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Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios launched a new playlist called Casual Breakthrough. To put it simply, this mode resembles the regular Breakthrough setup but includes a few notable adjustments:

• Every squad includes just eight human participants, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
• Actions performed by human gamers grant complete experience points, while AI activities offer reduced XP.
• Just a pair of maps are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Features like Dogtags, achievements, and stat tracking have been turned off.

So essentially, the playlist lives up to its name: it offers a laid-back take of Breakthrough. On the surface, one could assume there's nothing wrong, since it gives additional choices for players looking for different ways to enjoy the game. But, if video games has shown one thing, it is that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are mad.

Player Responses: From Fury to Praise

"People want real players. Don't repeat the mistakes of your rivals," states one reply to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking idea," says a different user. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, one user remarks, "It's unclear where we are going with this title," and another lists all the issues they believe to be broken in the game: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, improve hit detection. We do not require this bot mode."

However, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're enjoying the new mode. "It's enjoyable to practice, 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 can't play this game all the time. Let them find a middle ground," states a different comment. One reply via social media clarifies that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is great for me," while another praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Valid Criticisms and Player Input

All that said, players have constructive reasons to complain about Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have pointed out that it could increase queue times more extended for other modes due to the sheer number of playlists in the game already. On a similar note, some areas often face AI-filled matches in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode won't start without a minimum number of real players, even though it primarily centers on combat against bots.

Lastly, a major grievances is that a previous feature was promised to offer complete rewards, including AI matches, but that was removed when they attempted to remove XP farming from the mode. Thus this new playlist seems like the player base compromising in the middle, as per forum feedback. Another describes this mode as the developers "dropping the ball so hard, I experienced great enjoyment in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

If Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with Battlefield 6, it's that they're listening and responding to player input. Assignments that were overly hard got fixed very quickly, just like the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, should analytics shows this recent mode isn't performing to their standards, they won't be shy to make further modifications.