Our community (2,5k members, 80 k unique server favorites) host a Portal server, and every time we try to fill it, we run into a major problem. If you are AFK or alt-tab for a short time, the game kicks you out even when the server is almost empty. This makes it almost impossible to fill a server. In older Battlefield games, you could join your server with friends, wait while doing something else on PC and let random players join over time. That was how servers became active. Now you must be constantly active in-game or you get kicked, which is not realistic for anyone trying to run a community server.
Portal also has other issues that make it very hard for communities to grow. You cannot choose your region, as EU community, we get high ping servers. You cannot add other people as admins. You cannot switch teams or move players to keep matches balanced. Because of these limitations, serious communities stand no chance in Battlefield 6. Many players of our players simply do not play the game, or stopped playing due to the hassle of being able to play together or against each other as a large group..
These are not minor problems. If Portal is meant to support community servers, then the basic conditions for seeding and managing those servers must exist. Allowing AFK until the server reaches a certain population threshold, like 32/64 or similar, would already solve a major part of the issue. Adding basic admin tools would allow communities to actually use Portal in a meaningful way.
Right now, communities cannot form, and that directly affects player retention.. The current design is extremely anti community. Fixing these issues is in the best interest of the game and should be a priority.
Yes, literally there isn't time to run to the toilet for a tinkle, because the game disconnects you for inactivity. Come on DICE, at least a bladder length of timeout.
