Titanfall has bots. More specifically, Titanfall has bots that behave a bit like creeps in a MOBA. They’re called minions, and they serve as little more than kill count fodder in specific gametypes.
We’ll talk about their role in Attrition, a mode semi-unique to Titanfall. Attrition is essentially a deathmatch style point race. Killing minions, pilots and titans gets you Attrition Points, and the Attrition Points are higher based on what’s killed.
Kill a minion and you’ll get 1 Attrition Point. Get it?
There was a lot fuss made about the presence of these bots and how they’d detract from the overall Titanfall experience. Some were angry that A.I. would get in the way of player interaction, and that the “skill” of the minions would keep each game from really ramping up.
That’s not really how they work, though. They seem to be there simply to push the game along in small increments. They’re easy to find and kill, so that means the gameplay never slows down thanks to campers. They’re easy points. You won’t win the game by focusing on them, and ignoring them won’t cost you the round either. It also helps that killing them reduces the time for your next titan to spawn.
The problem with minions is that they artificially inflate the amount of “people” in specific games. Titanfall is limited to 12 players at once, six per side. Then modes like Attrition might enjoy an extra six minions running around on each team.
During the beta, my issue with these minions is that they aren’t people. That is, finding actual pilots to kill is made more difficult thanks to the presence of these minions fighting it out in the wide open.Hear gunshots? That must be a cluster of pilots, right? Wrong.
You’ll race in a given direction only to find two squads of opposing minions taking a knee and firing at each other over a gap of 40 feet. That’s three easy points for you, sure, but it isn’t fighting human pilots.
It also doesn’t help that the minions basically look like pilots from afar. In fact, unless you approach them, the only real succinct way you have of discerning that it’s a minion is that it’s not wildly failing parkour tricks.
If the game supported ten human players per side, or even eight, finding pilots to tangle with would be a lot easier and more enjoyable than it currently is.
Titanfall is a lot of fun, make no mistake. When you actually do find a pilot, whether you’re in titan or pilot form, the combat that results is really, really good.
The minion problems, though, didn’t form because of the reasons we once thought they would. It’s not their A.I. or purpose that hinders them, it’s the fact that they equal or beat the total amount of pilots in action.
Add more pilots, and this minion problem might actually turn into a benefit.
