Outside of competitiveness, player count means nothing, it's if the game design around it works with the player count.

A lot of people on NeoGAF were getting in an uproar about it, but more players does not directly mean better game.

It's a design choice that I don't really fault them for. New players tend to flock to the server with the most players on it and they don't want them experiencing broken gameplay.

Kinda sucks that you're primarily going to be killing bots. It's going to be 6v6 + 20 bots on each team.

i dont understand how a game with bots would ever be competitive? Am I missing something or is this the polar opposite of a competitive game

I'm not sure the game is marketed at a competitive audience to begin with (?)

Here's a quote from the comments:

"There’s two big things that AI bring to the table that cannot be copied with real players:

The first is that they can enhance a real player’s god complex. By including several AI bots with lesser attributes, real players have the opportunity to score easy kills that contribute towards them having a greater time. This also helps less-skilled players enjoy the game as they are still effective at helping their team.

The second reason has to do with the approach Respawn is taking with multiplayer and inserting campaign-like elements to the game. AI bots can be used to perform specific tasks during the match, or they can be used for atmospheric roles. Running through the map and having a drop pod land nearby and unload half-a-dozen troops onto the field is one thing you cannot do with real players without having them wait in a queue to respawn back into the field (which is not a pleasant experience)."

This seems like a really stupid design choice. It's as if they added 10 easy bots to each team in CSGO to make bad players feel less bad by killing bots.

They had to provide some bullshit reason for why the brand new $500 Xbox can't handle more than 12 players...

CLOUD PROCESSING. IT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.

It's not like I can have an actual opinion on it being 6v6 + AI titans when there's no information AFAIK on map size, game modes and whatever. The game looks fun and I'll probably end up getting it either way. If it's a flop, then whatever.

AI are almost always more expensive to process than real players though.

cool, this alone is likely going to make me not buy it. such a shame.

ive never once in my life killed a cpu controlled opponent in a shooting game and said "wow that was fun"

I imagine it's like Dota 2 and LoL. The AI aren't really a threat, but killing them provides some benefits, and they can accomplish things for the players if used correctly. It's like how bosses in a lot of RPGs tend to come with smaller enemies, so characters that get bonuses from killing things are still able to do so.

Ya, the AI enemies are basically creeps in DotA/LoL. They march towards objectives and help you take them, you have people who want to make sure the ai enemies don't march to your objectives, and if you farm them you get something for it (quicker Titan), they have weaker equipment and don't have titans or most of the stuff players have, etc.

They are not meant to replace players at all. It'd be like if you replaced all the creeps in DotA or LoL with actual players - the game would not be better for it.

i once made the sim look like eric sparrow from thug and then i made him cook dinner until he lit himself on fire

don't forget the AI titans can also be controlled by you whenever you want.

So Titanfall is the new Super Monday Night Combat? We need more information on game modes and map sizes, so far they are giving us nothing... (and it looks a bit disappointing)