At launch, there will be "instances" everywhere, with loading screens everywhere, matches everywhere, not open world, so. I honestly hope we will see the Tyranids attack everywhere. And not just 2 or 5 Tyranids, but random pop everywhere on the surface (and underground) and near the bases, with impressive environments, storms, fog, rain etc.
Even in the event a match can't/won't be filled to its maximum with players I'd rather play with fewer actual people than a full room with a mix of people and bots.
If there were to be bots I would want them to be cannon fodder just to add meat to battles. Similar to games such as titanfall. Just 1 or 2 simple ranged or melee troops for each faction. Which can be deployed using requisition. There function is simple to add a meat shield for troops and some tactical support e.g. garrisoning a base. The bots would not be equal in power for each faction instead the price and functionality would shift. e.g. Ork Gretchin would act as a great swarm unit and cheap to although easy to kill there function is simply to help bog down the enemy. Eldar guardians on the other hand would act as an excellent garrison troop but not very capable in open field combat.
Well the 'on-high' leaders that appear in lore I'm ok with but insofars as "go accomplish this or that" I feel like that time has passed. It's hard to get immersion in that (at least for me) anymore because it's been everywhere... There can be some NPCs but... I dunno, for me I want to be with real people and deal with them. There are a lot of non-mmo 40k games if you want just a storyline etc...
