==== CIG 2010 StarCraft RTS AI Competition ==== 

{{ :rts-competition:rts-competition-logo.jpg?320}}

Realtime Strategy (RTS) games are one of the major computer game genres and one of the few for which AI-based players (bots) have little chance to win against expert human players — if they are not allowed to cheat. StarCraft (by Blizzard) is one of the most popular RTS games of all time, and is known to be extremely well balanced.

This competition is part of the [[http://game.itu.dk/cig2010/|Computational Intelligence in Games conference 2010]].
Platform, API and software support is basically the same as for the  
[[http://eis.ucsc.edu/StarCraftAICompetition#StarCraftAICompetition|AIIDE StarCraft Competition 2010]]
organized by Ben Weber (thanks, Ben!).
However, we concentrate on a tech-limited Terran force 2-player battle.


=== Important Dates ===
^ ^ ^
|Registration deadline: |June 30, 2010|\\
|Submission deadline: |August 9, 2010|\\ 
|Conference: |August 18-21, 2010|\\ 

The registration is informal and just meant to let us know
how many bots we can expect. Code needs to be ready on August 9.
=== Getting Started ===
The competition will use StarCraft Brood War 1.16.1. You must possess a legal copy of the
game.

Bots for StarCraft can be developed using the [[http://code.google.com/p/bwapi|Broodwar API]], which provides hooks into StarCraft and enables the development of custom AI for StarCraft. Interfaces in many
languages are available to query the current state of the game and issue orders to units.

  * Instructions for setting up the environment are available [[http://eis.ucsc.edu/StarCraftBWAPI|here]].\\
Note that we will use the BWAPI version 2.8 for the competition
as it provides some nice additions useful for automation.
 However, migrating from 2.6/2.7 is simple,
there are no relevant interface changes.
  * An introduction to the Broodwar API is available [[http://eis.ucsc.edu/StarCraftUsingBWAPI|here]].\\
  * Instructions for building a bot that communicates with a remote process are available [[http://eis.ucsc.edu/StarCraftRemote|here]].\\
  * This is the [[http://starcraftai.rabbitx86.net/|Forum]] set up by Ben.

=== Rules ===

Specific [[ruleset]] for this competition.\\
Baseline [[http://eis.ucsc.edu/StarCraftRules|ruleset]] (the same as for the AIIDE competition).

Here are two test maps (largely generated, some fixes done manually) that may
serve to train your bots, we will use similar (not equal) maps for the competition.

|{{:rts-competition:map1.jpg?120}}|{{:rts-competition:map2.jpg?120}}|\\
|{{:rts-competition:training-map1.zip }}|{{:rts-competition:training-map2.zip}}|\\

=== Links ===
[[http://eis.ucsc.edu/StarCraftAICompetition#StarCraftAICompetition|AIIDE StarCraft Competition 2010]]


=== Organizing Committee ===
Johan Hagelbäck, Blekinge Institute of Technology\\ 
Mike Preuss, Technische Universität Dortmund\\ 
Ben Weber, UC Santa Cruz\\ 

For any comments or inquiries, please write to (johan.hagelback at bth.se)  and/or
(mike.preuss at tu-dortmund.de)\\

=== Legal ===

{{ http://eis.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/blizzard.gif?180}}

StarCraft®: Brood War®\\
Used with permission granted to [[http://game.itu.dk/cig2010/|CIG]]. Blizzard has consented to
run the competition via the Broodwar API interface, which uses a back door of the game and
is not in any form related to Blizzard. Thanks!

©1998 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. StarCraft, Brood War and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.