5 ms·

Here's a link if you want to see CherryPi vs. Purplewave (two bots mentioned). https://youtube.com/watch?v=rTf_aL0hrgo https://youtube.com/watch?v=rTf_aL0hrgo

by scj 9y ago

9935c101ab17a66 9y ago
Thanks for the link, really cool to see the AIs at work.
Strilanc 9y ago
That's surprisingly frustrating to watch. Protoss throwing away its army of zealots with terrible positioning, zerg wasting time attacking buildings instead of sealing the deal, probes walking by enemy forces that ignore them as they mine minerals... Which is not to say that there weren't impressive parts. I don't think a human could stutter step that many dragoons that well. But there's clearly a lot left to do in terms of tactics.
- pdimitar 9y ago
  See my root-level comment in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437177
- dgant 9y ago
  Hi Strilanc. Author of PurpleWave here. That particular scene at the sunken colonies was equally frustrating to watch. I fixed the most likely cause of that behavior shortly after the tournament deadline. But for sure, you're correct. There's a lot left to do on all fronts. There's noticeable progress every year -- none of last year's entries finished much over 50% -- and the growing research community should help accelerate that even more.
dgant 9y ago
Hi! Author of PurpleWave here. A bit late to the party but happy to answer questions.
- vk23 9y ago
  How far away are the AIs from consistently beating humans? What are the biggest problems you are facing right now?
  - dgant 9y ago
    The best AIs right now would beat above average folks from the public. But as you start approaching anyone who resembles a professional, bots rapidly turn into practice dummies. The biggest problems I'm personally facing at the moment are midgame macro with imperfect information -- how many Gateways do I need to be producing from before I can safely take a third base or transition to endgame tech? -- and engaging Terran mech armies. It's very hard to know when or how to engage a Terran mech army, and you usually only get one chance to get it right. Dithering results in bleeding units you can't afford to lose. The biggest problem in general is that rules-based approaches are asymptoticly approaching the limit of their capabilities. Either of the problems I've described are big undertakings but only scratch the surface of what PurpleWave needs to advance. Machine learning is the way forward. But so far real time strategy games have proved remarkably impenetrable. Consider that professional players often place their initial buildings to provide Scarab-proof escape routes for their workers against Reaver drops that arrive ten minutes later. Such placements are only effective if you know to react to Reaver drops by funneling your workers through them to glitch the Scarabs. How are you going to let your bot learn that on its own? There's a lot of work to do.
    - pdimitar 9y ago
      Those minimalistic maps that you or somebody else in the #BWAPI channel in FreeNode once showed me, should be able to help at least partially? Or are there no people that produce such scenario-like maps anymore?
    - jononor 9y ago
      Can rule-based approaches be augmented/assisted by machine learning? If so, what aspects do you think machine-learning could do a good job at?
- 9y ago

Here's a link if you want to see CherryPi vs. Purplewave (two bots mentioned). https://youtube.com/watch?v=rTf_aL0hrgo https://youtube.com/watch?v=rTf_aL0hrgo

by scj 9y ago

Here's a link if you want to see CherryPi vs. Purplewave (two bots mentioned). https://youtube.com/watch?v=rTf_aL0hrgo https://youtube.com/watch?v=rTf_aL0hrgo

9935c101ab17a66 9y ago

Thanks for the link, really cool to see the AIs at work.

Strilanc 9y ago

That's surprisingly frustrating to watch. Protoss throwing away its army of zealots with terrible positioning, zerg wasting time attacking buildings instead of sealing the deal, probes walking by enemy forces that ignore them as they mine minerals... Which is not to say that there weren't impressive parts. I don't think a human could stutter step that many dragoons that well. But there's clearly a lot left to do in terms of tactics.

pdimitar 9y ago
See my root-level comment in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15437177
dgant 9y ago
Hi Strilanc. Author of PurpleWave here. That particular scene at the sunken colonies was equally frustrating to watch. I fixed the most likely cause of that behavior shortly after the tournament deadline. But for sure, you're correct. There's a lot left to do on all fronts. There's noticeable progress every year -- none of last year's entries finished much over 50% -- and the growing research community should help accelerate that even more.

dgant 9y ago

Hi! Author of PurpleWave here. A bit late to the party but happy to answer questions.

vk23 9y ago
How far away are the AIs from consistently beating humans? What are the biggest problems you are facing right now?
- dgant 9y ago
  The best AIs right now would beat above average folks from the public. But as you start approaching anyone who resembles a professional, bots rapidly turn into practice dummies. The biggest problems I'm personally facing at the moment are midgame macro with imperfect information -- how many Gateways do I need to be producing from before I can safely take a third base or transition to endgame tech? -- and engaging Terran mech armies. It's very hard to know when or how to engage a Terran mech army, and you usually only get one chance to get it right. Dithering results in bleeding units you can't afford to lose. The biggest problem in general is that rules-based approaches are asymptoticly approaching the limit of their capabilities. Either of the problems I've described are big undertakings but only scratch the surface of what PurpleWave needs to advance. Machine learning is the way forward. But so far real time strategy games have proved remarkably impenetrable. Consider that professional players often place their initial buildings to provide Scarab-proof escape routes for their workers against Reaver drops that arrive ten minutes later. Such placements are only effective if you know to react to Reaver drops by funneling your workers through them to glitch the Scarabs. How are you going to let your bot learn that on its own? There's a lot of work to do.
  - pdimitar 9y ago
    Those minimalistic maps that you or somebody else in the #BWAPI channel in FreeNode once showed me, should be able to help at least partially? Or are there no people that produce such scenario-like maps anymore?
  - jononor 9y ago
    Can rule-based approaches be augmented/assisted by machine learning? If so, what aspects do you think machine-learning could do a good job at?
9y ago