Who is Bajadulce?
The nickname Bajadulce leads many people to believe I am Mexican, pero no soy. The nickname only describes my obsession with Baja Mexico and the term can be a bit confusing to some. This literally translates as "littlesweet", but my gringo translation is meant to mean sweet Baja.
How the hell do my interests relate to my desire to mod Starcraft?
One of my biggest passions is surfing, as I spent most of my entire life in So. Cal. Thanks to a certain blonde surfer chick however, I now call Santa Cruz, No. Cal home. Santa Cruz, pretty much revolves around surfing and is considered California's Surf capital. Huntington Beach boyz can kiss our ass as they will probably disagree. Where the hell is Santa Cruz? It's about 75 miles south of San Francisco. Yes, the water is frickin frezzin!
I studied Mathematics and a bit about computer languages in college. This was way before Microsoft was even a name! Math and computers however would not be the road eventually traveled. I have been involved in the construction industry for over 10 years now. This line of work forced me to travel to Mexico year after year to escape the rain and brutal cold of California winters! Some years I've stayed for 1 month, other times 2 or 3. Mostly I "live" at surfspots with a handful of other escapists from all parts of the country and Canada. No, most of the time there isn't any running water, electricity, etc! The nearest town might in some cases be close to 75 miles away. Try not to get hurt! I get a lot of crap from my peers about spending so much time down here, but I can always defend myself by quoting the late Sir Walter Hagen, "I never wanted to be a millionaire, just live like one".
Recently I have built a Solar charging system mounted atop the "Driftwood Inn". This system generates just enough juice to play Starcraft for a few hours a night on a Mini-Itx I built from Fry's electronics. The tunes however, can play all day! Next trip I would like to add more Watts and Amphour storage to handle a small 2 player LAN. I have introduced Starcraft to some other "baja hippie cultists", and now it seems the party is at my "camp" almost every night. Some nights I have to break up the party, just so I can get some sleep! If for some odd reason you happen to wonder down a bumpy dirt road heading out to some remote and desolate pointbreak on the Pacific, don't be surprised to encounter a bunch of Surfers in a small RV, cervezas and tacos in hand, huddled behind a dim monitor engrossed in a game of Starcraft.
When I'm not in Mexi (spring thru fall) surfing takes a back seat as I've become somewhat of a seasonal surfer. The water temp and crowds in Santa Cruz have become too much. I mostly play Golf in the summer and play for the DelaVeaga Golf team. Match play is my favorite format. I can't think of a more exciting game.
My other love is Chess, though I honestly don't play as much any more. At one time I was the president of the Santa Cruz chess club, but sadly the Internet is responsible for its eventual collapse. Here is an instance where I feel computers have somewhat depersonalized and wrecked an otherwise social game. I really don't enjoy playing Chess on the Internet, as it seems futile. Because I can play powerful chess programs like Fritz or even chessmaster, playing someone "electronically" seems pointless. Maybe I need to give Internet chess another chance?
These are the things that influence this Starcraft modder. A lot of internet-less time, love for math, and the thrill of competition. Maybe someday we can play a game of Starcraft, knock the little white ball around for a few holes, or paddle out together. If nothing else, our Ai's can battle it out!
Thoughts on Computer Opponents
Although computer opponents have their merits, human games tend to be much more enjoyable, challenging, and exciting. There simply is no comparison between the two.
Unfortunately, while Starcraft's Ai is well written and fair, it is easily mastered and soon becomes an inferior opponent. Of course we can add more computer opponents to make for a more challenging game, but this leads to static play and rapidly degenerates to a turtling style. Join any compstomp game on Battlenet, and 99 out of 100 times the map will be a 1 entrance map with a shit load of minerals in your base (maybe even a fa$te$t po$$ible map). Most everyone will wall in and proceede to Carriers, BC's, or guardians. Do I exaggerate? I don't know, and quite frankly don't care. I sometimes forget that 10 and 12 yr olds are allowed to play and enjoy Starcraft too! Play a few of the those games tho and you become quickly bored.
Most of us would much rather play limited resource 1vs1 human opponent games even if this might mean getting our ass whooped over and over again on a particular day, week, etc! Save the replay, analyize our mistakes, and head back out for more punishment! This is Starcraft in its greatest form! Saddly, our current computer AI robs us of this excitement.
Surely there has to be a better way?
The Beginnings
The answer changed everything! About one year ago (February 2004, I think?), I came across a site that mentioned someone had made a stronger AI for Starcraft. This was great news indeed! The project is called The Broodwar Ai project and is spearheaded by Physician, the coordinator of the project along with Racine with help from main programmer BSW_Rama, M_K, and a quickly growing team.
The main purpose of this project is simple. Create an Ai that can beat a decent player! The project's beginnings had main programmers Racine and BSW_Rama put together a small UMS package that was (to me at least) a revolutionary breakthrough! I probably exaggerate, but to someone like myself, mostly "internetless", bored of campaigns, and playing 1 vs 2,3,4, etc computer opponent games, this was a NEW starcraft!
A cwad had to be loaded first and then you proceeded to play the included UMS map. The first few games I played, I was slaughtered! Anyone who has played a UMS knows this is par for the course. Simply spawn x amount of units at location y and you have a tuff unbeatable map right? Wrong! This was scripted. Wow! the computer wasn't so whimpy anymore.
My interest was sparked, and I immediately began modding for single-player play. BajaAi is simply the evolution of these modifications that can be loaded into patch_rt.mpq automatically. Thnx again to Entropy's Broodwar Ai project team for the inspiration to build these scripts and the tools to distribute them. I hope you enjoy the experience.
If you have questions, comments, or think you have a script that could be included in this project, contact bajadulce@yahoo.com or fellow enthusiasts at EntropyZero.org or M_K Ai
