Wow, major error spam... I'm not sure what caused the problem, but I made sure it won't happen again. It will be fixed in the next update. Thanks for the upload.
@MotiveMe How do you post a replay? I have a bunch of replays for MTops to look at but can't figure out how to do it. I don't want to write a wall of text. I've done 60+ games on hard as zerg v X.
Long story short the EagleAI does not handle mass sling very well. I played one Z v P on Insane and lost because I stayed on tier 1 - 1.5. I think I could have won if I kept killing his workers and teched up.
I did an insane PvT on Caverns. The AI felt much easier than Blizz' insane AI. It didn't attack me once. It only tried to harass by sending one hellion at my main entrance pretty late and I already had several stalkers to deal with it. A bit later it sent an uncloaked banshee straight over my base that died before it reached my workers. After that I kept expanding and building up my army, for I fancied practicing my macro as I hadn't played a melee game in a few weeks. It hadn't attacked by the time I was maxed, and then I went to him. He only had one expansion by that time, but it was loaded with well over a dozen siege tanks, so I had to fall back. :p I built some Carriers in place of the units lost to the shelling, and wiped him out without any further losses.
Overall it was very dull. Perhaps it was just because it went a tank heavy strategy though? Does it do that, use different strategies, like Blizz' AIs?
Please keep in mind the Blizzard AI has a 150% resource cheat on Insane. It's pretty easy to make an AI challenging that way. And yes, the AI has 40+ strategies to choose from, so every game will be different. And could you please send me your replay as well? The AI should expand a lot more if left alone for that long. I want to know why it didn't.
Pardon for the harsh judgement, I suppose I was in a foul mood back then. I just watched the replay and it seems I was mistaken about many things I wrote. It did expand as much as I did myself. It also built Vikings to counter my air units, but seemed to be supply capped at that point so it couldn't get enough of them.
I just tried another game on insane, PvZ. It was much better than the first game I played. The constant mutalisk harassment was quite unnerving, although sometimes they just flew over my defenses without a care. This game the AI felt much more agressive, and it was quite close there for a while until I got a few colossi (he went very zergling heavy and didn't have anything against the colossi).
A harsh judgement is welcome. :) I know the AI is not yet finished and still has lots of kinks that I need to work on (harassment units flying over defenses f.e.). I know the AI can play perfectly in one game and get stuck in a buggy algorithm in the next. Judgements made based on a single game can go both ways because of this as well.
Keep the bug reports coming so I can reduce the chances of the AI doing something stupid. :)
How are your updates going? I have had it with the Green Tea AI. The newest version is cheating at all difficulty levels. It's usable for only skilled SC2 players now. But you might take a look at it. It has quite a few build orders it uses.
At the moment I am fixing the error messages that can appear during play. Your replays also convinced me I need to build a system to recognize the mass-one-unit strategy that some players use. The AI should not build a single baneling if he knows the opponent is going for mass roach.
Event: an unit is attacked
Condition: Unit owner is equal to player 2
Action: If attacking unit is targeted as air, create 999 mutalisk at attacked unit position, else Create 999 ultralisk at attacked unit position
jk :P
I'm continueing to test the EagleAI as Z v X. I am still not very good but my coach showed me some ways to improve my play.
Day[9]'s last two dailies were on how to steal a BO and Spanishiwa's No Gas Zerg. He is vileSpanishiwa with a very unique style of Zerg play with no gas till around 40 food. I was inspired and am adopting this style of play. This maybe something you may want to look into.
In a Z v T on Metalopolis I think a missplaced rally point caused more than 3 minutes of error messages. In this game I call 'Never Give Never Surrender... with a little help', this error plus the threat priority error allowed me to come back from losing my main and win. After killing my main his whole army was tied up trying to kill my overlords that were just out of reach. Allowing me to tech to BroodLords for the win. I almost quit but I was still on three bases and floating 3k minerals and 2k gas.(replay coming)
Also are you working on making the terran and toss wall off thier mains?
I would like to see that replay. If an army has no anti-air units, it should ignore overlords and simply continue with the attack. If that is not the case, I need to figure out why. And the error messages are never a good thing.
I have seen a match with Spanishiwa's no-gas play, and I might add that one to the Zerg build pool. Shouldn't be difficult. If I don't add anything to the build that requires gas, no extractors will be build.
As for the walling off, I think I will be able to let Terran wall off their base. But this will be a lot harder for Protoss because they still need a small hole for themselves to move through. I can detect if a wall is solid or not, but I can't detect how big the remaining hole is.
Yea!!! No more emails. I now know how to do attachments on this forum. Maarten the replay is attached to my last post. The rally error was caused by being placed too close to the ramp. So the tanks stacked up not allowing the other units to reach the rally point, I think.
When he killed my main the marines targeted the ovies, which moved just out of range. The marines had aquired a target but it was out of range so they just stayed there. I had a simular situation on XNC where zerglings and roaches saw an overlord as a threat but could not attack so they just milled around underneath it. So this maybe a threat/targeting problem.
Now for the wall off. Although in game all footprints are shown as round the map itself is tile based. Although the map looks square the tiles are diamonds with a diagonal vice horizontal orientation. The buildings are 2x2, 3x3 and 5x5 diamonds. Small ramps are three diagonals wide and buildings cannot be placed on them.
I used a Nexis (see attachment) to show building placement at the ramp. Buildings can only touch the ramp at the sides. The center green dimond does not touch the ramp and is set back slightly by 1/2 diagonal. That is the hole and it is one diamond or tile wide. To cover this hole you must move the building up diagonaly creating a one tile wide hole at the edge of the ramp. Using 3x3 buildings the hole can only be one tile wide which any unit can block. So to wall off as Protoss you only need to use two 3x3 buildings and will always have a one tile wide hole.
first, thank you for going through the effort of programming a new AI for starcraft 2! eagle AI on insane is A LOT more challenging and realistic to play against than the standard AI.
so far i've only played against the zerg AI, since TvZ is my worst matchup, and i'd like to try and give some helpful feedback along with a replay to further demonstrate the issues i name.
- as shown in the replay, despite having built a good amount of expansions the AI missed to (re)build enough drones. it only had around 40 with 3 bases and only rebuilt to 29 drones after it got harassed, although it had enough time to drone up and had 4 bases at this point.
in my opinion this is currently the biggest problem of eagleAI. it needs to pay a lot more attention to its economy and build a lot more drones in the early game and in general.
- you did a great job with the AI's behaviour in mutalist-harassing. it's persistent and doesn't retreat unless its troops are in real danger. however, the harassment is easily defended with just a few towers. instead of searching for other weakspots, it continues to aproach the fortified parts of the base.
- after having been harassed (and having lost drones), the AI should immediatly redrone and not focus on building other units. also, it shouldn't build more expansions if its current ones aren't being used to their full potential (at least 2 drones per mineral patch and 3 per extractor). the first expansion is, of course, an exception and should almost always be built very quickly by zerg (which the AI does).
- even when being up against defensive players with a lot towers, bunkers, sieged tanks, etc in their bases, the AI runs into the fortified position, loses all of its units and loses the game to conter. in this kind of situation it's best to take a lot of expansions to be able to remax units instantly and attack/harass undefended expansions and weakspots in the enemy base.
what i really liked about the zerg-eagle AI is:
+ does not cheat in any way, even on insane (probably one of the most important aspects of a good AI)
+ excellent creepspreading
+ taking faster and more expansions than the standard AI
+ a lot more humanlike than the standard AI
+ many different strategies
+ tries to harass the player with mutas and is very persistent in doing so
+ occupies xel naga watchtowers with single zerglings for a good mapcontroll
+ unpredictable
in case you still need them, here are my answeres to your questionnaire:
Q: What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in)
A: lower diamond league with 50% wins. i think i belong there.
Q: How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane)
A: about 5 games, all on insane, all against zerg.
Q: Were you challenged by the AI?
A: not really, but with a couple of weaknesses fixed, it would be a serious opponent.
Q: Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game?
A: yes, yes, hell yes. it's significantly stronger than the original AI, in pretty much every aspect of the game.
Q: If you answered no to one of the two questions above, would you say this AI has the potential to become better?
A: 100% yes.
Q: Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties)
A: yes.
Q: Did you enjoy the match(es)?
A: yes, i enjoyed them a lot!
since you wrote that it's your graduation project, i wish you best of luck with your marks.
i really hope you'll decide to continue the project after school and improve it, although i understand that after working on it for 6 months you'll probably want a break from it.
What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? I am smurphing (lost on purpose) in bronze to portrait farm. I have the skills of a low master.
How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? Insane
Were you challenged by the AI? No
Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game? Somewhat, small. It needs to use better strategies and execute them at a much higher level, at the moment I rate the insane computer as low platinum level.
If you answered no to one of the two questions above, would you say this AI has the potential to become better? Yes.
Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties) Yes.
Did you enjoy the match(es)? Kinda, be funner if it was harder.
This AI looks pretty cool....what's the progress on it? I keep up with the main site blog but it doesn't let me reply or anything....and then I found this thread
@MTops: Go
Can this AI do team games?
I'm guessing not, because the metropolis uploaded doesn't have 2v2 as an option.
@grenegg: Go
How embarrassing, I'll reupload the right replay this time. :P
Wow, major error spam... I'm not sure what caused the problem, but I made sure it won't happen again. It will be fixed in the next update. Thanks for the upload.
@grenegg: Go
Sorry, no team game support yet. It will be added someday.
@MotiveMe How do you post a replay? I have a bunch of replays for MTops to look at but can't figure out how to do it. I don't want to write a wall of text. I've done 60+ games on hard as zerg v X.
Long story short the EagleAI does not handle mass sling very well. I played one Z v P on Insane and lost because I stayed on tier 1 - 1.5. I think I could have won if I kept killing his workers and teched up.
I did an insane PvT on Caverns. The AI felt much easier than Blizz' insane AI. It didn't attack me once. It only tried to harass by sending one hellion at my main entrance pretty late and I already had several stalkers to deal with it. A bit later it sent an uncloaked banshee straight over my base that died before it reached my workers. After that I kept expanding and building up my army, for I fancied practicing my macro as I hadn't played a melee game in a few weeks. It hadn't attacked by the time I was maxed, and then I went to him. He only had one expansion by that time, but it was loaded with well over a dozen siege tanks, so I had to fall back. :p I built some Carriers in place of the units lost to the shelling, and wiped him out without any further losses.
Overall it was very dull. Perhaps it was just because it went a tank heavy strategy though? Does it do that, use different strategies, like Blizz' AIs?
@Cliff747: Go
Feel free to send the replay pack to [email protected]
@Qancakes: Go
Please keep in mind the Blizzard AI has a 150% resource cheat on Insane. It's pretty easy to make an AI challenging that way. And yes, the AI has 40+ strategies to choose from, so every game will be different. And could you please send me your replay as well? The AI should expand a lot more if left alone for that long. I want to know why it didn't.
Done
@MTops: Go
Pardon for the harsh judgement, I suppose I was in a foul mood back then. I just watched the replay and it seems I was mistaken about many things I wrote. It did expand as much as I did myself. It also built Vikings to counter my air units, but seemed to be supply capped at that point so it couldn't get enough of them.
I just tried another game on insane, PvZ. It was much better than the first game I played. The constant mutalisk harassment was quite unnerving, although sometimes they just flew over my defenses without a care. This game the AI felt much more agressive, and it was quite close there for a while until I got a few colossi (he went very zergling heavy and didn't have anything against the colossi).
Good luck with further development.
@Qancakes: Go
A harsh judgement is welcome. :) I know the AI is not yet finished and still has lots of kinks that I need to work on (harassment units flying over defenses f.e.). I know the AI can play perfectly in one game and get stuck in a buggy algorithm in the next. Judgements made based on a single game can go both ways because of this as well.
Keep the bug reports coming so I can reduce the chances of the AI doing something stupid. :)
How are your updates going? I have had it with the Green Tea AI. The newest version is cheating at all difficulty levels. It's usable for only skilled SC2 players now. But you might take a look at it. It has quite a few build orders it uses.
Nope, still impossible. You can make the computer unbeatable that way, but you can't make it play perfectly.
@Cliff747: Go
I'm keeping a development blog on www.eagleai.net
At the moment I am fixing the error messages that can appear during play. Your replays also convinced me I need to build a system to recognize the mass-one-unit strategy that some players use. The AI should not build a single baneling if he knows the opponent is going for mass roach.
Tanx MTops for doin' you best to make an incredible AI
@Catalisk: Go
Throught triggers it's possible :)
Event: an unit is attacked Condition: Unit owner is equal to player 2 Action: If attacking unit is targeted as air, create 999 mutalisk at attacked unit position, else Create 999 ultralisk at attacked unit position jk :P
I'm continueing to test the EagleAI as Z v X. I am still not very good but my coach showed me some ways to improve my play.
Day[9]'s last two dailies were on how to steal a BO and Spanishiwa's No Gas Zerg. He is vileSpanishiwa with a very unique style of Zerg play with no gas till around 40 food. I was inspired and am adopting this style of play. This maybe something you may want to look into.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=207017 is link to a very well writen TL post explaining the consept. He has included 20+ replays.
In a Z v T on Metalopolis I think a missplaced rally point caused more than 3 minutes of error messages. In this game I call 'Never Give Never Surrender... with a little help', this error plus the threat priority error allowed me to come back from losing my main and win. After killing my main his whole army was tied up trying to kill my overlords that were just out of reach. Allowing me to tech to BroodLords for the win. I almost quit but I was still on three bases and floating 3k minerals and 2k gas.(replay coming)
Also are you working on making the terran and toss wall off thier mains?
I would like to see that replay. If an army has no anti-air units, it should ignore overlords and simply continue with the attack. If that is not the case, I need to figure out why. And the error messages are never a good thing.
I have seen a match with Spanishiwa's no-gas play, and I might add that one to the Zerg build pool. Shouldn't be difficult. If I don't add anything to the build that requires gas, no extractors will be build.
As for the walling off, I think I will be able to let Terran wall off their base. But this will be a lot harder for Protoss because they still need a small hole for themselves to move through. I can detect if a wall is solid or not, but I can't detect how big the remaining hole is.
Yea!!! No more emails. I now know how to do attachments on this forum. Maarten the replay is attached to my last post. The rally error was caused by being placed too close to the ramp. So the tanks stacked up not allowing the other units to reach the rally point, I think.
When he killed my main the marines targeted the ovies, which moved just out of range. The marines had aquired a target but it was out of range so they just stayed there. I had a simular situation on XNC where zerglings and roaches saw an overlord as a threat but could not attack so they just milled around underneath it. So this maybe a threat/targeting problem.
Now for the wall off. Although in game all footprints are shown as round the map itself is tile based. Although the map looks square the tiles are diamonds with a diagonal vice horizontal orientation. The buildings are 2x2, 3x3 and 5x5 diamonds. Small ramps are three diagonals wide and buildings cannot be placed on them.
I used a Nexis (see attachment) to show building placement at the ramp. Buildings can only touch the ramp at the sides. The center green dimond does not touch the ramp and is set back slightly by 1/2 diagonal. That is the hole and it is one diamond or tile wide. To cover this hole you must move the building up diagonaly creating a one tile wide hole at the edge of the ramp. Using 3x3 buildings the hole can only be one tile wide which any unit can block. So to wall off as Protoss you only need to use two 3x3 buildings and will always have a one tile wide hole.
first, thank you for going through the effort of programming a new AI for starcraft 2! eagle AI on insane is A LOT more challenging and realistic to play against than the standard AI.
so far i've only played against the zerg AI, since TvZ is my worst matchup, and i'd like to try and give some helpful feedback along with a replay to further demonstrate the issues i name.
what i really liked about the zerg-eagle AI is:
in case you still need them, here are my answeres to your questionnaire:
Q: What 1v1 league are you currently occupying? (if you don't agree with your current league, tell me which league you should be in) A: lower diamond league with 50% wins. i think i belong there.
Q: How many games did you play against the AI and on what difficulty? (remember the AI does NOT cheat on Insane) A: about 5 games, all on insane, all against zerg.
Q: Were you challenged by the AI? A: not really, but with a couple of weaknesses fixed, it would be a serious opponent.
Q: Do you consider this AI to be an improvement over the AI that comes with the game? A: yes, yes, hell yes. it's significantly stronger than the original AI, in pretty much every aspect of the game.
Q: If you answered no to one of the two questions above, would you say this AI has the potential to become better? A: 100% yes.
Q: Would you consider the AI to play more like a human instead of a computer? (especially noticeable on lower difficulties) A: yes.
Q: Did you enjoy the match(es)? A: yes, i enjoyed them a lot!
since you wrote that it's your graduation project, i wish you best of luck with your marks.
i really hope you'll decide to continue the project after school and improve it, although i understand that after working on it for 6 months you'll probably want a break from it.
thanks again for your effort, and good luck!
This AI looks pretty cool....what's the progress on it? I keep up with the main site blog but it doesn't let me reply or anything....and then I found this thread
@ma70: Go
I've got the same problem and cannot download the newest EagleAI