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Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a new playlist called Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough format but includes a few notable changes:

• Every squad has only 8 real players, with the rest made up of 32 bots.
• Actions done by human gamers award full XP, while AI activities provide lower rewards.
• Just a pair of maps can be played: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, accolades, and career stat updates are disabled.

In short, this mode lives up to its name: it's a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think it's a good idea, since it provides additional choices for players seeking alternative methods to enjoy the title. However, if video games has shown one thing, it is that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, many Battlefield 6 fans are mad.

Player Responses: From Fury to Support

"Gamers prefer real players. Avoid making the mistakes of your rivals," reads one reply to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking idea," comments a different user. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player remarks, "It's unclear where we are going with this game," and someone else lists everything they believe to be problematic in the game: "Fix bugs, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, improve hit detection. We don't need this AI-heavy playlist."

On the other hand, for every complaint, there are players explaining how much they're enjoying the recent addition. "It's very fun to warm up, real players prevent it from being a total farmfest but it's quite laid-back," says a forum post. "The community doesn't understand that there are players who actually go outside and don't play this game 24/7. Allow them to find a middle ground," adds a different comment. A response on Twitter explains that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is great for me," and another praises the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Constructive Criticisms and Player Input

Despite the support, players have constructive reasons to criticize Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have pointed out that it could increase wait times more extended for different playlists due to the large amount of playlists in the game already. Similarly, some areas already encounter mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode won't start without a minimum number of real players, despite it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.

Finally, one of the biggest grievances is that Battlefield Portal was promised to provide full XP, including AI matches, but that got canned when they attempted to eliminate XP farming from the system. Thus Casual Breakthrough feels like the community compromising in the middle, according to forum feedback. Another labels this mode as the devs "making a mistake significantly, I experienced great enjoyment in the first couple of days, what prompted them to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

Should the development team has proven anything to date with the latest installment, it is that they're listening and acting on player input. Tasks being too difficult got fixed very quickly, just like the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, if their data indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their expectations, they will not hesitate to make further modifications.