AI in ranked play is really easy, so yes the player who have more time will get to the top. so far i have played 20+ games in the ranked auto-match
and as i remember i only got to play with 2 Humans player the were bots,
So yes i do ask the Dev's to disable bots from ranked games, we already have the single player Skirmish games to play against bots.
Beta2 Brought a lot of new players to AOTS and when the game get release will bring more players, so ranked game will get better and better.
Yeah playing against bots killed the enjoyment for me a bit.
This is a tricky thing to solve, i understand when he says that a rank 3 player will never play a rank 7 player, like in sc2 terms a GM player will never play a bronze player.
Problem is what if there isnt anyone else in the ladder to play?
I mean i really apreciate new ideas when laddering and matchmaking is concerned, but i believe that unless you have a couple chalenging AIs that represent in starcraft terms, for example bronze, silver, or diamond level, you cant really place bots in the ladder.
Like if you design your AI to represent how a player on a certain league or ranking would play, it could give you a few points for that sure, but it should never boost you to the top, or place you above other people that activily play the game against other players.
Its a hard system to properly make.
I think id rather implement the ladder system like every other game does it, without bots, and then perhaps add a notification bar like Forged Alliance Forever has. And show something along the lines of "A player with a similar skill level is searching 1vs1 ranked!!", works wonders, it really does, at least for me.
The bot idea is interesting, it really is but i think its a bit too unfair because people can just clim to the top by just grinding games, and i dislike that grind the ladder mentality which is a bit agravated by playing against bots.
Now other things you could probably implement is a way for people to know someones skill level in the custom games section, to help balancing teamgames.