Battlefield 6's Relaxed Playlist Ignites Heated Discussions Over Bots, XP Rewards, and Queue Times
Over the weekend, the game developers launched a new game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough setup but includes a few key changes:
- Every squad has only eight human participants, with the rest filled by 32 bots.
- Actions performed by human gamers grant complete experience points, while AI activities provide lower rewards.
- Just a pair of maps are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
- Features like Dogtags, accolades, and career stat updates have been turned off.
So essentially, this mode lives up to its name: it's a laid-back take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think there's nothing wrong, as it gives additional choices for gamers looking for alternative ways to have fun with the game. But, gaming history has shown one thing, it is that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, many BF6 players are mad.
Community Reactions: Anger to Support
"People want human opponents. Don't repeat the mistakes of your rivals," reads a response to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," says a different user. At the same time, in community forums, a player remarks, "It's unclear where we are headed with this game," and someone else details everything they consider to be broken in the game: "Resolve glitches, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We do not require this AI-heavy playlist."
However, amid the criticism, some gamers sharing how much they're enjoying the new mode. "It's enjoyable to practice, real players prevent it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," reads a forum post. "The community doesn't understand that there are players who have lives and can't play this title all the time. Allow them to strike a balance," adds a different comment. One reply via social media clarifies that as they're "a parent gamer with busy schedules, this is perfect for me," while someone else praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."
Constructive Concerns and Player Input
Despite the support, there are valid points to complain about the new mode. Some users have highlighted that it could increase queue times more extended for other modes because of the large amount of playlists currently available. Similarly, some areas often face AI-filled matches in the existing playlists. It also seems a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of human gamers, even though it focuses mostly on combat against bots.
Finally, a major grievances is that Battlefield Portal was promised to offer full XP, even against bots, but that got canned when they tried to remove bot farms from the mode. Thus this new playlist seems like the player base meeting them in the middle, as per a Reddit comment. Another describes this addition as the devs "making a mistake so hard, I had so much fun in the first couple of days, what prompted them to adjust it?"
Future Prospects: Will Changes Be Made?
If the development team has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it's that they're listening and responding to player input. Assignments that were overly hard were adjusted very quickly, just like the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, should analytics shows this new playlist isn't performing to their standards, they will not hesitate to make further modifications.