For those who don't know Starcraft: microing refers to the small scale/precise maneuvering of units during a battle, as well as activating special unit abilities at certain times. In the lower level leagues microing is not as important as having a good overall large-scale "macro" strategy. The microing really starts coming into play at the higher levels where it can give the edge needed to win a battle.<p>I am not very surprised that machine learning has been able to successfully execute micromanagement. In my opinion the macro decisions are more interesting, since they typically require higher level reasoning (and comprehension of what the opponent is doing). We have yet to see an AI system that can successfully execute macro strategy when playing against a human opponent.
Creating a micromanagement AI is only the first step. This must be piped into a macro AI, which produces the units with with micromanagement can be done. Then, another critical layer beyond micro or macro is scouting the opponent and predicting what their plan is. Next, you need to adapt your own strategy, which must also be planned at the start of the match since you can't scout instantaneously or perfectly. Finally, your own initial strategy choice must be tailored to the map, to the player you're playing against, to recent games/strategies other pros have exposed as powerful/weak. There are an incredible number of layers of complexity to what a truly fierce Starcraft AI would need to do.<p>And yet, something similar may have been said about Go, Chess, Checkers, Poker, Jeopardy, or many other games before this. If enough talented minds and powerful devices focus on Starcraft, how would humans compete? Does anyone here think top pros would win in a best of 7 or a best of 11, for instance? Which top pros, and BW or SC2? To me, I just think it'd be arrogant to assume SC is different from all the other realms in which humans have been bested by machines.
I want an AI assisted mode with API hooks where people can code their own sophisticated "macros" that can be activated with a command/button. Limit the code to X number of characters. It would be awesome to see a tournament with this.
Interesting, outside of the academic merits of the research, I wonder if they could partner with Blizzard (or other similar RTS game studios) and start shipping games with AI that is very difficult to beat? That would usher in a new era of solo and offline game play that could be very fun and challenging! Plus we'd be training Skynet, err, I mean the neural network in the process!
I've always felt like macro is pretty easy to automate, once you've identified a lot of the potentials in the early game you can get going pretty well. Is AI playing against each other getting to some sort of endgame consistently (against equal opponents), or are they having blowouts because of some small difference in midgame?<p>Also wondering what the interface is - are they creating a virtual mouse/keyboard to enter inputs, are they playing in some sort of headless mode? How do they deal with recognizing units?
But can your AI learn to drop mules so it can capture some escaping ultras?<p>Better link: <a href="https://clips.twitch.tv/BusyDrabFennelRedCoat" rel="nofollow">https://clips.twitch.tv/BusyDrabFennelRedCoat</a>
Three great short videos showing an old StarCraft bot in action. I recommend watching #3 then #2. The second shows a pro player for comparison.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOBfAiPhRlKOhdJHaAJ2OpQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOBfAiPhRlKOhdJHaAJ2OpQ</a>
The thing with StarCraft is that there are many types of units and types of damage, you need to alternate between moving and attacking, different units have different roles in a formation, etc.<p>When I pick targets I prefer to kill units that deal the most damage or have low HP first.