Are two mini DLCs the same content as one major DLC?

[Falcrack]

The Hyperion DLC was $7, and gave a single ship and sector, a very short mission chain, and some new music. The Envoy DLC gives 2 ships, a new sector, a mission to introduce the new ships (no idea of the length), plus some new music. I assume it will be a similar price of around $7. Egosoft decided to do 2 mini DLCs this year instead of a main DLC, which they have historically charged $15 for.

For the Kingdom End, Split Vendetta, Cradle of Humanity, and Tides of Avarice DLCs, an entire new faction was introduced (10+ ships), many new sectors, many new station modules, and a substantial storyline for each, and lots of new music.

It seems to me that we got a lot more content for each of the yearly released major DLC than what we are getting for the two mini DLCs combined we are getting this year, for about the same price.

I guess I was expecting the mini DLC would have a bit more content to them (thinking of Hyperion mainly, since Envoy is not released to be judged) than what was actually delivered.

[Raptor34]

Content? Probably not. Value? Definitely. Depending on the DLC and the person, you might not like every part of the DLC. For example, for ToA, the only actually valuable part of it for me is the Astrid.
Avarice or w/e the sector with the Tide is is interesting for a bit, but the lack of combat in it makes it quite boring, and the new TL sectors suits my aesthetics much better. And I don't need specialized ships to survive there.
VIG is just a lag generator after a bit, assuming you don't go kill them. So in that sense depending on the person, you're paying for negative value.
Don't care for the scrap non-symmetrical designs for every other ToA ship either.

Imagine buying mini DLCs vs. normal DLCs as buying what you specifically want vs. buying a pack with everything else. The bigger pack gives you more stuff, but is it actually cheaper if most of the stuff aren't what you actually want? Of course if you want a 100% game then yeah sure, it's cheaper. Otherwise what value you get out of each option depends on the person.

[Ragnos28]

That's a good question...personally, I buy DLCs, only if I like the ships provided with them.
Don't really care about content, about all storylines provided In X4 were for me..."Phew, finally over"...rather than..."Man, can't wait to do that again"...in part because I'm a completionist (slight OCD on that one), can't stand active missions.
ToA for example....I only like the Astrid from that DLC, but in order to skip what I considered to be bloat (VIG, how to be a pirate missions and the like), I've skipped the entire DLC. That being said, I would have gladly paid 15 euro for a DLC that give only the Astrid...but since that is not an option, I opted out from buying ToA, a viewer even offered to gift me ToA and I refused because of the "bloat".

[vvvvvvvv]

No, they're not the same amount of content as one major DLC.

Timelines had... one sec... 5 ships and 3 racing variants. That's ships alone. There are also voiced lines, timelines missions, etc.

Generally one major DLC is bigger than those mini-dlc.

That is however counterbalanced by free Diplomacy update. Which I've not played yet, as I'm waiting for full release.

[MegaJohnny]

I'm too lazy to gather evidence for this, but I think there's a trend across all games where smaller DLCs have less bang for your buck.

I'll always prefer a DLC that feels more like a new module for my ant farm than a new toy for me to play with, but Egosoft seemed pretty upfront about not wanting to do any more big DLCs for the time being.

[flywlyx]

The most common theory is that they’re working on something big, like X3: Terran Conflict, which is why they don’t have the manpower to release another full-sized DLC this year.

I guess we’ll find out if that’s true someday. Right now, your only options are to buy it to support them or not buy it to boycott this kind of change.

After all, it’s unlikely they’ll offer you a discount on the "large" DLC with the higher price tag just because you bought the smaller DLCs to support them.

[Falcrack]

The most common theory is that they’re working on something big, like X3: Terran Conflict, which is why they don’t have the manpower to release another full-sized DLC this year.

I guess we’ll find out if that’s true someday. Right now, your only options are to buy it to support them or not buy it to boycott this kind of change.

After all, it’s unlikely they’ll offer you a discount on the "large" DLC with the higher price tag just because you bought the smaller DLCs to support them.

Oh I'll buy it anyways. And I'm not really upset. Maybe they are devoting extra manpower to a really big update, in which case, I don't mind smaller sized DLC right now.

[Alan Phipps]

I think the rationale and purpose for the mini DLC approach (and their optional status in terms of base gameplay) has been quite openly given by the devs: see here.