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Over the weekend, the game developers introduced a new playlist called Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but features a few key changes:

• Every squad includes just 8 real players, with the rest made up of AI-controlled opponents.
• Actions done by human gamers award complete experience points, while AI activities provide reduced XP.
• Just a pair of maps can be played: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
• Features like Dogtags, accolades, and career stat updates are disabled.

In short, the playlist lives up to its name: it's a laid-back version of Breakthrough. At face value, one could assume it's a good idea, as it gives additional choices for players seeking alternative methods to have fun with the game. However, gaming history has shown one thing, it is that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are mad.

Community Reactions: Anger to Praise

"People want human opponents. Don't repeat the errors of your competitors," states a response to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking idea," comments a different user. At the same time, in community forums, a player remarks, "I have no idea where we are headed with this game," and another lists all the issues they consider 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, some gamers sharing how much they're liking the recent addition. "It's very fun to warm up, human participants keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," says one Reddit comment. "The community fails to see that there are players who have lives and don't play this game 24/7. Let them find a middle ground," adds a different comment. A response via social media explains that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is great for me," and another praises the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Criticisms and Community Input

All that said, players have constructive reasons to criticize the new mode. Some users have highlighted that it will make wait times more extended 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 a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a required amount of real players, despite it primarily centers on combat against bots.

Finally, one of the biggest grievances is that Battlefield Portal was meant to offer full XP, including AI matches, but that was removed when they tried to remove XP farming from the system. Thus Casual Breakthrough feels like the player base meeting them in the middle, as per a Reddit comment. A different user labels this addition as the developers "making a mistake so hard, I experienced great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Occur?

Should Battlefield Studios has proven anything to date with the latest installment, it's that they're listening and acting on feedback. Tasks that were overly hard were adjusted rapidly, just like the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, if their data indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their expectations, they will not hesitate to change it again.