I was kind of excited to see what I thought was a full BR practice mode to unwind/warm up in when I'm not doing well in standard/competitive. Instead I get a buggy mess of a partial battle royale on the same map over and over again with the dumbest bots I've ever seen in a video game.Cannot loot death boxes at all, and even picking up stuff off the ground or in bins doesn't work half the time.Can I please play on something that isn't World's Edge every time? I didn't notice if there was a rotation of maps for this, but if there was, I never saw any other maps in the multiple rounds I played over the past few days.Why is it a shortened battle royale experience with only a handful of bots to fight against? If this is supposed to be a practice mode for the BR, let me have the full BR so I can land somewhere besides the middle of the map and fight more than just 3 bot teams before the game ends.Speaking of those bots... Dumbest...bots....ever... The shooting range has better bot AI on the harder settings than this game mode. All the bots do here is run around in circles and into walls, stand around and shoot the air in combat, and rarely use their skills or grenades, if ever.

Also Im having fun trying out legends I have never tried before and weapons I don't normally use. I find, trying to play test legends and weapons in BR mode sucks. I always revert to my main, and weapons I know I'm good with. Trial and error while getting stomped blows. So I'm enjoying that aspect of bot royale as well.

@jokool_aid i guess its just for new players to learn the game since they have a hard time in pubs when thrown against 3stacks pred and masters in their first game... easier to make a bot royale than fixxing matchmaking i guess...

I just gave it a shot, because I was interested in how it worked... And... Jesus... It's bad. Almost enjoyably so though. I was playing through one round, because, why the hell not... and, the first bot squad I come across... There's just one fuse, standing in a room, firing his knuckle cluster at a wall, not even looking at me. So I knock him, then watch as he crawls backwards through a door... shuts it... opens it... crawls through it... shuts it... opens it... crawls through it... shuts it... opens it... Again and again and again. Until finally a Lifeline ran in and helped him up, where I just knocked them both, until finally a Wattson came in, and I knocked her too.Then, I'm running down to The Epicenter, the ring is coming in, and there's another squad coming up the hill (towards the encroaching ring) There's a "fire fight" I hesitate to use that phrase, but there you go, and I decide, to heck with it, I'm wandering off.Both my bots, and the enemy squad die in the ring.I'm wandering around now, it's just me and one other squad left, I'm trying to find them, minding my own business, having fun with two Mozambiques and two P2020s, when finally I see the enemy squad coming down from Fragment East to West, just kinda... strolling through the ring. So I throw a Thermite, just because I wanna see what the AI is gonna do with it... And, to it's credit, they didn't all walk through it....Two of them did.The third jumped off the bridge into the Lava...All three dying immediately and I "Won" the round.

Hey all! It’s been a while since i was last on the forums, good to see some old and some new faces 🙂I think a good bot royal experience would be merging it with the firing range experience (to be clear, i mean the game settings, not literally merging the modes) I think adjusting bot difficulty like you can in the firing range would be great, as previously stated. There is also room for the more fun settings, and data settings, like 3rd person mode, dynamic stats, hit markers, dynamic timer, legend upgrade reset, friendly fire (a pre match setting that if you are in a lobby with friends, this would just put you on different teams) also making all the legends playable in bot royale would be good (i don’t think this is already a thing, but i have all the legends, so i don’t know)Also, as it is a training mode primarily, it would be nice to have the legend your playing explain their abilities and perks to you if you turn it on in the game settings.

@jokool_aidYup. It's buggy. It's un-polished. It's very limited in terms of map, timer, location, and gameplay. There is enormous room for improvement.But in Bot Royale I have never experienced bad matchmaking (at least not at my expense). I have never encountered a cheater or a smurf. And the incredibly low skill threshold allows me the latitude to try things that I would never risk in a real match. I'm not saying I'll never do pvp again, and I'm definitely not saying Bot Royale is perfect. Far from it. But even with its limited capabilities it's still way more fun than it has any right to be.

Bot Royale mode is a joke. | EA Forums

17 Replies

Rastigani
9 months ago
@jokool_aid i guess its just for new players to learn the game since they have a hard time in pubs when thrown against 3stacks pred and masters in their first game... easier to make a bot royale than fixxing matchmaking i guess...
MrGreenWithAGun
9 months ago
I didn't have the kinds of problems you describe.
My problem is that the bots are slower than any player I have encountered. I have also seen "basic AI" movement, such as one bot circling as he tried to reach another's banner that was directly above him. It didn't know how to go up a ramp. Or the first time I dropped, one of my bots got stuck on a mountain and didn't move, died in the storm, then I could spawn it.
They call it AI, but it is SI (scripted intelligence). With true AI, it should get better with time. Then it will be ready for the main playlists.
@jokool_aid , I believe they mentioned it was to complement the firing range, so I believe you are correct.
OnclePicsmurf
9 months ago
why would you warmup against bots when mixtape/pubs exist
Midnight9746
Hero+
9 months ago
@MrGreenWithAGun I've played my second match of Bot Royal today, and both bots landed in lava and stood there while taking damage. I didn't notice they were in lava until I heard them both repairing shields at the exact same time.

The lava had knocked both of them and they crawled out of it and I had revived them. I had a Fuse and a Bangalore bot. Fuse, then went up a zipline and stood at the top of it, while Bangalore ran in circles around the base of the zipline about 9 times before they went up it.

As many have pointed out before, the firing range bots are way smarter than this. Although, those bots don't use ziplines. They only run, shoot, open doors, and sometimes get stuck in doorways.
Kazer13
9 months ago
I just gave it a shot, because I was interested in how it worked... And... Jesus... It's bad. Almost enjoyably so though. I was playing through one round, because, why the hell not... and, the first bot squad I come across... There's just one fuse, standing in a room, firing his knuckle cluster at a wall, not even looking at me. So I knock him, then watch as he crawls backwards through a door... shuts it... opens it... crawls through it... shuts it... opens it... crawls through it... shuts it... opens it... Again and again and again. Until finally a Lifeline ran in and helped him up, where I just knocked them both, until finally a Wattson came in, and I knocked her too.

Then, I'm running down to The Epicenter, the ring is coming in, and there's another squad coming up the hill (towards the encroaching ring) There's a "fire fight" I hesitate to use that phrase, but there you go, and I decide, to heck with it, I'm wandering off.

Both my bots, and the enemy squad die in the ring.

I'm wandering around now, it's just me and one other squad left, I'm trying to find them, minding my own business, having fun with two Mozambiques and two P2020s, when finally I see the enemy squad coming down from Fragment East to West, just kinda... strolling through the ring.

So I throw a Thermite, just because I wanna see what the AI is gonna do with it... And, to it's credit, they didn't all walk through it....

Two of them did.

The third jumped off the bridge into the Lava...

All three dying immediately and I "Won" the round.
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
9 months ago
@jokool_aid

Yup. It's buggy. It's un-polished. It's very limited in terms of map, timer, location, and gameplay. There is enormous room for improvement.

But in Bot Royale I have never experienced bad matchmaking (at least not at my expense). I have never encountered a cheater or a smurf. And the incredibly low skill threshold allows me the latitude to try things that I would never risk in a real match. I'm not saying I'll never do pvp again, and I'm definitely not saying Bot Royale is perfect. Far from it. But even with its limited capabilities it's still way more fun than it has any right to be.
Midnight9746
Hero+
9 months ago
@reconzero Every other "player" in Bot Royal are all bots. The only "players" would be you and any teammates you had brought into the match.
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
9 months ago
@Midnight9746

I know, I'm just sayin'.

Although funny: I didn't realize at first that my squadmates were bots. It took three or four matches of their stupidity and my own lack of observation before I realized that they're morons, mostly useless, and that I didn't have to revive them or respawn them in order to be a "good guy." Which was really a weight off my shoulders. In real matches I always hate being caught between the desire to do the right thing and the compulsion to do the smart thing.
Midnight9746
Hero+
9 months ago
@reconzero See, that's the thing. A lot of players, (especially new players), aren't going to know that every other "player" is a bot.

I had realized within the first 5 minutes that my teammates were bots when:

- They said "no" to my "let's go here" ping when I was the jumpmaster.
- They stayed in the area they had landed in.
- They didn't pick up any guns.
- Once their EVO leveled up to blue, they instantly started using a shield cell at the EXACT same time.
After they had said no to my pings, and didn't go anywhere or loot anything, I did assumed I had new players as teammates. Then the moment they started using the shield cells at the same time, I instantly knew they were bots.

Then I did a test to see if they were bots. That test was to ping somewhere behind them and see how they would respond.
Both of them stopped what they were doing and then said "no" to the ping without turning around to look at the ping. Then one of them started running in circles while the other one started climbing a wall. (Both still didn't have a gun). I further proved they were bots by using different pings in other areas, and they kept saying "no" without looking at the pings, until it was the "enemy here!" ping, where suddenly they both went "yes" and started going towards the ping.
Another thing with the pings was that one bot was always responding to it first and then the other one would respond right afterwards. It would be silent after a ping if the first bot didn't respond, as the second bot wouldn't say anything until the first bot did. One ping went on for about 7 seconds unanswered.
I also noticed the option to report or mute them didn't exist, (which I figured meant they were 100% a bot).
What's also funny is that the Apex YouTube channel has a new shorts video, where Pathfinder says, "you know when a legend is a bot, because they are bad". From that, I'm guessing the bots are this bad on purpose to see what improvements could be made.

My suggestions for the Bot Royal would be to:

- Make the bots smarter, (and even add a difficulty setting like others had suggested).
- Give the bots names that actually indicates that they are bots. They could all have the same name or something like that, (since no one is going to care who they are, if they're a bot).
The bots in the matches of Bot Royal all have usernames of real players.
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
9 months ago
@Midnight9746

No doubt anything would be an improvement, but user selected difficulty is pretty critical, I would say.

For anyone who ever played Halo Reach firefight mode and remembers the insane degree of customization that was available... that was the gold standard in my humble opinion. And it was set fourteen years ago now. And come to think of it, those AI were pretty damn good. And still are. I still play it. Of course, they were a lot less complex than an Apex legend (no abilities, pings, etc.), but still. Fourteen years, Respawn. And Halo Infinite bots are also pretty good, but oddly not much of an improvement over Reach. Go figure.