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Recently, Battlefield Studios launched a fresh game mode titled Casual Breakthrough. In essence, this mode resembles the regular Breakthrough setup but features a few notable changes:

• Every squad includes just 8 real players, with the remaining made up of AI-controlled opponents.
• Activities done by real players grant complete experience points, while AI activities provide lower rewards.
• Just a pair of locations can be played: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Features like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking have been turned off.

In short, the playlist delivers on its name: it offers a laid-back version of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think there's nothing wrong, as it provides more options for gamers seeking alternative methods to have fun with the title. However, gaming history has shown one thing, it's that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, a lot of BF6 players are upset.

Community Responses: Anger to Support

"Gamers prefer real players. Don't repeat the mistakes of your competitors," reads one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," says another. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are headed with this title," and someone else lists everything they consider to be problematic in the game: "Fix bugs, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this AI-heavy playlist."

However, for every complaint, there are players explaining how much they're enjoying the recent addition. "It's very fun to warm up, 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 gamers who have lives and can't play this game 24/7. Let them strike a balance," adds a different comment. One reply on Twitter explains 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."

Valid Concerns and Community Input

All that said, players have constructive reasons to complain about the new mode. A few folks have highlighted that it could increase queue times more extended for different playlists because of the sheer number of options currently available. On a similar note, some areas often face AI-filled matches in the existing playlists. It also seems somewhat counterintuitive that the mode won't start without a required amount of human gamers, despite it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Finally, a major complaints is that a previous feature was meant to provide full XP, even against bots, but that got canned when they tried to remove XP farming from the system. Thus Casual Breakthrough feels like the player base meeting them in the middle, according to forum feedback. Another describes this addition as the developers "dropping the ball significantly, I had so much fun in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Will Changes Be Made?

If Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with the latest installment, it's that they're listening and responding to player input. Assignments being too difficult got fixed very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, if their data indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their expectations, they won't be shy to make further modifications.