Who exactly is Timelines for? Why would the devs waste time on this vs improving the sandbox?

[Ergoswot]

Mixed reviews, only 48% are positive. A review that resonated with me: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2700 ... views_hash

The only reason I bought this DLC, so I can make my mods work with it.
If it wasn't for that, I would have gladly skipped it. A DLC absolutely no one asked for.
Instead of doing a Q and A or survey for possible upcoming DLCs to ask what players actually want, they just start creating something out of thin air.

Lets hope Egosoft learn from this DLC disaster, really analyze the overwhelmingly negative feedback and listen to the playerbase who fund their development, instead of spontaneously deciding to indulge their own whims and produce something the majority of people simply do not want.

[Socratatus]

I think Timelines would have been better received if it had been built into the Sandbox game.

Your sandbox character does something that introduces them to the Timeilones station. When they successfully do a timelines mission there they get a mission pointer to the new stuff they just unlocked.

The disconnect between Timelines and Sandbox causes people to lose interest.

I guess there was some technical issue as to why this was difficult to do.

Yes, that would've been better. Timelines detaches you, as the main player from the Sandbox which is where we `live`. There 's no real connection. Just because Timelines frees up stuff in Sandbox is not enough. You are still detached. No one cares about the person you're forced to be in Timelines. You care about who you choose to be in the sandbox.

Egosoft still has a lot to learn about making an immersive game and keeping it immersive to the Player instead of trying to copy the standard arcady thing they see around, but do not understand.

[Crimsonraziel]

You care about who you choose to be in the sandbox.

Actually no, not at all.

Too many people think their way is the right way or the only way to play.

[r1stw]

At first, I liked the idea of a "standalone campaign", but now in the middle of Timelines I found myself just grinding through missions to get content for sandbox.

Yes, that would've been better. Timelines detaches you, as the main player from the Sandbox which is where we `live`. There 's no real connection. Just because Timelines frees up stuff in Sandbox is not enough. You are still detached. No one cares about the person you're forced to be in Timelines. You care about who you choose to be in the sandbox.

I think this is not about detachment from sandbox, but about the inability of Timelines to engage me as a player via strong gameplay/storyline; missions are too short and feel too disconnected from each other. So, while anything would benefit from moving into a sandbox, this problem can also be resolved just by better writing / design.

[VaultTraveler]

The timeline missions are just horrible. They could have been integrated in the sandbox easily via some holodeck or VR Google gimmick.

But who cares the missions are just abysmal, the voiceover are poor.

And thats the real issue, the non integration is just the cherry on the cake.

[Ergoswot]

The timeline missions are just horrible. They could have been integrated in the sandbox easily via some holodeck or VR Google gimmick.

But who cares the missions are just abysmal, the voiceover are poor.

And thats the real issue, the non integration is just the cherry on the cake.

Yes, it's a very poor effort and I hope that the Devs now fully understand the depth of their errors in going in this direction.

[Old Drullo321]

I think some people really exaggerated a bit when criticising Timelines for what it stands for.

In my opinion it is a clever way to add some lore and background characters/faction into the game and let new players get a glimpse at previous games they may not yet played. Not from a financial aspect, more like how where the games or story that lead us to the present. Even for me as a X-veteran, literally growing alongside the various X-titles, it was a nice memory to the past. Fun fact, some of the important missions really looked nearly idential to videos or ingame material of previous games.
And it is quite a welcome pause from a long running sandbox game, to relieve some boredom and enjoy something different.

Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with creating a bit of a more disconnected approach to the main content (sandbox). However I think the way it was done leads to potential conflict with future content. Let's take terraforming as a comparison. Terraforming was added to the main game and a DLC (Kingdom's End) afterwards builds upon it by adding an additional mission to it aside from all its other content. Theoretically this could be continued for further new content easily.

But this probably couldn't be done with Timelines as the whole scenario is gated behind the DLC itself. Players won't see anything of it in the basegame, and therefore adding future content for the whole Timeline mechanics (all the UI, facility, game objects, mechanics, interaction) would be hidden behind something they won't see if they don't own the DLC themselves and is highly unlikely, which is a shame. Just theorycrafting, what would be if something like the first Nodus was free content and everything thereafter would be part of the current Timelines DLC. Future DLCs then could easily add additional noduses because only like 5/6 of the Timelines mechanics would be gatet behind its DLC.

But the way it is implemented, i doubt we will see future additional content added to the whole facility / nodus and that is where my main part of criticism is directed at. It was probably a large part of development but couldn't be reused later.

You can compare the way DLCs interact with each other if you have a look at Stellaris. Not always but often future DLCs add some content to mechanics mainly used by previous DLCs. Examples are additional content for archaeological dig sites, additional precursors or paragon leaders where its main introduction and main content for each is part of its own DLC.