Frequently Asked Questions relating to the X4: Timelines release

[Nuovo1]

it would be nice to capture the m0

[Tharrg]

So could someone explain this to me in simple language like I am an idiot.

If I start with a new open universe game, such as Yong Gun, Project Genesis or Fires of Defeat, what sort of access to the new Timelines features will I have?

1) Would I need to go somewhere or do a mission to start timelines?
2) Or maybe there is no direct connection except that if your Harper character in the new timelines game does something right stuff magically appears in you separately running 'Yong Gun' universe.

[CBJ]

You start Timelines scenarios directly from the game's start menu. There is no direct interaction between those scenarios and your Open Universe game. The only indirect interaction is that some Timelines scenarios grant you rewards, and those rewards can be found in specific locations in your Open Universe game. Maybe think of it more as being given a treasure map.

[Sao t'Lp]

2) Or maybe there is no direct connection except that if your Harper character in the new timelines game does something right stuff magically appears in you separately running 'Yong Gun' universe.

This. You start in Timelines mode, do stuff there and this makes things appear in the sandbox universe. AFAICT you have to reach a certain numbers of stars to make things appear otherwise it won't happen. And not every Timelines mission will unlock new things for the sandbox. But it will further the story in the Timelines mode and for me at least it's quite entertaining.

Edit: Ninjaed by CBJ.

[Ketsa]

several key points on our list of improvements for versions 7.50 and 8.00 are designed to enhance the ability to initiate and control large battles, with a focus on the AI to support that

X4:Mayhem ?

[alt3rn1ty]

several key points on our list of improvements for versions 7.50 and 8.00 are designed to enhance the ability to initiate and control large battles, with a focus on the AI to support that

X4:Mayhem ?

Negative speculation?

----------------------------------

I think on this forum we have a lot of newbies (possibly from Reddit recently, and X4's new increased popularity), who just want a soapbox to moan upon.

Guys if you are just joining, start reading a lot of what has already been discussed.
Plus consider this is not a triple A developer you are targeting with your gripes.
Egosoft are a specialised developer of the X Series games.
And imho they do a damned fine job (patience required, it takes them years to deliver, but they do deliver, think Hellogames and No Man's Sky, and you are in the same ball park).

[Nerwesta]

I appreciate the transparency here, but I can't help but think this post should have been there before anyone could even have the possibility to buy this DLC.
I found all the discussions about actual content being incredibly shady, you were far more open when it came to older DLC that's for sure.
If one doesn't want to be spoiled I respect that, just don't click on the spoil section and voila, but afterall we bet our money for something we don't even know fully, and here it kind of misses the mark on many people.
The Steam reviews definitely reflect that.

In the end, a bunch of extra sectors and reskinned / repurposed ships ( like the Yaki ) or older models from past games without any novelty in gameplay whatsoever scream Mods, not a fully fledged DLC.
It really pains me to write this, even though I may have not known Ego that long ago, I was set to think their particular work were always on point.

As for your next plans for X4, I can't wait to know more, take your time before showing us anything, I'm sure you will do. It sounds exciting.

Why would you bet on something like that?

If you feel you don't have information to make an informed decision why don't you simply wait and see what others report about the DLC?
Is there a secret giveaway for the first buyers of a DLC? Do the first players enter a special ranking? Can you resell your "first edition" DLC at a higher price? Is it a limited edition that won't be available any time soon? No? Then why not simply wait and see?

You cannot reasonably expect from someone to not click on a spoiler link in a public forum to not be spoiled, when you can't even wait a few hours after release for the first reviews, videos and reports to be posted.

At least you know now that you never ever should engage in actual gambling / betting, as you only gamble with money that you are prepared to lose.

Judging by how many people were rightfully content by what Egosoft have done in the past, it's pretty normal to ease some sort of paranoia while buying a DLC from a well known franchise.
I'm not talking about a studio I know nothing about.
With that in mind, the amount of people who specifically launched X4 as soon as the DLC launched was significant, those people were kept as dark as me in the end.

That doesn't mean I should refrain my criticism on the lack of any transparency when it comes to the content itself, especially when my doubts were confirmed later on.
I should say I have more incencitives to do so.
As I said, older DLCs were much more transparent when it came to display the new content we'll get, but who knows.

You cannot reasonably expect from someone to not click on a spoiler link in a public forum to not be spoiled, when you can't even wait a few hours after release for the first reviews, videos and reports to be posted.

I have issues understanding your point honestly, as you can see the spoiler is on the original post, if you click, you see, nothing fancy
Begs the question why didn't they do that before ?

At least you know now that you never ever should engage in actual gambling / betting, as you only gamble with money that you are prepared to lose.

It was a figure of speech ..

Edit2:
I feel I'm getting old. Now I saw the reply on the Steam forums from that one developer from before release where he literally tells people to wait for after release, if the little information he told them isn't enough for them to make an informed decision.

Missed that, sorry for not viewing every single threads out there, there are 24 hours a day only.

[palm911]

i am heartbroken with what i am reading on steam forums
only 42% of the buyers are recommending it...

what went wrong?

i did boughgt it to support egosoft, they deserve it, for such 7.0 patch,

but i can understand where people come from.

it does feel like they were trying to bring the game to less experience people, sometimes it does feel like a tutorial,

there are a few things i like but i am starting to believe this has been the weakest DLC and the greatest patch (7.0) from egosoft , (or top ranked as one of the top 3)

[LameFox]

Can you please remove the limit? The one time I actually like the look of the ships I cannot build as much of them as I want. I am not a fan of this kind of "unique" ships. They are not anything special technology-lore-wise. You started this practice with ToA. It just makes no sense. Cannot build some simple yachts like Astrid or some variant of the Boron Hydra or even more egregious: Last-gen ships of this DLC -ships you paid for by buying the DLC-, but field infinte number of Asgards?

Is this how you want to handle future DLC or update too?

I agree with this, the "limited" ships mostly just feel like useless trophies to me. For what do I need trophies in a single player game? It just makes me wish the effort had gone to something else that would have a tangible presence in the game world instead.

[taronas]

Thank you very much for the summary.

But could you please add an easier difficulty option for Timelines?
I constantly feel overwhelmed and it's not fun for me

That would totally mess up with the scoring system for comparing with different players, which I like.

But I only want to enjoy the content I payed money for. I don't want no competition.

Now, I guess it's in the DLC description and I could have skipped the DLC. But I'm totally interested in doing those races and missions!
But not if it's stress instead of fun

[Mailo]

Is there an option to just skip the missions and get the unlocks directly? Then I might actually get the DLC.
If not, I must say I am rather bummed ... knowing that part of the old pirate alley and Presidents End actually exist in X4, but I'll never be able to see it is rather ... demotivating.

To answer my own question in case someone else is looking for the information ... yes, it seems to be possible by editing a file called userdata.xml.

[Liandrien]

This add-on is a complete failure when it comes to the difficulty level, can someone explain to me how the hell I can destroy the guns on"I" when I have several crap fighters? Please make a different rating for different difficulty levels, otherwise people like me will end up fighting "I" and that will be the end, the wall that will be impossible to penetrate. I sat at it for 5 hours until my family told me to be quiet, I sat there trying different tactics with a handful of hair in my hand because I haven't encountered such a barrier in the 25 years I've been playing. I want to do it to get all the prizes, I won't do it and I won't get it because it's impossible for me...

[Franken]

You even can practice it in SandboxMode, maybe with a better Ship. You can look out for the blindspots, learn how to fight along the hull from object to object.
Yes. The I is a hard choice. But its epic and needs a lot of concentration. If you ever fought an I with an S-ship, no matter if in timelines or sandbo, you will have another view on the game and the xenon thread.
So dont cry, its possible on less than 5 hours. Others made it too. And its so satisfiing when you made it.

And what you get for the timeline missions are rewards, not presents

[Liandrien]

Listen, I haven't eaten bread from the first oven... I have almost 600 hours played in sandbox mode. I simply don't like fighters, AI can fly them, not me. I prefer L XL. All this should be done in such a way that everyone completes the main objective and the secondary objectives for the result, in this way no one would get hurt.

[Sturmer]

it does feel like they were trying to bring the game to less experience people, sometimes it does feel like a tutorial,

Except for the part where in Mission 4 they throw you against several Ls and endless waves of Ss and Ms in a single CHIMERA with really bad guns without any support. I've been playing this game since X2, have several hundreds of hours in X4 (maybe several thousands given how many playthroughs I tried) and even I find that mission hard. The DLC missions range from boring to waaay too hard for a newbie.

Honestly the DLC is a mess. Like one Steam reviewer said, it's like EGO went on youtube, searched for "top 10 most hated game modes", looked at them and went "These looks great! We should do this!". Races and especially racing ships are pointless in X4 (except maybe for scouting I guess though I wonder how the really bad AI in this game will handle scouting in such a fast ship while avoiding combat considering they're unarmed), escort missions are a PITA many avoid especially since protected targets are usually too soft, enemies too many and escorts too few.

At least in Wing Commander when you had escort mission they gave you quite a few wingmates who were competent, here you're basically on your own and your wing does nothing without being micro-managed IF you have a wing tbw.

And considering EGO gave emphasis on classic ships being brought back they failed to deliver on that. Also, when will they realized people want ACTUAL classic ships, NOT "reimagined"? Besides, it's only been 20 years since X3, there is really no reason at all for reimagined. Ships are in service for WAAAAAAY longer than 20 years at the moment and that will be even more true once we hit intergalactic travel. There is no reason that X3 ships would just disappear and no longer be used after just 20 years.

I love the 7.00 update, it's brought a LOT of good stuff, but the DLC? Eh.

[EGO_Aut]

This add-on is a complete failure when it comes to the difficulty level, can someone explain to me how the hell I can destroy the guns on"I" when I have several crap fighters? .......
.....me...

I am not at this point against an "I".
But you have a S fleet? Then select them right-click on the I and select to degun the turrets.

[Liandrien]

This add-on is a complete failure when it comes to the difficulty level, can someone explain to me how the hell I can destroy the guns on"I" when I have several crap fighters? .......
.....me...

I am not at this point against an "I".
But you have a S fleet? Then select them right-click on the I and select to degun the turrets.

Man, believe me, I tried a lot of combinations, later I was so pissed off that the fight was even worse so I gave up. I remember one time I was playing, I think it was Testdrive 2, where you got your driving license something like this for each class of car and you had to pass a test and the test was so hard that you had to do it almost perfectly, there was no room for mistakes. Weather, cones to avoid and time limit. Years later, Timelines has come out and I feel exactly the same - in some scenarios you have to know exactly how to do it and now the question is how a new player can handle it if the old one can't do it and whether it's still a pleasure to play or some kind of hardship. Maybe it would have been better to buy a whip and use it on yourself instead of Timelines. It would be one thing. All we have to do is wait for a YouTuber who will show us how to do it step by step. Pass and get the rewards. Forget about it and continue enjoying the fun sandbox game.

[MegaJohnny]

I actually really like the races? I love the AG racing games like Wipeout (and its clones) and F-Zero (and its clones), because each has a very different control scheme and physics model that has its own nuances for optimising lap times. From that perspective, I really enjoy taking my understanding of X4's flight model and doing laps and hairpins and boost management with it. I unironically wish there were more.

[EGO_Aut]

it does feel like they were trying to bring the game to less experience people, sometimes it does feel like a tutorial,

Except for the part where in Mission 4 they throw you against several Ls and endless waves of Ss and Ms in a single CHIMERA with really bad guns without any support. I've ..........

You should disable the engines of the Xen. H, everytime it is mentioned. The Split Colony ship is fast, it will get out of weapon range. Dont forget to use your missiles wise...like engines and against Xenon who want to destroy Col.ships engines.

[LordIII3]

Will Future Updates and dlc releases add something to timelines?
eg. a small bunch of missions for the new added factions to add a more detailed background and maybe an abandoned ship?

Or some Mission to unlock new/ past race specific weapons and missiles?