The Latest Relaxed Playlist Sparks Intense Discussions Regarding AI Players, XP Rewards, and Wait Times
Recently, the game developers launched a fresh playlist titled Casual Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough setup but features several notable changes:
- Every squad has just 8 human participants, with the remaining filled by 32 bots.
- Activities performed by human gamers grant complete experience points, while bot actions offer lower rewards.
- Only two locations can be played: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
- Features like Player tags, achievements, and career stat updates are disabled.
In short, this mode delivers on its title: it offers a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, one could assume it's a good idea, as it gives more options for gamers looking for alternative methods to have fun with the title. But, gaming history has shown one thing, it is that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, a lot of BF6 fans are mad.
Community Responses: Anger to Support
"People want real players. Don't repeat the mistakes of your rivals," states one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," comments a different user. Meanwhile, in community forums, a player notes, "It's unclear where we are headed with this game," while someone else details all the issues they believe to be problematic in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We do not require this AI-heavy playlist."
However, for every complaint, there are players explaining how much they're enjoying the new mode. "It's very fun to warm up, human participants keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," reads one Reddit comment. "This subreddit doesn't understand that there are gamers who have lives and can't play this title all the time. Allow them to strike a balance," states a different comment. One reply via social media clarifies that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is great for me," and another applauds the mode for "avoiding intense competition."
Valid Criticisms and Community Input
All that said, there are valid points to complain about the new mode. A few folks have highlighted that it will make queue times even longer for other modes because of the large amount of playlists in the game already. On a similar note, certain regions already encounter mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a required amount of real players, even though it focuses mostly on fighting AI opponents.
Lastly, a major complaints is that a previous feature was meant to offer full XP, even against bots, but that got canned when they tried to remove bot farms from the system. Thus this new playlist feels like the player base compromising halfway, according to forum feedback. A different user describes this addition as the devs "making a mistake significantly, I experienced great enjoyment in the first couple of days, what prompted them to change it?"
Looking Ahead: Adjustments Occur?
Should Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it is that they're listening and responding to feedback. Assignments being too difficult got fixed rapidly, just like the specific battle pass objectives. Chances are that, should analytics indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their expectations, they won't be shy to make further modifications.