Battlefield 6's Casual Playlist Ignites Heated Discussions Over Bots, Experience Points, and Queue Times
Recently, Battlefield Studios launched a new playlist titled Casual Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough format but features several key changes:
- Every squad has only eight real players, with the remaining made up of AI-controlled opponents.
- Activities done by human gamers grant complete experience points, while bot actions provide reduced XP.
- Just a pair of locations can be played: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
- Features like Dogtags, achievements, and stat tracking are disabled.
So essentially, this mode delivers on its name: it offers a laid-back version of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think there's nothing wrong, as it provides additional choices for players seeking different ways to enjoy the title. However, gaming history has shown one thing, it's that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, many BF6 players are mad.
Player Reactions: From Fury to Support
"Gamers prefer real players. Don't repeat the mistakes of your rivals," states a response to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking concept," says a different user. At the same time, in community forums, one user notes, "I have no idea where we are headed with this title," while someone else lists all the issues they believe to be problematic in the game: "Fix bugs, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this AI-heavy playlist."
However, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're enjoying the recent addition. "It's enjoyable to practice, human participants prevent it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," says one Reddit comment. "This subreddit fails to see that there are gamers who actually go outside and don't play this title 24/7. Let them find a middle ground," adds a different comment. One reply via social media clarifies that as they're "a battledad with limited time, this is great for me," and another applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."
Valid Concerns and Player Feedback
All that said, players have constructive reasons to criticize the new mode. Some users have highlighted that it will make queue times more extended for different playlists due to the sheer number of playlists currently available. Similarly, some areas often face mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode won't start without a minimum number of real players, even though it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.
Finally, one of the biggest grievances is that a previous feature was meant to offer full XP, even against bots, but that got canned when they attempted to remove XP farming from the system. Thus Casual Breakthrough seems like the community meeting them in the middle, as per forum feedback. Another describes this addition as the devs "making a mistake significantly, I experienced so much fun in the first couple of days, what prompted them to adjust it?"
Future Prospects: Will Changes Occur?
Should the development team has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it's that they're listening and acting on feedback. Assignments being too difficult got fixed rapidly, just like the specific battle pass objectives. It is likely that, should analytics shows this recent mode isn't performing to their standards, they won't be shy to change it again.