Do you have a citation? As far as I know, existing AIs do not stand much of a chance again humans [1]. My understanding is that even if AIs can beat humans is small skirmishes due to superior micro, they lose so badly at macro that it simply doesn't matter.
I don't want to be overly semantic or PC on HN, but just saying the GP may be female, judging by their name on profile. Being misgendered could be very offputting and discourages participation, so you may have wanted to say "this person" even if it doesn't sound as offhand as you'd have liked it to come across.
Calling a group of women "you guys" is different from calling a person of unknown gender "guy" because in the former case the gender-neutral usage is the only possible interpretation, whereas in the latter it might either be gender-neutral usage or an assumption of the commenter's gender. Given that this ambiguity is nearly always a distraction from the primary purpose of the conversation (as it is here), rightfully or not, pragmatically it is better to use terms that steer clear of it. See Bryan Garner's Modern English Usage for fuller advice on safely navigating this linguistic and sociocultural terrain.
it's not exactly macro.. AI can run perfect macro commands. humans right now have better priority model (in this case, protecting/killing workers) for which the AI in question wasn't trained.
Are you sure you're interpreting 'macro' correctly? 'Macro' in the context of RTS games isn't the same as 'macro commands' in scripting, but refers to basically all high level decisions. RTS is divided up into Macro, tactics and micro:
- Macro: resource prioritization (army vs expansions vs upgrades), scouting to understand the opponent's macro choices, choosing the right posture in response (defensive, harassment or offensive), and resource optimization (not getting supply blocked, scaling production with income, increasing income at the maximum possible rate, removing bottlenecks, etc), scouting the enemy army composition to prepare the ideal counter army composition
- Tactics: Grand army decisions - flanks, baits, sneak attacks, hiding composition, multiprong attacks, positioning of siege units, timing attacks, knowing when to retreat (hit & run), scouting to gain advance notice of your opponent's tactics
- Micro: optimizing unit lifespan and effectiveness within an isolated skirmish for the given goal (usually to 'win' the engagement) -- pulling back weakened units to avoid aggro while it still deals damage, healing, surface area for melee units, trapping enemy units with terrain or skills, optimizing spellcaster energy usage, prioritizing targets based on multiple parameters (range, damage, cost, count, follow-ups), etc.
AI can "run" macro well, but they are poor at the macro decision-making part, which includes priority model as you mention (the responsive posture choice above and others). Up to low grandmaster tier, being significantly better at macro than your opponent while close in tactics and micro is usually enough to win consistently. It is the most impactful part of an RTS (and is where most of the 'S' lies).
Your definition of macro is a lot more encompassing than how I see it used in SC2. It normally refers to just spending resources properly (constantly producing units and workers, setting up infrastructure, etc).
Yeah, interesting! I agree I don't usually hear macro used that way.
But if someone was microing a battle and as a result didn't look at the minimap and see a drop arriving at their base, I can totally see concluding that this player is bad at macro as a result -- macro is referring to there being a macro cycle of tasks you have to perform all the time whether you want to or not, and non-production tasks like checking the minimap and sending in a scout seem like good examples of those tasks too.
Exactly! Macro is everything "big picture" -- being aware of the overall state of the game, managing all resources involved (including attention, APM, time, mindspace), and grand decision-making ("I'm up against X overall strategy. How should I respond? What are the weaknesses in my approach? What should I be looking for that would exploit those weaknesses? How can I address those situations?")
Execution of the answers to those thoughts is in the form of tactics and micro, the other two aspects of macro. If you're following current SC2 pro meta, a "strong macro player" however has more right answers to most of those questions (Stats, Innovation) and that's their strength, versus a "strong tactical player" (TY, sOs) or a "strong micro-based player" (ByuN, herO).
I hear you. Usually the bottleneck of macro-effectiveness is the part you mention, the decision-making parts can be simplistic in mid-to-high levels and still plenty effective. So "improving your macro" usually refers to remembering to build workers and not getting supply blocked. Getting supply blocked or not hitting production cycles is more likely to get you behind in StarCraft.
That said, in high-level play, "better macro" usually refers to the other things, not just mechanically hitting stride with production, as most players in the top .01% are on the same level with those mechanics.
[1] http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intel...