Hacker News Reader

Comment by ctrlaltdylan | Hacker News Reader

The other quieter announcement is that AlphaStar can play as multiple races. The first public version just showed playing as Protoss.

There's some controversy about the AI's field of vision. A person is restricted to using the small mini map for the "whole view" of the playing area. Whereas AlphaStar can view events without a visual restriction.

But, if you're into following competitive games the broadcasted match of AlphaStar vs Lambo is pretty incredible to watch. The AI used new and novel strategies that weren't considered before.

The AI showed that Stalker can be actually a superior unit to the Immortals if they can be micro'd efficiently.

View on HN

> There's some controversy about the AI's field of vision. A person is restricted to using the small mini map for the "whole view" of the playing area. Whereas AlphaStar can view events without a visual restriction.

That has changed and AI's 'view' is now restricted.

From the FAQ:

> Q. How does AlphaStar perceive the game?

> A. Like human players, AlphaStar perceives the game using a camera-like view. This means that AlphaStar doesn’t receive information about its opponent unless it is within the camera’s field of view, and it can only move units to locations within its view. All limits on AlphaStar’s performance were designed in consultation with pro players.

Feels like RTS games have not fully exploited the potential of multi-monitor setup. Was the AI ahead of the game? Although eyes can only focus on so much (screens would distract, I guess). Bigger monitors also would suffer from peripheral vision effect.

Some RTS games allow for zooming out but many intentionally limit the view as a standard part of the game. Would be interesting to see how much being able to see a huge amount of the map at once would change certain games.

From what I've seen with Zero-K (a Total Annihilation descendant) on Twitch, strong players play most of the time zoomed-out to see the whole map at once; some just disable the minimap entirely.

IANAPGM, but one can observe that TA and SC are indeed different RTS games in the sense that TA has a territory control focus (so perhaps a bit more strategic), while SC relies more on the micro/macro focus (workers, some skillshot abilities - which incidentally led to the birth of the MOBA genre).

> "Feels like RTS games have not fully exploited the potential of multi-monitor setup."

Depending on how that's implemented, I could see that rapidly becoming de facto "pay to win".

Supreme Commander allowed you a minimal view on your alternative monitor. It was neat but I felt it wasn’t particularly awesome or anything.

Supreme Commander also allowed continuous zoom because the maps were generally much larger than Starcraft.

I HATED the fact that Starcraft II wouldn't let me do this when it first came out.

I loved Starcraft I, but the emphasis on twitchy play meant that I simply couldn't be bothered to finish Starcraft II.

:) You should have tried to scroll!

I know several of the later games, and even the first games (as far as I remember) allowed two fully independent screens with the UI buttons only appearing on the first one - I used the heck out of it.

I played starcraft at a semi-pro level and can say that this: due to the speed at which things happen and through the way it is possible to use certain hotkeys (control groups, base cycling, fkeys) this wouldn't matter at all on a high level.

Do you have a link to the games with Lambo? If I remember correctly, the stalkers v. immortal scenario was when MaNa was playing.

Not GP but I Googled it and I don't think such a game was ever broadcasted. GP was probably thinking of AlphaStar vs. MaNa or AlphaStar vs. TLO.

I think the real challenge will be training the humans to repel the Rise Of The Machines(TM)[0] because they're not going to play fair when they come to destroy us.

[0]Thank you, The Register

Reply on news.ycombinator.com