The Latest Casual Playlist Sparks Intense Discussions Over Bots, Experience Points, and Queue Times
Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a fresh game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough setup but features several key changes:
- Each team includes only eight real players, with the rest made up of 32 bots.
- Activities done by human gamers grant complete experience points, while bot actions offer reduced XP.
- Only two locations are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
- Features like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking are disabled.
So essentially, the playlist delivers on its title: it offers a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think there's nothing wrong, since it provides more options for gamers seeking different ways to have fun with the game. However, if video games has shown one thing, it is that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, a lot of BF6 players are mad.
Player Reactions: From Fury to Praise
"Gamers prefer real players. Avoid making the errors of your rivals," states a response to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking concept," comments a different user. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player remarks, "I have no idea where we are headed with this game," while someone else details all the issues they believe to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this bot mode."
On the other hand, for every complaint, there are players sharing how much they're enjoying the new mode. "It's enjoyable to warm up, real players keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," says a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are gamers who have lives and don't play this title all the time. Allow them to find a middle ground," adds another. One reply on Twitter clarifies that as they're "a parent gamer with busy schedules, this is great for me," and someone else applauds the mode for "avoiding intense competition."
Valid Concerns and Player Feedback
All that said, players have valid points to criticize Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have highlighted that it could increase wait times even longer for other modes due to the sheer number of options in the game already. On a similar note, certain regions already encounter mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of real players, even though it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.
Lastly, a major complaints is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide complete rewards, including AI matches, but that was removed when they attempted to eliminate XP farming from the system. Thus Casual Breakthrough seems like the player base compromising in the middle, according to a Reddit comment. Another labels this addition as the devs "making a mistake significantly, I had great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"
Future Prospects: Will Changes Be Made?
If the development team has demonstrated something so far with the latest installment, it's that they're listening and responding to player input. Assignments being too difficult were adjusted rapidly, just like the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, should analytics shows this new playlist is underperforming to their standards, they won't be shy to make further modifications.