League of Legends update bringing co-op vs. AI improvements

Riot Games reveals new details about upcoming improvements to co-op vs. AI modes in League of Legends, and discuss the particulars in a new developer diary.

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Developer Riot Games has revealed new details for the newest update to its free-to-play title League of Legends. The major update will focus on improving bot intelligence in and attempt to make the game's co-op vs. AI modes more engaging.

Co-op vs. AI in League of Legends was originally conceived as a mode for beginners that would allow folks to practice before competing against other humans. However, Riot Games discovered something a bit surprising. "One thing that kept coming up was the majority of the people who play League of Legends will play, every week, at least one co-op vs. AI game," senior producer Mark Norris told Joystiq. "And it's actually the primary game mode for a surprisingly large percentage of players."

Numerous changes to bot AI are detailed in the Riot Games video interview below, including predictive targeting, improved map awareness, and bot teamwork. Dominion will also make its way into the co-op vs. AI roster of playable game modes, and the game's roster of bots is increasing from twelve to forty.

There are still some other improvements that Riot is working on, which will likely make their way into future updates, such as the ability of bots to "jungle." While it's relatively easy to get bots to attack a progressive series of enemies, having the AI make decisions about when to invade enemy territory, or engage in "ganking," has proven a bit more complicated.

"That's actually a huge advanced area that we do want to look at and get into, that we're in the the real rudimentary stages of trying to figure out right now," Norris said. In short, the developers see the impending update as an evolutionary step that will be the foundation for more AI improvements and even the possibility of new co-op vs. AI game modes.

More details about the upcoming changes to League of Legends can be seen in the video below, or you can check out the supplemental interview (and the complete roster of bots), in full.

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  • reply
    January 24, 2012 6:30 PM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, League of Legends update bringing co-op vs. AI improvements.

    Riot Games reveals new details about upcoming improvements to co-op vs. AI modes in League of Legends, and discuss the particulars in a new developer diary.

    • reply
      January 24, 2012 6:33 PM

      I don't get why DOTA/HON players tend to hate on bots. They're such a great way to learn a new character without pissing off teammates, or to play some casual games with some lower skill level friends.

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        January 24, 2012 6:58 PM

        Bots can be a neat tool but they can also encourage players to develop bad habits. A seasoned player who starts a bot game to try out a new build or character is an awesome use. Somebody who trains from day 1 against bots and expects to do well someday against real humans is going to be in for a rude surprise.

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          January 24, 2012 7:41 PM

          [deleted]

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            January 25, 2012 12:09 AM

            BS. It's a lot easier to make an insanely difficult aimbot-like-bot in a FPS game than a even moderatly difficult bot in a RTS/Dota game. Positioning and pace is a lot more important, you can't just spray-and-pray in LoL.

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          January 25, 2012 8:23 AM

          It doesn't matter if you ONLY play against bots, like me!

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        January 24, 2012 7:38 PM

        Usually the Intelligence of the bots is badly made.
        So either you end up stomping everything in sight like in lol (from lvl 1-3 to the end of the match), because the bots are stupid; or you can't do shit because the bots insta cast you on sight and perfectly chain spells on you like in dota 2 beta, but, its only the enemy team that do that, the allied team bots are stupid as bricks, mainly because the enemy team go in team and the allied team don't.

        Either way it doesn't give the same results as playing against people, so you cant really gauge how effective a build can be. And in the end bot matches only serve to see what the hero does, or test it in the jungle.

        But i have yet to test the new AI in lol :), and dota is still in beta so it will change a lot.

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        January 25, 2012 9:00 AM

        Its because they've been playing dota for years. They forgot the learning curve required to play. I still argue LoL eases people into the genre the best out of all the MOBA games.

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      January 24, 2012 7:31 PM

      I'd say 70% of the games I played was vs bots with some friends. I haven't touched the game since September, but this might be an excuse to jump back in.

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      January 25, 2012 7:56 AM

      [deleted]

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      January 25, 2012 9:48 AM

      I normally play one quick bot game in the morning to get my last-hitting warmed up before going on to face players. Though the bots are a bit too aggressive currently, I find it useful for LH practice.

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