Will Riot ever develop better AI? A long rambling.

Something to help you make your way if you don't want to read everything:

1. I talk about bots in general and why the topic interests me.
2. I talk about more specific AI exploits to solidify my point(s)

So this is just a small question that I want to ask Rito, I think it is timely as Riot's talking about improving the learning experience for new players.

As you read this you learn one thing about me that is very obvious: I am a sucker for Artificial Intelligence, and interacting with it, learning it and how it works. Not to brag but I think I am in a decent position to know how well bots handle themselves due to my unusual hobby.

1.Basically right now bots are pretty dumb, and really you won't learn anything from them apart from ''don't go in 1v5'', actually, nevermind, if you get fed you can easily 1v5 an Intermediate AI team, Bots don't try to outplay or take advantage of any situation, the best I've seen a bot do is lately I've noticed that when Ezreal Bot is low he might start kiting you with Q while running away, now as you might've noticed I know my way around the AI, and how to exploit them, and yes, I am a player that has played for years, I am not good, only Silver and almost reached Gold but I stopped playing, I do still follow what happens and sometimes I like messing around with the AI, I like learning their tricks, how they work, and how to exploit them, what you can do to them and what you can't do to them, etc... etc.. etc..., so yes I have played an unimaginable amount of Custom games vs Intermediate AI, and I can tell you ONE thing: the current AI isn't going to bring new players very far, at all, take some other games for example, in Heroes of the Storm, bots will respond to calls, will hold objectives, fight for them and do them (HotS has some more complex objectives than league too), they will roam if a lane needs help, they're quite a bit more fun to fiddle around with for me because they are a lot more complex than LoL's bots, now this isn't me trash talking Riot, I am just saying that in a time where Riot seem to care more and more about new players and helping them along the way, having smarter, more complex AI will help players learn more, If bots could work as a team, fight for objectives, punish a pick or a bad play, pick lanes that are more convenient to their champ, outplay, kite more, ambush, I think developing an AI capable of jungling would be very far-fetched, but let's go on.

2. let's talk about some specific ways to exploits the LOL AI or their general issues that I think, if fixed, would already help ALOT.

• Bushes: anyone who's played against bots knows how confused they become due to bushes. For example, in League of Legends if you currently have a Bot's aggro, they'll follow you around as long as they ''judge'' it to be safe (judging this practically solely on their HP bars compared to yours, can also depend on the amount of enemies/allies currently present), the second you enter a bush though, they just don't react well, from there two scenarios can happen: if said bot was close enough to the bush, he'll actually follow you into the bush, and will facecheck (keep this in mind). Second scenario: if you enter a bush with an enemy AI chasing you further behind, they'll most likely start walking towards the bush but give up mid-lenght as they just kinda forget about you. I think a good way to fix this would be teaching (I know teaching is technically an incorrect term but I'll use it) the AI how to ward properly and play around bushes, 90% of the time I can get a first blood against an Intermediate AI before the minions even reached lane, using bushes. Well actually it's a bit more situational, basically ranged bots tend to be ''cockier'' and more oppressive against melee champions, so if I play for example Garen mid against a Nidalee Bot (let's just assume from now on whenever I mention a bot that they're ''intermediate'' level), all I have to do, is let her AA me one or two times, and then she'll start chasing me, all I have to do to get a first blood is walk into a bush, and let her facecheck, and no, a Nidalee Bot WON'T be able to flash, because Nidalee Bot DOES NOT equip flash, Nidalee Bot tends to only pick Exhaust and Ignite as I've noticed, and she is not very good at using either of them.

• What if a bot does flash and runs away? well there are still easy ways to abuse a bot's AI to catch them even if in theory they've already outran you. For example, say I fight an Ashe or Ezreal, both bots are programmed to take Flash and Heal, let's say I fight Ashe, and I am able to get her low but she flashes away, then walks to her turret, I know that she'll try to recall, what I will do though, is walk around red side raptor camps, to between her two turrets, when she notices I'm here she'll cancel her recall and try to run away to her base, but it's too late, I'm already in her way. I can safely tell you all bots act more or less the EXACT same way in that situation. I think Riot could program bots to understand that they're secure if they recall hugging an ally turret when no minions are around, if an ennemy approches them to towerdive, then they could start kiting.

• Minions: bots can't play around minions for shit. which is hilarious to me, since the thing LoL tries to teach you from the start, is ''stay behind your minions''. Basically if a bot thinks they have the upper hand on you they'll just walk up to you and hit you, completely disregarding wether or not your or their minions are present, so if a bot starts to attack me all I do is walk back and they take minion aggro, easy kill/flash into the abuse I've mentionned just above. I don't think I need to explain how I think riot could fix this.

*Predictability: I mentionned how ranged bots tend to act differently than melee bots, sooner. Indeed, start a custom game, as a ranged champion against a bunch of melee bots, go mid, approach T1 ennemy turret and you'll see that the bot won't approach you, and will hug his tower, funny thing is, if you back away and they start losing vision on you, I've noticed that they'll often try to follow you at a safe range, just on the edge of your vision range.

Now do the opposite, take a melee champion and play against a bunch of ranged champions, go mid, do the same, you'll notice that the ennemy bot will instantly aggro onto you, even if minions haven't even reached lane yet, they'll just go full aggro, which you can easily abuse to cheese them super hard.

*Bugs: I won't say alot about this but right now alot of bots have crippling bugs, you might notice them later on in the game just running back and forth into your midlane turret range for no reason at all, they might even execute themselves doing so, there is also a well known bug for some champs but mostly documented on Renekton specifically, where he'll just... Mentally die in a lane, and walk back and forth in the same spot, killing him doesn't fix the issue, he'll go out of his way to walk back there which is pretty hilarious the first times this happens.

*Lack of AI updates: as the game evolves new reworks are made, as well as new releases, I've noticed that sometimes Riot will rework a champ but they don't seem to really try to optimize their AI with their new kits, when the latest iteration of Ryze came out, he'd sometimes just ult for absolutely no reason out of nowhere in random spots, I do not know if he still does I'll check. Recently they've change the way Rammus's Q worked, it's now a channel, this seems to have kind of broken Rammus Bot, sometimes he'll activate Q to chase an ennemy but he doesn't move, he just, spins into place until it ends, I have noticed that in some occasions Rammus will move using his new Q but I need to check what the specific situations are.

*Itemization: not much to say, bots just pretty much always build the same stuff.

There are alot more bugs or exploits I could point out but I don't want to linger more than I have to, basically I was wondering why Riot won't improve their AI. Engine limitations? or lack of care? I think that would be a very important part of a better new player experience, but that's just me.

Anyways, CYA.