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A question for Riot on the current state of bot modes

BBQnFootMa55age·4/8/2015, 5:12:16 PM·2 votes·669 views

So I've been playing for a reasonable amount of time now, and there's always been something that's frustrated me with the game, the lack of intelligence of the games A.I. For a painfully long period of time the bots in league are just dumb i get that programming AI can be a challenge and what not but when i started the bots were a decent challenge, and most of the AI selections were capable of stringing together reasonable combo's, there are Alistar Amumu Annie Ashe Blitzcrank Brand Caitlyn Cassiopeia ChogathDrMundo Ezreal Fiddlesticks Galio Garen Graves Irelia JarvanIV Jax Karthus Kayle KogMaw Leona Lucian Lux Malphite Malzahar MasterYi MissFortune Morgana Nasus Nidalee Nunu Rammus Renekton Ryze Shen Shyvana Sivir Soraka Swain Taric Tristana Trundle Udyr Vladimir Warwick MonkeyKing XinZhao Ziggs Zilean Zyra a total of just over 50 champions in the AI rotation out of that, only ( and this is in my experience) Amumu Annie Brand Blitzcrank Cassiopeia Chogath Garen Graves Malphite Shyvana are capable of making any form of "big play" or are even capable of stringing together the right abilities to score kills and be a challenge, when i started playing that short list had more champs like Caitlyn Irelia JarvanIV Jax Lucian Lux Malzahar Morgana Ziggs Zyra Veigar XinZhao. As I've stated I fully understand that AI can likely be a challenge to code but this mode is just sad now as it poses 0 challenge for anyone whose played more than a few days or weeks (depending on personal gamer skill level). Worse still it seems like every few patches you (Riot) release a minor rework to a champion that either removes a champion from the bot roster, or someway somehow removes its ability to do a basic combo. Moreover bots mode was (at least for me and most of my friends when we all started playing) a kind of practice/prep mode for when a player upgrades to the PvP modes, as it helps teach player to anticipate their enemies moves and combo's and helps to teach them to play against certain types of champions, ie it can help players learn to do their own combo's with champions and learn the combo's of opposing champions and teach them basic elements of counter-play with out the frustration of getting steamrolled by a lane bully and the raged at in teamchat.

How to Move Forward: There are multiple ways to improve the current state of the bots in League, for example you (Riot) could:

  1. Re-add old removed champions from the roster Sona Sion Veigar there might be more feel free let me know in the comments below

  2. Add new champions to the AI roster, i understand champs like (to name a few) Syndra Azir Elise Zed Thresh Draven would be overly technical or just to much of a hassle to program into the roster, but how are simpler champions like Gragas Maokai VolibearGangplank Xerath Yorick TeemoNautilus not in the rotation (for the record I'm not bashing these champs i love most of them, safe for satan)

  3. Buff the AI's general intelligence up, they're just dumb; plain and simple, they don't use summoner 4 anymore, i think I've seen one use summoner 12 maybe once in my entire playtime in League, the AI no longer wards brush (they used to whenever they saw a player run into brush just ahead of them), and as mentioned above, out of the 50+ champs in the rotation less than half are capable of putting up a legitimate fight anymore. This buff would focus on bots being more aggressive when they have the advantage, diving towers performing better combo's etc.

  4. Give the AI new or better build path on items, its ridiculous that are actually relevant to what a real player would build on such a champion, or even randomize what item build that champion uses if such an option is viable such as APEzreal orKogMaw, Full AP Morgana Annie Zyra Lux, maybe even include random build paths within a champion itself like an Ezreal that builds bothitem 3078 item 3042 or Caitlyn that builds full AD/Armor Pen in addition to your traditional ADC critical strike build.

  5. Possibly the hardest task, but what might be the most rewarding, adding a jungle routine to the AI line up, currently 15 champions in the AI rotation who are fairly viable in the current jungle (20 or more if new champions are added to the roster), each could posses a set of timers for camp clearing while having background check on their allies lane health/push. (For example:) while the AI JarvanIV is clearing the razorbeak camp, it checks each lanes health and notices that the mid lane Cassiopeia is struggling (at about 30% hp) against her opponent Heimerdinger , after clearing the camp, he moves to the mid lane brush and jumps Heimerdinger when he moves to about middle of the lane. However, if Heimerdinger wards the brush and backs off at the possibility of fighting a 1v2 for long enough the AIJarvanIV will resume its jng clearing or move to a different lane to gank, putting that lane on a type of gank cooldown, where he wont gank the lane for another 30 seconds to 1 minute. With a system like this in place, new players or just players wanting to finalize their most effective build path on a champion can do so without harming their team like they potentially could in a team-builder or other PvP mode.

    So... that is pretty much all i have to offer on the current state of the AIs and some potential fixes that could make them fun to fight again. let me know about your thoughts on this post down below, and heres a quick poll for those who would rather make a quick respone instead of type out a long comment.

3 Comments

Chaotic Reks4/8/2015, 5:32:26 PM1 votes

i love this concept, but it would be a coding nightmare.

Togekiss244/8/2015, 5:37:09 PM1 votes

First, I'd like to say that you should be careful with this. Bots are there for more or less the same reason as a punching bag in boxing: They're to give the player an opportunity to warm up their skills in a low-pressure environment.

Another thing, new players are forced to play beginner bots before moving onto PVP, so making bots at the beginner level harder than what they currently are might be a turn-off for new players.

That being said, it could definitely improve. The limited roster, for instance, doesn't really reflect the PVP experience that much and if it's trying to teach newer players about how to deal with certain champions, then showing only a handful isn't doing a good job at that. I also like to see bots warding for other reasons than just trying to chase someone, as you mentioned. Overall... I pretty much agree with everything you said except for one part:

Jungling, the reason it'll probably never be programmed is because the entire role relies on the player being unpredictable, which you can't really do with an AI no matter what. Invading would be easy as pie since they would follow a set path in the jungle, and making a gank in a manner that actually takes the player by surprise is just as difficult. Especially with how bots behave under simple conditions now, it's unlikely that we'll ever see a jungle bot.