I've just tried to play on a Portal server I created and all of the bots have been removed (not by me). Alongside this, when trying to set up a new verified game experience using the Portal editor the option to 'backfill' has been greyed out. While I'm hoping this is temporary, it seems to be the case that Dice are struggling with bots in a way that they didn't when BF2042 was released. Surely there must be some way to clamp down on Portal servers being taken up by XP farmers, such as halving all progression on all Portal servers as well as making some of the rewards easier to acquire in regular multiplayer.
I'm somewhat fortunate to have purchased EA Play Pro (an on-purpose decision, so that I could play BF6 without potentially wasting 70 pounds) and if Dice don't figure out PvE multiplayer I can spend the money I put aside for BF6 on something else. However, I'm sure there are a lot who (after BF2042) pretty much expected an option to play against the computer, especially when the only alternative is a tacked-together campaign.
Hopefully Dice will work out exactly what they want BF6 to be. Perhaps it will be PvP and nothing more, but I seem to remember them being very excited (around the time of BF1) about what their AI could do, and I also remember them showing it to us in BF2042, especially in that game's Portal mode.
EA and Dice are really dumb. Bring back bots and full XP/progression! I only play PVE!
