Battlefield 6's Casual Game Mode Sparks Heated Discussions Regarding AI Players, Experience Points, and Wait Times

Recently, Battlefield Studios introduced a new game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough setup but includes a few key adjustments:

  • Every squad includes just 8 real players, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
  • Activities performed by human gamers award full XP, while bot actions provide reduced XP.
  • Just a pair of locations are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
  • Elements like Player tags, accolades, and career stat updates have been turned off.

So essentially, this mode lives up to its title: it's a casual take of Breakthrough. On the surface, you might think there's nothing wrong, since it provides additional choices for players seeking different ways to have fun with the title. However, if video games have taught us anything, it's that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, a lot of BF6 fans are upset.

Community Reactions: From Fury to Support

"Gamers prefer real players. Avoid making the errors of your competitors," states one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," says another. At the same time, in community forums, a player remarks, "It's unclear where we are headed with this game," while someone else lists everything they believe to be problematic in the game: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this AI-heavy playlist."

On the other hand, amid the criticism, there are players explaining how much they're liking the recent addition. "It's very fun to practice, real players keep it from being a total farmfest but it's very relaxed," says a forum post. "The community fails to see that there are players who actually go outside and can't play this game 24/7. Let them find a middle ground," states another. A response on Twitter clarifies that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is great for me," and another praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Valid Criticisms and Player Feedback

Despite the support, players have valid points to complain about Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have highlighted that it could increase wait times more extended for other modes because of the large amount of options in the game already. Similarly, some areas often face mostly bots in the current modes. It also seems somewhat counterintuitive that the mode won't start without a minimum number of human gamers, despite it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.

Finally, a major grievances is that Battlefield Portal was promised to provide complete rewards, including AI matches, but that was removed when they attempted to remove bot farms from the mode. Thus Casual Breakthrough seems like the community meeting them in the middle, as per forum feedback. A different user describes this mode as the developers "making a mistake significantly, I had great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"

Future Prospects: Adjustments Occur?

If the development team has proven anything so far with the latest installment, it's that they're listening and responding to player input. Tasks being too difficult got fixed very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, should analytics shows this recent mode isn't performing to their expectations, they won't be shy to make further modifications.

Joshua Reeves
Joshua Reeves

A cybersecurity expert and tech writer specializing in web performance optimization and digital infrastructure management.