The Latest Relaxed Playlist Sparks Intense Discussions Over Bots, Experience Points, and Queue Times

Recently, Battlefield Studios launched a fresh playlist called Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough setup but features a few key adjustments:

  • Every squad includes just eight human participants, with the rest filled by 32 bots.
  • Activities performed by human gamers award complete experience points, while AI activities offer reduced XP.
  • Just a pair of locations can be played: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
  • Elements like Dogtags, achievements, and stat tracking have been turned off.

In short, the playlist lives up to its title: it's a laid-back take of Breakthrough. At face value, one could assume there's nothing wrong, as it gives additional choices for gamers seeking different methods to have fun with the game. But, gaming history have taught us anything, it is that you can't please everyone. In other words, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are upset.

Community Responses: Anger to Praise

"People want human opponents. Avoid making the errors of your rivals," states a response to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking concept," says another. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are headed with this game," and another details all the issues they consider to be problematic in the game: "Resolve glitches, address drone issues, fix IVF rockets, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this bot mode."

On the other hand, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're liking the recent addition. "It's very fun to warm up, human participants keep it from being a total farmfest but it's very relaxed," says a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are gamers who actually go outside and can't play this game 24/7. Allow them to strike a balance," adds a different comment. A response on Twitter clarifies that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is perfect for me," and someone else praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Valid Criticisms and Player Feedback

Despite the support, there are constructive reasons to criticize Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have highlighted that it will make queue times even longer for different playlists due to the sheer number of playlists currently available. Similarly, certain regions often face mostly bots in the existing playlists. It also seems somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a required amount of real players, despite it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.

Finally, one of the biggest grievances is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide full XP, including AI matches, but that was removed when they tried to remove XP farming from the mode. So Casual Breakthrough feels like the player base compromising in the middle, as per forum feedback. Another labels this addition as the developers "dropping the ball so hard, I experienced great enjoyment in the initial release, why did they feel the need to change it?"

Future Prospects: Adjustments Be Made?

Should Battlefield Studios has proven anything to date with the latest installment, it's that they're paying attention and acting on player input. Tasks that were overly hard were adjusted very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, should analytics indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their standards, they will not hesitate to change it again.

Nicole French
Nicole French

Environmental scientist and advocate passionate about sharing sustainable practices and green technologies.