So I've been playing Starcraft for quite a long while now. Probably played most of my matches against the cpu, and one thing about the cpu really bothers me. It almost never seems to use high tier units. I've played all races and all styles over the years, but I have yet to see the cpu use a single Carrier or Ultralisk. Battlecruisers are quite common, but the cpu using the Yamato Cannon is rare, to say the least. And now I'm talking about abilities anyway: is there anybody who has ever seen a Defiler actually DO something? Sure, the cpu might make 1 or 2 if you wait long enough, but it always seems to fail when it comes to unlocking its abilities. I hate this. It's almost impossible to use the cpu as practice for matches against human opponents. The last time I was playing online, my enemy made a Defiler. I was like: let my Lurkers take care of that. Well, wrong decision. While I was busy placing a second hatchery and another Spore Colony at my expansion, my Lurkers died. My opponent just put a Dark Swarm over my Lurkers, and my main base was pretty much defenceless. I don't think that there's an explanation needed about what happened next, especially since there were also a few Ultralisks rushing in. Sweetness for him. --- So why this rant? Well, I want to discuss the AI of Starcraft 2, obviously. So before making this post even longer with what I'd like to see, it's probably better to stop for now. So: what do you expect from the AI in Starcraft 2? When it comes to properly using units, that is. This topic is not meant to discuss the "cheating" of the AI in Starcraft, as we were promised that this wouldn't happen in Wings of Liberty.
I'd like the AI do everything a human player would do. All units, all abilities. Perhaps different AI's that suck more at one thing and are better at another (Zergling control worse than mutalisk control). That would simulate a player really well. At the hardest level, the AI would have no problems microing any unit or using any spell. Except for the units and abilities I would want this (and more) to be included: Scout and keep it alive. Maybe go for cheese if scout is undetected. Proxy (Around 5-10% of the time) Manner Pylon Expan Stealing Early Rushes Bunker Pushes Elevating Units Medivac/Sigetank micro (drop'n'shoot) Using the destructible rocks, towers Block ramps, building placement in general Smartly use blink ability, burrow, and others. The more the AI is similar to a real player, the better.
I would definitely like to see it steal expansions. Would be crazy realistic to see it not go for the same places over and over again. But as far as I can tell the Starcraft 1 AI also sometimes tries to use the drop and shoot techniques. It just always fails, and it's almost exclusively used in maps with a lot of cliffs. Just today, there was an Overlord who dropped 1 Zergling and 1 Hydralisk right behind my base. The strangest thing was that that spot only had Sunkens and Zerglings in it at that moment. So those units got instantly killed. Roughly two minutes later the same(?) Overlord (it had some damage from the single Scourge I send after it) came back. I notice that the cpu had teched to Lurkers and also used a few. So I panicked and quickly send in one of my own Overlords, since I was afraid that the enemy one might have a Lurker or two in it, which would kill my Lings if I didn't get them out. Guess what? A single Hydralisk came out. Ridiculous. So many updates over the years to this game, but nothing to improve the AI. So yeah, especially expansion stealing (and choosing the right ones!) + using transports properly are two of the most important assets the new AI should have. At least in my opinion. Anybody got even more ideas? Disagree with me? Kinda feel like having a real discussion about the game again. To much space junk lately, to little Starcraft.
In my years of experience playing Starcraft, AI never really amazed me, and never did it became an epic adversary or became as dynamic as human players were. Despite the patch updates, no one has really bothered to take a look on the issue because basically, most players would rather play against another human for better satisfaction. I remembered being butchered by my classmate back in highs chool back in 1998 but he did have a weeks knowledge ahead of me. But anyways that was the start of my starcraft addiction. Back on topic, Im giving high hopes for AI improvement for SC2, something more dynamic and would be beneficial for a player to progress on pro level. Maybe not on pro but at least make one good at it. The WC3 AI levels were successful in a way but not reasonable since at insane levels, it is very obvious that the AI uses cheats to out-class you. What I have in mind for an idea is perhaps an in-depth settings wherein a player can go to an advanced set-up and maybe set an AI progress pattern that can help the player decide or determine if his plans will be successful against a certain scenario against this type of enemy. It may sound complicated but if there is no way for this to happen then playing "LAN" will always be our best friend.
If you hate playing against other players, why shouldn't Blizzard make that AI I was talking about? Playing the campaign over and over has zero replay-value.
I wish the AI was better practice, I hate having to impose restrictions on myself when I fight it because I know it'd be a cheap win despite the fact that a human player would know better (like when you send in a single scout to harass their econ and they send their entire workforce after you -_-) and yeah, the AI hardly ever changes strategies, and I have not seen it use high tier once yet.
Why would the Starcraft 2 AI be like the Starcraft 1 AI in the first place? They're surely not re-using 12 year old AI.
Of course not, but it's not like most rts games nowadays are much better. Warcraft III had pretty good AI at times, but even I could beat a bunch of them after figuring out what they were going to do.
The SC AI is indeed not a great opponent. On relatively small maps most matches wil be over within 15 minutes. If you want to prepare yourself for online play and you wish to keep practising against the AI instead of real people, I suggest you start increasing the number of AI opponents you play against. It also helps if you randomly choose the map you will play on. Try beating three AIs by turtling strategy first: Easiest is to play with Terran, then Protoss and Zerg. Then try beating three AIs with normal play (as if you were playing three human opponents): Easiest with Protoss, then Terran, then Zerg imo. Once you master this kind of play, you should be prepared for 1vs1 on b-net.
Recently, I've seen the enemy using high tier units, they're always using them against me, examples such as: Ultralisks, Carriers, Battlecruisers(using Yamato Gun to destroy Cannons), Defilers(plagued my cannons). I don't know why you think they don't use high-tier units, they're always annoying me with them xD. Though only within the past few days I've downloaded some new AI, which is actually offering *MUCH* more of a challenge to me.
So you haven't really been playing against the original AI, which doesn't use them. Think my argument is still pretty solid, man. :/
Why don't you give us a link if you found good comp http://classic.battle.net/scc/maps.shtml This is a link to a "hard campaign" and maybe some special games that is hard but I don't remember if that was here. When I played one of the game who was to kill 6 comp with a friend I went like wth with the comp sending 12 carrier. We died because lack of mins XD. But there is other too. I think.
I'm meaning that those high-tier units came when I was playing with the normal AI. I only started with different AI the other day.. EDIT: Here's the link for the AI. http://www.broodwarai.com/ It's on the second topic.
i have seen comps plauge units and definatly seen many comps use yamato when its available. but i never seen a comp consume or swarm anything when it gets defiler. and yes i never seen comps use carriers either. but they do use storm alot. ive also seen comps make about 1 or 2 ultras but after they die they seem to not make anymore of them. it seems comps just take extremly long to tech up to things and seem to just save up alot of money. if u kill there nexus/cc/hatcheries they wont make anymore or just take insanely long to make another one even if they have like 10k minerals stored up in the bank.
Scout and keep it alive. Maybe go for cheese if scout is undetected. Proxy (Around 5-10% of the time) Manner Pylon Expan Stealing Early Rushes Bunker Pushes
How about third-party AI's like StarCrack if you want to practice against a better AI? I don't know much about it, just asking. Eric
