Evaluating behaviour tree integration in the option critic framework in Starcraft 2 mini-games with training restricted by consumer level hardware

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates the performance of the option critic (OC) framework combined with behaviour trees (BTs) in Starcraft 2 mini-games when training time is constrained by a time frame limited by consumer level hardware. We test two such combination models: BTs as macro actions (OCBT) and BTs as options (OCBToptions) and measure the relative performance to the plain OC model through an ablation study. The tests were conducted in two of the mini-games called build marines (BM) and defeat zerglings and banelings (DZAB) and a set of metrics were collected, including game score. We find that BTs improve the performance in the BM mini-game using both OCBT and OCBToptions, but in DZAB the models performed equally. Additionally, results indicate that the improvement in BM scores does not stem solely from the complexity of the BTs but from the OC model learning to use the BTs effectively and learning beneficial options in relation to the BT options. Thus, it is concluded that BTs can improve performance when training time is limited by consumer level hardware.