The Latest Relaxed Playlist Ignites Heated Discussions Regarding AI Players, Experience Points, and Queue Times

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a new playlist titled Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this mode resembles the regular Breakthrough setup but includes several key changes:

  • Every squad includes just eight human participants, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
  • Activities done by human gamers grant full XP, while AI activities provide reduced XP.
  • Only two locations can be played: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
  • Elements like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking have been turned off.

In short, the playlist lives up to its title: it's a laid-back take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think it's a good idea, since it gives more options for players seeking different methods to enjoy the game. But, if video games has shown one thing, it is that you can't please everyone. In other words, a lot of BF6 players are upset.

Community Responses: Anger to Praise

"People want real players. Don't repeat the errors of your competitors," reads one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," says a different user. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are headed with this title," and someone else details everything they believe to be problematic 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."

On the other hand, for every complaint, there are players explaining how much they're liking the new mode. "It's enjoyable to warm up, real players keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," reads a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are players who actually go outside and can't play this game all the time. Let them find a middle ground," adds another. A response via social media explains that as they're "a parent gamer with busy schedules, this is great for me," and another applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Concerns and Community Feedback

Despite the support, players have constructive reasons to complain about the new mode. A few folks have highlighted that it will make queue times even longer for different playlists due to the sheer number of playlists currently available. Similarly, some areas already encounter mostly bots in the existing playlists. It also seems somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of real players, despite it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Finally, a major grievances is that a previous feature was meant to offer full XP, including AI matches, but that got canned when they tried to remove bot farms from the system. So Casual Breakthrough seems like the community compromising halfway, according to a Reddit comment. Another describes this mode as the developers "making a mistake significantly, I had so much fun in the first couple of days, what prompted them to adjust it?"

Future Prospects: Will Changes Be Made?

If Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with the latest installment, it's that they're paying attention and acting on feedback. Assignments being too difficult were adjusted very quickly, just like the specific battle pass objectives. Chances are that, should analytics indicates this recent mode isn't performing to their standards, they will not hesitate to change it again.

Ryan Sanchez
Ryan Sanchez

A tech enthusiast and gaming analyst with over a decade of experience in digital media and content creation.