Steamhammer 1.2’s configuration file

The config file is named Steamhammer_1.2.json and controls settings including the bot’s choice of opening build order.

Jay Scott : Steamhammer : Steamhammer 1.2’s config

The config file is easy and fun to edit. Especially useful are the Debug section if you want to see what the bot is thinking, and the Strategy section if you want to change its openings. If you want to test your own play or any bot against a specific opening, you can write out the opening build order and tell Steamhammer to follow it. (The config file is inherited from UAlbertaBot and you can do the same with UAlbertaBot for any race, though Steamhammer has more features.)

The file is in JSON format. If you introduce a syntax error that you can’t find, drop it into any handy JSON checker (plenty are online).

I’ll go through section by section.

Bot Info

The bot’s name and author. If you fork Steamhammer, don’t miss this part! Setting PrintInfoOnStart to true tells the bot to announce its name and author when it starts up.

BWAPI

SetLocalSpeed is 0 to let the bot play at its full speed in games you set up against other bots. Some bots set a slower local speed by default. You can enter commands like /speed 30 to slow it down and /speed 0 to speed it up again. These commands work across bots, not only in Steamhammer, and there are other commands. UserInput means you can manually enter Starcraft actions for the bot while it is playing, which makes some experiments easier. Set CompleteMapInformation to true for the bot to cheat and see everything (it is not allowed in competition, obviously).

Micro

Various micro settings. The most confusing is KiteLongerRangedUnits, which really means “kite these units even if the opposing unit has a longer weapons range.” It makes sense mostly for fast units like mutalisks and vultures. If ScoutDefenseRadius is set to a positive integer, then an enemy worker scout which approaches to within that range of our main base (in pixels) will be met with a worker of our own that tries to chase it away. It is turned off in Steamhammer because the defending worker may be lost.

Macro

Set the maximum number of workers to seek to make for each mineral patch at the bot’s bases. It is a floating point number. According to conventional wisdom, you should go for 1 to 1.5 drones per mineral patch as zerg, and 2 workers per patch or slightly more as the other races.

Debug

In he release version, all the “draw” options except DrawGameInfo are turned off. In development, I turn on the appropriate ones to see what the bot is thinking. They draw information on the screen. If you turn on too many at the same time, they’ll draw all over each other. DrawGameInfo and DrawProductionInfo are my favorites.

Modules

The only remaining module is UseStrategyIO, which uses a simple machine learning method to seek openings which are successful against previously-played opponents. I have not tested the feature to work with Steamhammer’s random openings. In any case, it is turned off in the code—Steamhammer inherited the strategy I/O from UAlbertaBot, where it was already turned off.

Tools

The map grid that Steamhammer uses to keep track of explored areas. I have never had a reason to change the number.

Strategy

The next entries tell which opening to play when. Steamhammer inherited the opening specification from UAlbertaBot, but adds many features.

There are several different ways to tell Steamhammer which opening to play.

1. If you put in a line "Zerg" : "9PoolSpeed", then Steamhammer will play 9 pool speed whenever it is zerg. (Don’t forget the comma that separates it from the next line.)

2. If you put in a line "ZvT" : "ZvT_2HatchMuta", then Steamhammer will play its 2 hatch mutalisk opening every time it faces a terran. In the matchup name, “U” means that the opponent chose random (the race is “unknown”). Note: The bot’s own race can never be unknown, even when playing random; we know it as soon as the game starts.

3. Steamhammer can choose openings randomly. Instead of the name of an opening, give a StrategyMix which lists different openings with weights for how often they should be played. The weights can be any positive integer, but I like to choose weights which add up to 100 so that they are percentages. (Get the punctuation here exactly right.)

    "ZvU" :
        { "StrategyMix" : [
            { "Weight" : 10, "Strategy" : "5Pool" },
            { "Weight" : 20, "Strategy" : "9PoolExpo" },
            { "Weight" : 70, "Strategy" : "9PoolSpeed" }
        ]},

4. Steamhammer can play different openings against opponents that it recognizes by name. Set UseEnemySpecificStrategy to true and, inside the EnemySpecificStrategy subsection, give an opening for each opponent that you want to treat differently. The example means “When playing Jakub Trancik as zerg, play the 9 pool expo opening. When playing as protoss, open with double gateways on 9.” In this example, the terran opening is not specified, so it is chosen as usual.

    "Jakub Trancik" : { "Zerg" : "9PoolExpo", "Protoss" : "9-9Gate" }

5. The random openings also work inside the EnemySpecificStrategy section, but they assume that you are playing a fixed race. If you play random, you can’t specify random openings against specific opponents.

Finally, the Strategies subsection defines the opening build orders themselves. The opening build order is a sequence of items to build one after the other. Each item can be a unit, a building, an upgrade, a tech to research, or a command. The name of each item is case-insensitive, that is, upper case and lower case do not matter.

As an abbreviation, you can order up multiple units of the same kind. "3 x zergling" is the same as "zergling", "zergling", "zergling".

Steamhammer provides a number of commands that can be executed during the build. All the commands start with the keyword “go”.

When you first build an extractor, Steamhammer assumes that you want to collect gas right away, so gas collection is turned on. I put “go gas until” commands right after the extractor: "extractor", "go gas until 100". Steamhammer remembers the intention and executes the steps at the right time (though it often collects 8 or 16 gas more than it should).

If you ask for “hatchery”, Steamhammer assumes you want the hatchery at a gas expansion. You can choose.

If you ask for "bunker", "missile turret", "photon cannon", or "creep colony" to build static defense, Steamhammer assumes that you want it at the main base. Other buildings are the same; stuff is built at the main unless you say otherwise. There are only 2 choices. The arrangement is awkward and limited and I will probably change it in a future version. Steamhammer does not have the smarts to place defenses in good locations (like toward the enemy), so it may do something silly.

this version 28 March 2017