League of Legends gets more human-like bots

Pratice makes perfect in League of Legends, especially if it's against AI bots. That's why Riot has adjusted bot behaviors to act more human.

Ozzie Mejia

April 16, 2014 1:30 PM

3

Though most League of Legends players jump into the game to play against friends or against human competition, even the most experienced users need some practice. And preferably, that practice would come in a non-competitive, non-venomous environment. While AI bots have normally helped in this area, they'd all-too-often behave like bots, which is something Riot has changed in a recent update.

"We surveyed both Coop-vs.-AI and PvP players to find out what they thought about bots," explained design analyst RoamingNumeral on the League of Legends website. "One very clear piece of feedback was a desire for more 'human' bots: ones that are less predictable and focus on the same game elements that players do, such as last hitting and nailing their combos. Surprisingly, 'tougher' bots was a less frequent response by comparison. Based on this data we set our sights on more-human bots as the overarching goal for this update, especially since such changes will make harder bots more interesting down the line."

The overhauled AI bots will measure damage input in order to assess threats and adjust their behaviors accordingly. However, they'll also behave like humans in that they can sometimes misjudge matchups and either rush in foolishly or bail on an easily-winnable clash.

The increased bot AI is a work in progress. RoamingNumeral acknowledges that certain player maneuvers, like jungling and wall jumping, are too sophisticated for bots at this time. However, the team is evaluating their options for future updates.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?