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Recently, Battlefield Studios launched a fresh game mode called Casual Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough format but includes a few key changes:

• Every squad has only eight real players, with the rest filled by 32 bots.
• Activities performed by real players grant full XP, while bot actions offer reduced XP.
• Just a pair of locations are available: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, achievements, and stat tracking have been turned off.

So essentially, the playlist delivers on its title: it's a casual version of Breakthrough. At face value, one could assume it's a good idea, since it gives more options for gamers seeking different methods to enjoy the title. But, if video games has shown one thing, it's that not everyone will be happy. In other words, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are mad.

Player Responses: From Fury to Support

"People want real players. Avoid making the mistakes of your competitors," states a response to the official announcement. "Truly disappointing idea," comments a different user. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, one user notes, "I have no idea where we are going with this game," while someone else details all the issues they consider to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. 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 enjoyable to warm up, human participants prevent it from being a complete grind but it's very relaxed," reads a forum post. "The community fails to see that there are players who actually go outside and don't play this title all the time. Allow them to find a middle ground," states another. A response on Twitter explains that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is great for me," and another applauds the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Constructive Concerns and Player Input

All that said, there are constructive reasons to criticize the new mode. A few folks have pointed out that it will make wait times even longer for other modes because of the large amount of options currently available. Similarly, certain regions already encounter AI-filled matches in the current modes. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a required amount of human gamers, even though it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Lastly, one of the biggest grievances is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide complete rewards, even against bots, but that got canned when they tried to remove bot farms from the mode. So this new playlist feels like the community meeting them halfway, as per forum feedback. Another describes this mode as the devs "making a mistake so hard, I had great enjoyment in the initial release, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Future Prospects: Adjustments Be Made?

If the development team has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it is that they're listening and acting on feedback. Assignments being too difficult got fixed very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, if their data shows this new playlist is underperforming to their standards, they will not hesitate to make further modifications.