[fazzone]

There's probably no reason to restrict the computer the below human pro players (200-300 APM). My guess is the engine just wasn't designed with superhuman APM in mind and could be exploited. If that's the case then the AI would in some sense not really be playing the same game as the humans.

[SerLava]

Superhuman APM makes it a really different game. Current Starcraft AIs can do thousands of commands per second. That means that essentially each unit has its own AI and can act independently of all the other units. There's almost no delay between different unit commands.

Unlimited APM makes AI much less interesting from the perspective of game theory.

Think of it like a robotic boxer, except instead of an android, they build two 30 foot long walls of spring-loaded boxing gloves that close in on the human boxer. Yes, the robot punches the guy a lot, so the problem seems "solved" but it isn't really.

[stale2002]

An apm limit is needed because impossibly high APM results in stupid strategies that the game wasn't designed for.

The point is to build ai that compete with humans using human strategies. Not to cheese with borked game mechanic exploits.

[TulliusCicero]

In practice right now the AI still loses even with unlimited APM. It's just too dumb to really take advantage of its execution speed.

[nogbit]

Buts it's intentionally dumbed down to keep the game fun, loosing all the time would get frustrating real quick. Theres no ROI for AI devs to kick the humans ass (except for maybe now with our AI/Cloud/VR/ craze).

[stale2002]

No it is not.

People were making custom AIs for starcraft 2 since it was in beta. They can't beat any human worth their salt.

[TulliusCicero]

It is not intentionally dumbed down. Current AIs are just too stupid at strategy and tactics to beat competent human players.