Zerg Hex Forum

Simulator Update - a new perspective

I had an idea. Instead of doing it the trial and error method (which is the one I was talking about on the last post), what if I tried to teach my simulator some economy? Well, probably it would be better if I myself knew more economy, but I've applied some economy concepts on the simulator and it actually performed better in some circunstances. Problem is, its not better in any situation.

These are the concepts i included in my code:

1. Marginal increase

Marginal increase is how much the eco will increase if you added 1 more of something. So the marginal increase for a spawner is basically
(spawners +1) * extractors - spawners * extractors
This is important when comparing the impact of making a new eco structure, as it analyses the change of that unique structure you built.

2. Cost of Oportunity

Cost of oportunity is a pretty cool economy concept. The cost of oportunity for any action is the second best action. So basically, the cost of oportunity of making a spawner is making a extractor. If the spawner has a different building time compared to the extractor, when you build the spawner, it's cost of oportunity would be the time that the extractor would be up and running and generating minerals while the spawner is still building.

3. True cost

A slowling spawner costs 50 minerals. But that isn't actually it's true cost, as it also consumes other resources, like supply, drones and oportunity. The equation i did for the true cost for both the spawners and extractors was the following:

Spawner True Cost = Spawner Mineral Cost + Drone Cost + ( Spawner Supply Cost / 45) * Cost of the 45 supply+ Spawner Cost of Oportunity

4. Return of investment

The return of investment is basically what a investment gives divided by what it costs. In our case, we have those variables, which are the marginal increase / true cost.

Conclusion:

After implementing those, performance really improved, specially on the early and midgame. It's also very good at adapting to other spawners like the strikelings. The problem is that it is really terrible at the lategame and I still don't really know why. From what i've observed it seem to be building way more spawners than it should and it's not following "the ratio". That problem might be because all the concepts i introduced are linear aproximations, and on the lategame that doesn't work. Let me explain.

Linear aproximation:

When you have a function that is not linear (in this case the income funcion) you can aproximate the future values with a line. In the short term it works, because the values are very close, but the longer it goes, the worse the aproximation gets:

https://imgur.com/dB0t0TK

In my program, when i calculate the cost of oportunity, I consider that nothing else will change, which is a linear aproximation for my income function and on the lategame eco can change a lot from one second to the other. For the late game I might have to make the cost of oportunity calculations more complex.

Next steps:

I'll try to fix the lategame issue and run tests comparing my algorithm to human made builds by the hex pros to figure out if it can come out with the best eco possible or experienced players know a even better build order.

I'll attatch the new verson of the python script. This time in a .txt format because some of you cof cof Turbo complained that .rar is aparently "too old". Also if you are a noob in python, so am I lol. I use very simple and organized commands and explained the entire code basically after I tried to talk with Turbo about my code and it was too confusing to be understood by anyone else and even for me to understand 1 month after i did it lol

if this version on sc2? i didn't see it online when i searched.

Also, any word on the creator? Seriously open source the game, the balance needs lots of work.

Ink got mad because someone on here called him out for quitting games at 11, so he deleted Community Version. 

I like the iniciative and think that the ideas are pretty cool, but it needs some tweeking. Haven't player much, but in a clangame I've noticed that the early game is too strong for zerg. I don't think that a full capacity zerg army is holdable on the early game by the terran, no matter how good they are. To remedy that, maybe increase the starting generator energy production from 7 to 10, which would allow a extra unit for terran, and with good micro maybe it becomes holdable.

well lets play (Plus Hex)

A special thank to Wmaster & Ink & Ecanos
did i send him the version of 4.9 or 3.4 Zerg Hex. or just at ink channel and he asked ink for map. not really know anymore.


a better zerg spawnrate maybe he did. i readed. [maybe start with red and not need upgrade (good option or maybe something cheaper].



[ /lobbylink  lets play a map of a mappool of ecanos :smile: [zerg hex CE *  ; Crazy Hex ; zerg Hex One Way ; Crazy 5 ]


zerg hex ce   [it Start with a Base and  the huge bonus is the yard+techlab + tank at start. +1200 mineral for Zerg + 100m50v for Terran]
Crazy Hex a complete base. Start with make cows. Play normal what you ever want than. (discount 10%)
OneWay Start with every Raffenery and yard (bonus outside possible). (Discount 10%)
Crazy 5 (public open in editor(if you want look in editor (crazy 5 not so much enddeveloped, but you know, just a small klicks to make some unit supply free and some parameter change and you could have a small map, map is ready for 8 player but zerg is just solo zerg able, because the different of nord south not work in crazy map pool. thats why that have 5 player maximum ]


so eben in den statistiken geguckt die version 3.31-3.33 von zerg hex war am erfolgreichsten. Was best 21k players vs now 8k players Amerika.

I haven't played it yet but at this point I'll take anything.  Thank you ICEBear!