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Automaton 2000 Micro - Dodging Siege Tanks

Automaton 2000 Micro - Dodging Siege Tanks

Automaton2000Micro
0 HN recommenders · discussed 2016–2026
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About this video

A StarCraft 2 custom-map demo where a bot controls 100 zerglings against 20 sieged tanks and dodges the splash damage, leaving 19 survivors. The code was written in Blizzard's World Editor.

Why it appears in the archive

Cited in StarCraft and AI threads as a vivid example of superhuman micro and of machine speed advantage over humans.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

Monory · 2016-03 · reference

Well, anyone who says that advantage in micromanagement is not a big thing should see "Automaton 2000" videos. Given that automaton is a map script and thus can have virtually unlimited APM, it beats people from a horribly disadvantageous positions (40 banelings vs 21 marine [1], or 100 zerglings vs 20 sieged tanks [2]). [1]: [LINK] [2]: [VIDEO]

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vinchuco · 2016-09 · reference

That's incredible. The speed advantage here: [VIDEO] Brings to mind the power of high frequency trading

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danielvf · 2016-09 · reference

And as cool as that is, this is even more terrifying, as a hundred zergslings dodge seige tank cannons and destroy them. [VIDEO] It's enough to make you scared for the future of humanity.

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lanius · 2016-11 · reference

Unfortunate. I personally would love play against an AI with strong game sense as well as insane micro a la [VIDEO]

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trjordan · 2016-11 · reference

A big part of Starcraft is that certain units counter other units. Tanks counter zerglings, because they do splash damage to a bunch of them at once. Here's what you can do with infinite APM: [VIDEO] It's just broken. It's not even the same game.

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mmanfrin · 2016-11 · reference

Really rudimentary AIs are already significantly beyond the skill of humans (in terms of micro, at least). [VIDEO]

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imaginenore · 2016-11 · reference

AI already beats humans at StarCraft, not because it's smarter, but because it can control all the units simultaneously. [VIDEO] [LINK] [LINK]

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nickpsecurity · 2016-11 · reference

It's possible but it's a lot more context-driven than you think with a human involved. The bots do great against each other with their strategies and muscle-memory stuff. Throw a human in the mix, they start noticing patterns in how the units are managed, what strategies are likely, etc. They've exploited these in the competitions to hilarious effect. Here's the main site on prior work & results at the competitions: [LINK] Here's a few examples of how the muscle-memory approach, esp if focused on unit vs unit, can fail against humans. " In this example, Bakuryu (human) notices that Skynet's units will chase his zerglings if they are near, and proceeds to run around Skynet's base to distract Skynet long enough so that Bakuryu can make fying units to come attack Skynet's base. This type of behaviour is incredibly hard to detect in a bot, since it requires knowledge of the larger context of the game which may only have consequences 5 or more minutes in the future. " (2013) Note: At this point, they also sucked at building and expansion strategies which surprised me since I thought a basic planner would be able to do that. The constraints between rate of expansion, where to place stuff, what units to keep/build, and so on get really hard. The other thing they weren't good at was switching strategies mid-game based on what opponents are doing. " despite Djem5 (pro) making the bots look silly this year... they were able to defeat D-ranked, and even some C-ranked players. After the

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