replace that command with another one the maximum apm achievable for a mutalisk would be 1200 apm (assuming 60 fps). The best unit to demonstrate this would be the siege tank. Do this for each unit you currently have and you have the maximum efficient apm. (This is to say if your apm was distributed as efficiently as possible). You gain nothing from additional apm you lose the option of perfect micro of all your units if you go below this point. Wasted apm (such as telling a character to move to the same location over and over again) will increase your APM but not your EAPM.
ESV Mapmaking Team
djsherman
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States140 Posts
May 09 2011 18:12 GMT
#10
On May 10 2011 03:08 Endymion wrote:
That muta control... So scary, I remember seeing a video with wraiths vs hydralisks with similar AI..


StarCraft AI Competition Organizer
djsherman
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States140 Posts
May 09 2011 18:14 GMT
#11
For reference, here's a video demonstrating the Overmind's APM:

StarCraft AI Competition Organizer
djsherman
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States140 Posts
May 09 2011 18:16 GMT
#12
On May 10 2011 03:08 MangoTango wrote:
PvZ imba discussion inc


A good ling surround will easily kill EISBot. So PvZ is not completely imba, at least for EISBot
StarCraft AI Competition Organizer
FabledIntegral
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
United States9232 Posts
May 09 2011 18:17 GMT
#13
You can have 10,000 APM, perfect unit control, and still lose simply because you built the wrong units, attacked at the wrong time, didn't retreat at the correct time, etc.
Endymion
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States3701 Posts
May 09 2011 18:17 GMT
#14
On May 10 2011 03:12 djsherman wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 10 2011 03:08 Endymion wrote:
That muta control... So scary, I remember seeing a video with wraiths vs hydralisks with similar AI..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcjQhig88wE


thank you ^^
Have you considered the MMO-Champion forum? You are just as irrational and delusional with the right portion of nostalgic populism. By the way: The old Brood War was absolutely unplayable
HaFnium
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United Kingdom1080 Posts
May 09 2011 18:18 GMT
#15
On May 10 2011 03:11 djsherman wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 10 2011 03:06 Morfildur wrote:
No amount of micro can let you win with bad decision making.


Is this generally agreed upon? What if you have godly zergling micro, such that your opponents can never react in time? Perhaps a 4-pooling bot can eliminate the need for strategic decision making.


Depends on how bad your decision making is I think.

And as people has mentioned before, it depends really on how is the APM used, lings are harder to micro in this case because they are melee. In this video we can see the lings sometimes kept running forwards and backwards wasting APM.

A 4 pool bot can be good but probes/drones have moving shot/stacking can counter 4 pool with perfect micro IMO, scvs also have 60 hp.
BW forever!
Deleted User 101379
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
4849 Posts
May 09 2011 18:19 GMT
#16
On May 10 2011 03:11 djsherman wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 10 2011 03:06 Morfildur wrote:
No amount of micro can let you win with bad decision making.


Is this generally agreed upon? What if you have godly zergling micro, such that your opponents can never react in time? Perhaps a 4-pooling bot can eliminate the need for strategic decision making.


Well, if you only build Zerglings, the opponent can win the game with a single scout. You need at least adequate decision making to win a game, and that decision making is the thing that humans can do very easily but bots will always struggle with it.
bITt.mAN
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Switzerland3701 Posts
May 09 2011 18:38 GMT
#17
Ah yes another thing I thought about:

I heard someone say that in SC2 (ah yes it was the "tricks with pathing" video) if you click more times your unit won't move as quickly to it's destination. My heart, died. I had always felt so pro spam-clicking on the same spot, and it was painful to hear that wasn't only useless, it was actually detrimental.

Is this true with SC:BW unit AI?


And another thing, heyoo Mr. djsherman OP, you sound capable, could you please make an AI that teaches marines to micro versus lurkers (that plus microing the heals of medics to get their health up JUST to the right level to no die in one hit). I'd really love to see a perfect, and I mean perfect marine split versus like 5 lurkers. My life would be complete
BW4LYF . . . . . . PM me, I LOVE PMs. . . . . . Long live "NaDa's Body" . . . . . . Fantasy | Bisu/Best | Jaedong . . . . .
DorF
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Sweden961 Posts
May 09 2011 18:47 GMT
#18
I love watching the bots micro their little hearts out
BW for life !
Bwenjarin Raffrack
Profile Joined November 2008
United States322 Posts
May 09 2011 18:50 GMT
#19
I believe when people say the AIs should be APM-limited, they mean that the ideal would be using something like AutoHotkey to manipulate the actual interface with mouse and keyboard commands instead of having hooks directly into the game's memory.

Of course, something like that would be inordinately harder to program, but simultaneously much more realistic. It would also cleanly allow the use of "proper" mutalisk micro by using control groups.

A similar project was started in SC2 using ScreenAPI to manipulate the game interface rather than through something like Galaxy Editor scripting.

I'm not as thunk as dreople pink I am.
Bajadulce
Profile Joined October 2004
United States322 Posts
May 09 2011 19:02 GMT
#20
I was one of those that thought APM needed to be limited, but have since been enlightened on the subject with some convincing statistics and don't feel its a concern. I wouldn't worry too much about the APM at this juncture, but continue to refine the project and the bot's intelligence.

Looking forward to seeing the project move forward with spell usage now. The micro management of units is godly and has been exciting to watch be fine tuned. Really want to see the bots start using those epic Starcraft spells now. Lockdown, darkswarm, emp, stasis, recall, consume, disruptions web, hallucination, perfect storms, blah, blah, blah.
Planar Erratus: (www.broodwarai.com/mods/peai) Where the worlds of Baldur’s Gate, Arcanum, Diablo, Icewind Dale, Torment, and Warcraft collide with Starcraft. Don't question, just play! ... Dedicated to all my TL.net friends and old schoolers!
1 2 3 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
AI Arena Tournament
02:00
RO8 - Day 1
FEL
18:00
ScienceCraft - Day 1
RotterdaM644
IndyStarCraft 346
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 644
mouzHeroMarine 383
IndyStarCraft 346
JuggernautJason65
BRAT_OK 59
EmSc Tv 18
StarCraft: Brood War
Shuttle 937
Dewaltoss 103
ZZZero.O 101
Sexy 35
HiyA 34
Mong 29
Hyuk 28
Dota 2
Cr1tdota2010
canceldota73
febbydoto7
LuMiX1
League of Legends
JimRising 569
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu547
Trikslyr107
MindelVK18
Other Games
Grubby3544
Liquid`RaSZi2118
FrodaN1922
singsing1730
B2W.Neo874
Beastyqt656
QueenE46
UpATreeSC21
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1587
StarCraft 2
EmSc Tv 18
EmSc2Tv 18
angryscii 12
[ Show 21 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• printf 64
• Adnapsc2 35
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Pr0nogo 151
• 80smullet 27
• FirePhoenix10
• ChaeLyn 8
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 2728
League of Legends
• Jankos4178
• Nemesis3443
• Scarra1175
Other Games
• imaqtpie690
• Shiphtur487
• tFFMrPink 10
Upcoming Events
FEL
14h 28m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
14h 28m
Replay Cast
1d 3h
WardiTV Weekly
1d 16h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
2 days
ByuN vs Lambo
MaxPax vs Bunny
PiGosaur Cup
3 days
The PondCast
3 days
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
IntoTheTV X SOOP
4 days
SHIN vs GuMiho
Clem vs Classic
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
[ Show More ]
GSL
5 days
Epic.LAN
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Epic.LAN
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #5 - GSC
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
BSL Season 23
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

IPSL Winter 2026-27
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.