I have spend the past 6 months working on a new custom AI (from scratch) that is better then the AI that comes with the game and is more fun to play against.
Noteable features:
Unit micro (focus fire on weakest unit, use weapon bonuses, retreat wounded units)
Tactical ability usage (blink, force fields, emp's and fungal growth are all used)
Excessive creep spread (zerg AI uses tons of creep tumors to make a creep highway)
Harassment strategies (medivac drops, mutalisk harassment and nydus worms)
Everyone, I need your help! This AI project is my graduation project for school. I am currently writing the final report and I need to know the communities opinion of the AI. When I started on the project one of the goals was to make it challenging for the majority of the playerbase. I need to know if I achieved this goal.
Please play against the AI on the maps I uploaded (preferably more then 1 game, the AI knows a lot of different strategies) and fill in the form below:
What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in)
How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane)
Were you challenged by the AI?
Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game?
If you answered no to one of the two questions above, would you say this AI has the potential to become better?
Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties)
Did you enjoy the match(es)?
I need the answers by tomorrow, so please help me out if you can!
What region man? if its not EU, could you PM me with the map attached so that i can try it out? I'm dissapointed in the blizz AI and yours really sounds promising!
1. What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in)
Gold
2. How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane)
2 - Both medium
3. Were you challenged by the AI?
Yeah
4. Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game?
Yes
6. Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties)
I think medium is pretty low, but it was fair all in all. It did try to grief me with reapers, but did not move the reapers back when i attacked them.
7. Did you enjoy the match(es)?
Yes, it was an improvement over the original ai
What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in)
Platinum, but i almost never play 1v1, could probably be diamond.
How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane)
2, Hard
Were you challenged by the AI?
Well, first game yes, second game no.
Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game?
Definitely
If you answered no to one of the two questions above, would you say this AI has the potential to become better?
Yes, it does, but its already very good
Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties)
Didnt play the lower difficulties, but it plays more similar to humans than the blizz AI
Did you enjoy the match(es)?
Yes, altough the second got boring because the AI didn't do much.
Other Feedback:
So first game was a TvP (i was terran), i fast expanded. To go with my fast expand, i know that usually protoss have very little units before the cybercore finishes, and that unit is maximally 1 zealot (if at all), so i just ran right into the base with 3 marines. The zealot ran away, which is a smart thing to do since he couldve easily gotten outmicroed. But the thing is, i got 5 probe kills with my 3 marines, a fourth marine arrived soon (but a stalker just finished building) and i managed to kill off the zealot as well (losing all but one marine)
After that i built a bunker to guard my expo (since i had only 1 marine), and built a few more marines, rax and a factory. Protoss attack with a decent number of units. The thing was, i lost nothing in that attack, i just got 4 SCVs to repair my bunker and the 4 marines inside it killed the entire army. I recommend making your AI run away from bunkers that are being repaired (if the AI doesn't have a large amount of units)
After that i did some banshee harass with a few banshees, and i must say the AI did very well against it, and what i really liked (and totally didn't expect from an AI) was that it built a photon cannon in it's mineral to protect itself from further banshee harass.
Then it attacked me with a strange gateway unit + Vray mix. Didn't expect that i must say, and didn't expect to come out of that battle alive (but somehow i did. Terran is OP.)
After that i ran to its base with my remaining few marauders, rally pointed all my rax to its base, and finished the game.
Game two:
TvP again, but this time reversed roles.
Fast expanded.
Got attacked, but 4 stalkers managed to hold it off (very small attack for that time of the game... i had to pull off probes since the AI didn't want to run away - it couldve killed the last stalker with its last marine but the warpgate cooldown was almost done), siege tank didnt siege up :/
After that... Not sure whether i got attacked again, if i did i held it off with ease.
Went collosi.
AI scanned my base (another way the AI is better than blizz's), noticed the robotics bay, but didnt go vikings.
AI didnt attack again, nor took a third. I was on 4bases.
I got to 200/200 and attacked. Apparently the AI started building thors. It lost. Badly.
So in general, very good work, blizz should pay you and take your AI as a replacement for their own. But, if an AI scouts a robotics bay, make it go vikings or corruptors. Also don't let the AIs sit on only two bases and not max out their armies, and make it attack more often (i felt like i was in bronze league - max out then A-move...)
To break down the problems you experienced (for my todo list):
Defense against very early aggression is bad Maybe make it pull off 3-4 workers, and possibly use the workers to cut off an enemies micro-path, would be very hard to make though
Recognize the threat of a bunker being repaired (maybe go for the workers that are repairing it) The time it takes to kill the workers + the time it takes to kill the bunker and the units is too long. If youve got enough to survive that amount of time, youve got enough to focus it down quickly. Maybe make the AI try and move around the bunker? (If its not in a choke)
The AI should expand more often if the opponent is playing defensively to keep up with enemy army production Good idea. Maybe add some harass into this as well + regular scouting, and also make it try to outproduce its opponent (so not only match number of bases, but exceed)
It should have build at least 2 vikings when it detected the robotics bay. Should check the replay why it didn't. I didnt see any vikings, but i blinked on top of the army and then warped zealots in the back, so they mightve been killed before i notice. Still, i recommend upping the viking count to aproximately 3*colossus (make it scout number of collosi)
The AI does not attack if he thinks he will be outnumbered anyway. I guess thats good, i recommend doing *something* though, like harassing. It's generally a bad idea to let your opponent do what he wants undisturbed
There, replied in bold in quote
Harass ideas (when the player is playing defensively):
Drops (all 3 races. Terran MM, protoss either zeals or HT-storm-archon drops, zerg could do baneling or roach drops)
Air harass (Banshees, mutas, i think good phoenix usage would be hard to code)
Ling hit-n-run attacks
Reaper sniping squads (run in the base, shoot buildings, once an enemy comes in range, leave. Possibly hit expansions and workers as well)
Blink stalker harass, or colossus harass
Warp prism harass (warping in 2 zeals into a mineral line usually ends up cost effective, even with great response time from the opponent. Charge is just a bonus in case the workers try to run)
Harass would seriously make the AI seem a lot more like a human player, and make it far more challenging!
Also, i recommend the AI tries to have as much vision over the map as possible. i.e. as zerg it sends ovies to empty expansions and around the enemy base (might be hard to code) and uses changelings, protoss uses 3-4 observers, terran places sensor towers and scans every now and then, and of course they all try to hold watchtowers
I am getting requests that I upload these to the US servers as well. I assume I need someone with a US account to upload them for me? How does this usually work?
I am getting requests that I upload these to the US servers as well. I assume I need someone with a US account to upload them for me? How does this usually work?
You can buy US copy and link it to your existing account, let someone else keep uploading your map who owns US copy or let someone who trusts you enough to lend his account for your use time to time to let you upload map yourself to US realm.
Hmm, this may be completely useless to you because the time is up, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Perhaps it will be useful if you continue it as a hobby.
1. Platinum. I haven't played ladder in ages, though - only customs against friends - so this may not be an accurate representation of my skill level.
2. 1 on medium, 1 on v. hard, 3 on insane.
3. No, not really.
4. Yeah, definitely. It's more realistic, has more variety, more closely reflects the meta-game, has a better grasp of tactics and is able to harass. With more development, I can see it becoming a useful practice tool for slightly less skilled players.
5. I like to think so, yeah.
6. It's much more realistic, yeah.
7. Yeah, they were good fun.
--
For reference, here are my thoughts and some general feedback about it.
I only played against zerg, as terran, because that's the matchup I have the most problems with, and I felt like practicing it. I was also practicing macro, so not really microing at all.
The first match was against medium, because I was scared of some terminator-esque uber-bot absolutely smashing me. On the medium level, it sent 3 mutas to my base, directly over two thors, and then did nothing else until my army rolled into its natural, whereupon it surrendered without fighting.
On very hard, I think it got up to one more base, but only because I held off attacking for longer. It didn't do much else.
By the time I got to the first insane match, I was wondering a bit what was going on. My playstyle against zerg involves a drop into the main base at around the 8 minute mark. I hadn't been watching this carefully at all - just recalling the medivac when everything it dropped was dead - but this time I checked back a few times. When my 6 marines and one hellion killed one of its gas, and it's hatchery, all without anything dying, I figured out why the other levels had been so easy.
I watched the replay for that one, and I think the problem happens when it tries to balance the number of workers on its main and natural - the drones were all coming to the main base, and dying, and it was producing more drones instead of an army. In this particular case, the drop killed the extractor, the hatchery and every single drone, then hung around killing more drones as they walking in from the natural, until eventually it sent some roaches and killed everything. Obviously, it didn't do anything else that game.
With that in mind, I decided to hold off on all my harassment for the next games to see what would happen. And it turns out that they were much more fun. One time it did make a nydus network, and use it to nydus to the middle of the map, which considering zerg's mobility on creep, was generally quite pointless.
1. What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in) - gold+
2. How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane) - 2 insane
3. Were you challenged by the AI? not really
4. Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game? Cant tell after this one match sorry.
5. If you answered no to one of the two questions above, would you say this AI has the potential to become better? YES
6. Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties) no
7. Did you enjoy the match(es)? yes
Played Zerg vs Protoss, fast expand & some zerglings
AI defended at first and went 3 gate+robo + expansion
AI reacted to my Zerglings but then decided to attack rocks at high yield while my Zerglings demolished its expansion. It reacted by sending in more probes (reminded me of futurama: SEND IN MORE TRAINS lol) well and then it offered gg.
1. dont send in more probes to average out probes between bases if one is under attack
2. maybe scout around your base/expansion while attacking rocks so you can defend
edit: match 2:
This time I went 1 base fast mutalisks ai probe scouted and then stopped that for no reason?
AI went 1 base dark templar and attacked once at ~7 minutes (so right when the mutalisks popped out) with 3 stalkers 4 zealots - after seeing the mutalisks it attempted to retreat with the army (maybe split the army against faster units so at least some survive or just suicide attack with some units)
Once I reached the base AI warped in some stalkers but decided not to react to the mutalisks above the probes in any way. Had to kill all remaining zealots/dark templar to get a gg this time...
1. Dont stop scouting while its still possible - didnt even build a queen until t2.
2. Retreat can be improved
3. Defend probes, counter attack or gg but never just afk for 5 minutes - well this actually looks human ... if you want this maybe hide some buildings / lift off as terran =]
I couldn't find anything containing EagleAI on battle.net (US region). Did you take it down?
NVM I just saw you're not US. I'll keep checking on this and see if you find someone to upload it there. I would offer, but I'm also a mapmaker and I don't have many slots left.
I have spend the past 6 months working on a new custom AI (from scratch) that is better then the AI that comes with the game and is more fun to play against.
Noteable features:
--
I have uploaded the following maps with this AI integrated:
How to play: Create a custom game and search for "EagleAI". Add an AI to the game and set the difficulty. That's it!
Please try it and let me know what you think. Feel free to post the replay. (if you do, please tell me which league you are in)
PS It's possible the AI is vulnerable to some cheeses. I haven't build any specific counters against those yet, so please be a sport and play fair. :)
Everyone, I need your help! This AI project is my graduation project for school. I am currently writing the final report and I need to know the communities opinion of the AI. When I started on the project one of the goals was to make it challenging for the majority of the playerbase. I need to know if I achieved this goal.
Please play against the AI on the maps I uploaded (preferably more then 1 game, the AI knows a lot of different strategies) and fill in the form below:
I need the answers by tomorrow, so please help me out if you can!
Problem is that this is map making community and not really that many very active melee players are here.
+9,001
I'll definitely try this out, I don't think I can do so in time to give you feedback though.
What region man? if its not EU, could you PM me with the map attached so that i can try it out? I'm dissapointed in the blizz AI and yours really sounds promising!
1. What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in)
Gold
2. How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane)
2 - Both medium
3. Were you challenged by the AI?
Yeah
4. Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game?
Yes
6. Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties)
I think medium is pretty low, but it was fair all in all. It did try to grief me with reapers, but did not move the reapers back when i attacked them.
7. Did you enjoy the match(es)?
Yes, it was an improvement over the original ai
@Clord: Go
It doesn't really matter how good you are, this AI should be able to provide a fun experience for players of low skill levels as well.
@TheAlmaity: Go
Sorry, completely forgot about regions. They are on the EU servers.
@obliviron: Go
Thanks! That's what I need!
: (
Other Feedback: So first game was a TvP (i was terran), i fast expanded. To go with my fast expand, i know that usually protoss have very little units before the cybercore finishes, and that unit is maximally 1 zealot (if at all), so i just ran right into the base with 3 marines. The zealot ran away, which is a smart thing to do since he couldve easily gotten outmicroed. But the thing is, i got 5 probe kills with my 3 marines, a fourth marine arrived soon (but a stalker just finished building) and i managed to kill off the zealot as well (losing all but one marine) After that i built a bunker to guard my expo (since i had only 1 marine), and built a few more marines, rax and a factory. Protoss attack with a decent number of units. The thing was, i lost nothing in that attack, i just got 4 SCVs to repair my bunker and the 4 marines inside it killed the entire army. I recommend making your AI run away from bunkers that are being repaired (if the AI doesn't have a large amount of units) After that i did some banshee harass with a few banshees, and i must say the AI did very well against it, and what i really liked (and totally didn't expect from an AI) was that it built a photon cannon in it's mineral to protect itself from further banshee harass. Then it attacked me with a strange gateway unit + Vray mix. Didn't expect that i must say, and didn't expect to come out of that battle alive (but somehow i did. Terran is OP.) After that i ran to its base with my remaining few marauders, rally pointed all my rax to its base, and finished the game.
Game two: TvP again, but this time reversed roles. Fast expanded. Got attacked, but 4 stalkers managed to hold it off (very small attack for that time of the game... i had to pull off probes since the AI didn't want to run away - it couldve killed the last stalker with its last marine but the warpgate cooldown was almost done), siege tank didnt siege up :/ After that... Not sure whether i got attacked again, if i did i held it off with ease. Went collosi. AI scanned my base (another way the AI is better than blizz's), noticed the robotics bay, but didnt go vikings. AI didnt attack again, nor took a third. I was on 4bases. I got to 200/200 and attacked. Apparently the AI started building thors. It lost. Badly.
So in general, very good work, blizz should pay you and take your AI as a replacement for their own. But, if an AI scouts a robotics bay, make it go vikings or corruptors. Also don't let the AIs sit on only two bases and not max out their armies, and make it attack more often (i felt like i was in bronze league - max out then A-move...)
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ModeratorsReally nice work MT, I remember you bringing this up a long time ago. I'm going to go ahead and take a look at this pretty soon.
@TheAlmaity: Go
Thank you for extensive feedback.
To break down the problems you experienced (for my todo list):
It should have build at least 2 vikings when it detected the robotics bay. Should check the replay why it didn't.
The AI does not attack if he thinks he will be outnumbered anyway.
There, replied in bold in quote
Harass ideas (when the player is playing defensively):
Harass would seriously make the AI seem a lot more like a human player, and make it far more challenging!
Also, i recommend the AI tries to have as much vision over the map as possible. i.e. as zerg it sends ovies to empty expansions and around the enemy base (might be hard to code) and uses changelings, protoss uses 3-4 observers, terran places sensor towers and scans every now and then, and of course they all try to hold watchtowers
I am getting requests that I upload these to the US servers as well. I assume I need someone with a US account to upload them for me? How does this usually work?
You can buy US copy and link it to your existing account, let someone else keep uploading your map who owns US copy or let someone who trusts you enough to lend his account for your use time to time to let you upload map yourself to US realm.
Hmm, this may be completely useless to you because the time is up, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Perhaps it will be useful if you continue it as a hobby.
1. Platinum. I haven't played ladder in ages, though - only customs against friends - so this may not be an accurate representation of my skill level.
2. 1 on medium, 1 on v. hard, 3 on insane.
3. No, not really.
4. Yeah, definitely. It's more realistic, has more variety, more closely reflects the meta-game, has a better grasp of tactics and is able to harass. With more development, I can see it becoming a useful practice tool for slightly less skilled players.
5. I like to think so, yeah.
6. It's much more realistic, yeah.
7. Yeah, they were good fun.
--
For reference, here are my thoughts and some general feedback about it.
I only played against zerg, as terran, because that's the matchup I have the most problems with, and I felt like practicing it. I was also practicing macro, so not really microing at all.
The first match was against medium, because I was scared of some terminator-esque uber-bot absolutely smashing me. On the medium level, it sent 3 mutas to my base, directly over two thors, and then did nothing else until my army rolled into its natural, whereupon it surrendered without fighting.
On very hard, I think it got up to one more base, but only because I held off attacking for longer. It didn't do much else.
By the time I got to the first insane match, I was wondering a bit what was going on. My playstyle against zerg involves a drop into the main base at around the 8 minute mark. I hadn't been watching this carefully at all - just recalling the medivac when everything it dropped was dead - but this time I checked back a few times. When my 6 marines and one hellion killed one of its gas, and it's hatchery, all without anything dying, I figured out why the other levels had been so easy.
I watched the replay for that one, and I think the problem happens when it tries to balance the number of workers on its main and natural - the drones were all coming to the main base, and dying, and it was producing more drones instead of an army. In this particular case, the drop killed the extractor, the hatchery and every single drone, then hung around killing more drones as they walking in from the natural, until eventually it sent some roaches and killed everything. Obviously, it didn't do anything else that game.
With that in mind, I decided to hold off on all my harassment for the next games to see what would happen. And it turns out that they were much more fun. One time it did make a nydus network, and use it to nydus to the middle of the map, which considering zerg's mobility on creep, was generally quite pointless.
@MTops: Go
Designing AI must be fun. If only I had the time..
I`ll definitely get to testing this sometime.
1. What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in) - gold+
2. How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane) - 2 insane
3. Were you challenged by the AI? not really
4. Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game? Cant tell after this one match sorry.
5. If you answered no to one of the two questions above, would you say this AI has the potential to become better? YES
6. Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties) no
7. Did you enjoy the match(es)? yes
Played Zerg vs Protoss, fast expand & some zerglings
AI defended at first and went 3 gate+robo + expansion
AI reacted to my Zerglings but then decided to attack rocks at high yield while my Zerglings demolished its expansion. It reacted by sending in more probes (reminded me of futurama: SEND IN MORE TRAINS lol) well and then it offered gg.
1. dont send in more probes to average out probes between bases if one is under attack
2. maybe scout around your base/expansion while attacking rocks so you can defend
edit: match 2:
This time I went 1 base fast mutalisks ai probe scouted and then stopped that for no reason?
AI went 1 base dark templar and attacked once at ~7 minutes (so right when the mutalisks popped out) with 3 stalkers 4 zealots - after seeing the mutalisks it attempted to retreat with the army (maybe split the army against faster units so at least some survive or just suicide attack with some units)
Once I reached the base AI warped in some stalkers but decided not to react to the mutalisks above the probes in any way. Had to kill all remaining zealots/dark templar to get a gg this time...
1. Dont stop scouting while its still possible - didnt even build a queen until t2.
2. Retreat can be improved
3. Defend probes, counter attack or gg but never just afk for 5 minutes - well this actually looks human ... if you want this maybe hide some buildings / lift off as terran =]
I couldn't find anything containing EagleAI on battle.net (US region). Did you take it down?
NVM I just saw you're not US. I'll keep checking on this and see if you find someone to upload it there. I would offer, but I'm also a mapmaker and I don't have many slots left.
This needs to be hosted on US Servers still!!!!1
Can you add a difficulty called 'Impossible' and the AI is literally impossible to beat. Perfect everything! Perfect game! :D