PSA: Bot & Scoreboard Disillusion

An informative guide about the state of the game, along with discussion about the recent actions of the developers.

Introduction

After the initial dip in players from launch, the developers have slowly made changes to keep the remaining players, as well as bring new players into the community. Most of the stuff they've done has been wonderful and increased the quality of the game tenfold, however, some of the tactics they've used are a bit more shady, and if you ask me, more manipulative...

This guide is a documentation of what the developers have done, how they've hidden important information from players, and my interpretation of it all. Before we talk about this, I'd like to address something. Almost every time I bring up an issue I have with the game, community members immediately shoot me down and discredit what I say, calling me 'just a hater'. They act like it's impossible for me to criticize and enjoy the game at the same time, and some have even personally called me entitled for expressing my opinion about these topics, which I care very deeply about. I have spent so much time growing this community alongside my own and to be immediately shot down by many community members for simply trying to have a discussion about an issue is really disheartening. I streamed this game almost exclusively for ~12 hours every single day for over a month, so to call me 'entitled' for having a different opinion is just missing the point. With that being said, I would like for anyone reading this to understand I am writing this with the intent to create a discussion because I care about the game and want it to be better. So please hear me out and read the full guide before forming an opinion. Love you all, let's get into it.

Bots

There are bots in your games, and the fact that you might not know that is troubling. The developers have incrementally updated the game over time with small changes that make it harder and harder to tell if you're in a game with bots. They started by removing the bot tags (bots used to have a [BOT] prefix in their name), then they added a bunch more real sounding names to appear as players in game. Now they even do difficulty scaling depending on which team is higher ranked in the social ELO system. To be clear, bots are only in social games, but that does not excuse the absurdity of how willing they are to deceive their players, specifically the new players, who wouldn't know how to check for bots. I also want to make it clear that my issue is not with bots being present in the game, but rather, my issue is that it's hard to know which players are real.

If you'd like to know how to check for bots, check the section "How to See Bots & Stats" below.

Scoreboard

Another example of the developers hiding important information from players is the new scoreboard. All previous versions of the scoreboard had shown all players' score, kills, deaths, and assists in the game, as shown here:

The developers realized that the number one cause of someone leaving the game is after a hard loss. The devs continued what they started and decided to be untruthful with their players even more. They released a new UI overhaul that looked amazing, but with a downgrade... Assists count as kills and you couldn't see anyone's stats or even your own deaths... Since then, they have updated it to show teammate's score, inflated kills (kills+assists), and your personal deaths, but still obscures any of the other important information that was shown before. Here's the new scoreboard, keep in mind the kills still count assists.


This is immensely troubling in an arena shooter. How are you supposed to improve when you can't see your true performance? With the new stats, it's very easy to think you're doing well as the worst player. I have played as team captain in the amateur, semi-pro, and pro leagues for splitgate, and what I've learned is that one of the most important things during a game is being able to see kills, deaths, and score, along with teammates' stats. It helped us realize if we were playing too aggressively, overplaying for kills, or not playing the control point.

There are other issues with deceiving players like this. If a player joins the game and doesn't understand the game has bots, their hours of playtime could be invalidated once they find out they're not as good as they had thought because they may feel betrayed by the game. Thus, most of the time leaving and never coming back, whereas, if a player joins the game knowing their real skill level, then they have realistic expectations, which will allow them to grow their skill through practice. Kills they get feel earned, instead of given...

How to See Bots & Stats

Hit escape, then "Mute & Report Players" and when you click on a player, if they don't have a "view profile" button, they are a bot.
Alternatively, you can hit shift+tab > view players > recent games, and if the player does not show up there, they are a bot.

Stats

To see your recent games' legitimate scoreboard, you can head over to tracker[tracker.gg], where you can see your most recent matches[tracker.gg].

What Can You Do?

For starters, whether you agree or disagree, express your opinion on this google form[forms.gle] and in the comments. I want this page to be a place where we can have constructive conversations about the state of the game and the way that the developers are handling it. I want to hear both sides of the argument and have a constructive conversation with everyone in the community, so I welcome your criticism of my opinions and everything I've said. I want to make it clear that I absolutely love this game, and that's the reason I'm vocal about the things the developers are doing that I disagree with.

Thank you & Credits

If you'd like to say thanks, you can follow me on twitch[twitch.tv], my community matrix room[matrix.to] (you won't get notification spammed), and my twitter.

If anyone decides to give this post awards, it would be much appreciated. Let me know if any of this was helpful! Any suggestions are welcome in the comments, and this guide will be updated whenever I feel it nees an update. Love you all, even if you disagree! <3


You can find my pro settings guide here if you would like to know the best settings for optimizing the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2057740772

[Antiiilluminatisquad]

For a while I though people talking about the bots meant cheaters or bots that cheat (similar to team fortress). I had no idea they were just the in game AI. I can see now why nobody was using portals in some of the rounds I played, the splitgate bots rarely use portals. I don't think they're new players who don't know how to use them either, the whole reason you get the game is because of the portals, that's the main gimmick of the game.

[Mellovegorilla]

The fact that I had no idea I was playing with and against bots is amazing because it means I'll still be able to have fun way after the game's dead.

[bendoverson]

furry = bad

[bpd.pet]

no

[WiseOfRunes]

I hate to be that guy... but people can set there profiles to private and hidden, so they might not be a bot, but just someone with a profile set to private, like you have to be their friend to see it.Same with recently played with, theres a setting where you can choose to not be seen in recently played with tab. Ive played with real people in pubg and other games with a mic and actually talked to them for hours and they dont show up in recently played with because they set up their profile that way, but once they sent me a friends request and we became friends on steam then they would show up in recently played with unless they had it set to completely private even amongst friends. I hate to break your whole conspiracy theory but there you go, this game is really popular, no bots. Cope, seeth, dialate. lol, lmao XD :p

[happy]

I dont get why the aspect of bots being made realer is put off as a Negative, its more likely that players stay that way, instead of barely finding anyone, and then when they finally get actual people, they just get melted by them.

[Bobby_D]

I like this game as well, but everything can be subject for criticism. I watch the replays due to some abnormal playing of some "players" like never looking around and then all of the sudden turning and getting a lock on head shot. With map editor, I can play my maps with bots test the map out and realized that's how bots play/behave. There should be the option to play with or with out bots.

[bpd.pet]

yup

[https://g3intel.dog/ | SANTERIA]

in sum: capitalism bad

[bpd.pet]

yup