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Over the weekend, the game developers launched a new playlist called Casual Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough format but includes a few notable adjustments:

• Each team has only eight real players, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
• Activities performed by real players grant full XP, while bot actions provide lower rewards.
• Just a pair of locations are available: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking have been turned off.

So essentially, the playlist lives up to its name: it offers a casual take of Breakthrough. On the surface, one could assume there's nothing wrong, since it provides more options for players looking for alternative methods to enjoy the title. However, gaming history has shown one thing, it is that not everyone will be happy. In other words, a lot of BF6 players are upset.

Player Responses: Anger to Support

"Gamers prefer human opponents. Don't repeat the mistakes of your rivals," states a response to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking idea," says a different user. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, one user remarks, "It's unclear where we are going with this game," and someone else details all the issues they believe to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, fix IVF rockets, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, improve hit detection. We don't need this bot mode."

However, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're enjoying the new mode. "It's very fun to warm up, real players keep it from being a complete grind but it's very relaxed," reads a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are players who have lives and can't play this game 24/7. Allow them to strike a balance," states a different comment. A response via social media explains that as they're "a battledad with limited time, this is perfect for me," while someone else praises the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Criticisms and Player Input

Despite the support, players have valid points to complain about Casual Breakthrough. Some users have highlighted that it will make wait times even longer for other modes because of the sheer number of options in the game already. On a similar note, certain regions often face AI-filled matches in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of human gamers, even though it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Lastly, one of the biggest grievances is that a previous feature was promised to provide full XP, even against bots, but that was removed when they tried to eliminate XP farming from the mode. Thus Casual Breakthrough feels like the player base meeting them halfway, as per forum feedback. Another labels this mode as the developers "making a mistake so hard, I had so much fun in the initial release, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Will Changes Be Made?

If Battlefield Studios has proven anything to date with Battlefield 6, it is that they're listening and acting on feedback. Assignments being too difficult got fixed very quickly, just like the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, if their data indicates this new playlist isn't performing to their standards, they will not hesitate to change it again.