Bot Improvements

doiminat0r3600·Jun 27, 2015·2 votes·907 views

I just played a game in beginner bots. There was a level 5 vayne mastery on my team that just facerolled the enemy bots. I just bought Yorick and I really wanted to play him in a fun bot game so i could get the mechanics and skills. The vayne didnt care and kept killing my enemy laners although i kept telling him that i was trying to learn Yorick. He got 3 penta kills.

Why are people like this carrying some of the very first games that anyone ever plays?

Why are they allowed to be in games like this that they are able to carry people to their victory although they didnt do much? (this is an issue with the new player experience because the new players barely have any knowledge of the game and are being carried in bots only to be called trash in their first few games)

Why are people allowed to play their best champion in a (beginner) bot game?

Why cant new people learn to play without having someone carry them?

Maybe all of this would be fixed if you werent allowed to play a champion that you have over level 1 mastery with. Because odds are, new players dont have anyone over level 1 and it would prevent extreme carries like this case. It would also keep new players able to learn mechanics of the game instead of feeling like everyone is going to carry them with their lack of knowledge.

I know this has very low chance of being a real solution but it is a problem and it can be fixed. This is just a start.

6 Comments

RhlaxJun 27, 20151 votes

I just hope a sandbox mode is coming out soon. It has been suggested so many times and for so long...

MinardeJun 27, 20151 votes

The reduced IP gains are already meant to dissuade players from just repeatedly stomping Co-op games. Same with the daily IP reward timer.

However, why shouldn't people be allowed to play their best champion in bot games? Maybe they have fun messing around against the bots. Maybe they're just going for the First Win of the Day bonus. How does one person's fun compare to another person's? Unless they're actively insulting or abusing other players, it seems mostly harmless. Just queue up for another game for more practice.

The same thing happens in PvP games anyway. Stomps happen. Better tutorials (and not just for SR) are needed, but further restricting Co-op games doesn't really make sense.

5000000000000000Jun 27, 20151 votes

Because they're ruining experience for up to other four people, not just one. New players want to learn new champions, new roles, etc. These people are actively stopping them from doing so. And beginner bot is a place for them.

Moreover, these players are usually just as able in intermediate bot games, yet they still choose to play in beginner bot because it's slightly more convenient to carry and get the FWotD bonus.

doiminat0r3600Jun 27, 20151 votes

However, why shouldn't people be allowed to play their best champion in bot games?

Play custom games or intermediate bots. Not beginner where people are learning how to play champions.

Maybe they're just going for the First Win of the Day bonus

Play ARAM or something if you need to have a short game. The IP bonus isnt worth a bot game. You get over 200 IP in a normal people game vs ~150 with a bot game.

How does one person's fun compare to another person's?

It's not their (another person's) fun. It's their experience level with the mechanics of the game.

Unless they're actively insulting or abusing other players, it seems mostly harmless. Just queue up for another game for more practice.

It's not good that you are going solo top lane (normal team placements except in bots) and then your bot lane (that already has 10 kills at 10 minutes) comes top and kills your challenge. Leaving you just to farm minions and making you have no experience playing your (most likely new) champion against actual other champions so you cant see what your weaknesses/strengths are.

The same thing happens in PvP games anyway.

Your bot lane doesnt get a chance to solo towerdive the enemy, resulting in a double kill, before the game even starts. Nor do they get 5 penta kills in a 15 minute game. Yeah stomps happen but NOWHERE near this.

Better tutorials (and not just for SR) are needed

Tutorials dont help you learn a new champion. Thats what bot games are for. Learning a new champion. Its not just about the new player experience. Its also about the new champion experience as well.

further restricting Co-op games doesn't really make sense.

It makes good sense because you need to know about a champion's build path and allowing you to see what works (meaning that your lane enemies arent always dead) and you can see if you have a good amount of CC, what does the most damage, if you should build x item on x champion or if you shouldnt.

5000000000000000Jun 27, 20151 votes

I agree on what you're saying, and I propose a simpler solution. Use the matchmaking algorithm for normals. Of course, there will be no ELO gain or loss from playing bot games, but simply using normal ELO for bot game would match experienced players with experienced players (so that they can finish the game quicker), and inexperienced players with inexperienced players (which is nice for obvious reasons).

A criticism may be that a lot of new players won't have ELO since they never played any normals. Well, then those people can be paired together. Simple as that.

MinardeJun 27, 20151 votes

One issue with that approach is that Co-op (presumably) has a much smaller playerbase than PvP. Trying to account for MMR differences could massively impact queue times. Using MMR buckets instead of exact values might help, but would probaby still result in greatly increased queue times.