Timelines feedback.

[Karvat]

I bought and played Timelines only to support the general development of X4 and try the DLC before commenting.

And I am honestly disappointed.
Given the content of the DLC itself, I truly and sadly believe it's the most wasted development time opportunity in 6 years so far.

- Hundreds of alternative things that could have been worked on to push even further the spectacularity of this game.
- Beautiful, wasted, assets that take too long or too much effort to unlock and are too unique to be fully enjoyed afterwards.
- No clear understanding of the purpose of creating content that it is anyway disconnected from the main base universe we have been playing for so long.

[Socratatus]

It was definitely a mistake. I didn't like the idea, but tried. I've been trying over the weekend. It's painfully annoying. The forced repetition in what's basically repeat arcade mode is such a huge time waster that you may have to repeat multiple times before you manage to free everything. No, no, no. Sure there's the odd ok mission, but so what? Incorporate the good stuff into the sandbox instead.

We play X4 for the SANDBOX adventure and management stuff. Not some repeat the level a zillion times mode or I would've bought some beat-em-up or something.

I would've gladly paid the same cash for a DLC that just added lots of costumes and character custominsation and improvements to the sandbox big time than this.

Seriously disappointed.

I don't understand the Dev thinking. Were they just bored and wanted to go the opposite of a sandbox?? Guess so.

I hate to whine, but I must so we don't have to go through this again.

[Wargear]

First of all 7.0 as a whole is a nice step forward thank you devs! But.... Having over 3500hrs playing X4 and all the DLCs I'm not impressed with Timelines at all. Sure, there's a couple battle missions that are fun but really what Timelines should be is a post flight-school set of advanced tutorials that are optional. Not saying it's a waste of time the devs did put a lot of work into it and I'll support them but the hype and wait for this has been a big letdown. Given all the other posts on Reddit and here as well I'm not alone in this.

[Agrefits]

I bought and played Timelines only to support the general development of X4 and try the DLC before commenting.

And I am honestly disappointed.
Given the content of the DLC itself, I truly and sadly believe it's the most wasted development time opportunity in 6 years so far.

- Hundreds of alternative things that could have been worked on to push even further the spectacularity of this game.
- Beautiful, wasted, assets that take too long or too much effort to unlock and are too unique to be fully enjoyed afterwards.
- No clear understanding of the purpose of creating content that it is anyway disconnected from the main base universe we have been playing for so long.

I feel somewhat the same. While i like the Idea behind it, shedding light on the X Universe History, i find the Story overall lacking and while i did play ALL of the previous X titles.. I still did not feel thrown back, because the historic missions are too dull and short, while the rest of the the challenges (missions) are to repetitive and boring.

For me it feels more like "grinding work" rather than fun to unlock the new assets. It would have been better if all 5 of the Missions per Graph where somewhat related to the Topic of the Graph.

Especially when there are various things you have no control over... and dont like. Such as being forced into fighters with stupid Loadouts or being reliant on AI Allies ..

For example: I Had to kill the K in the Antigone mission all by myself, in a small fighter with a nonsense and ineffective loadout because the PAR Destroyer was to stupid to maneuver around the Station to get LOS on the Destroyer and only had 1 Turret left.

[palm911]

It was definitely a mistake. I didn't like the idea, but tried. I've been trying over the weekend. It's painfully annoying. The forced repetition in what's basically repeat arcade mode is such a huge time waster that you may have to repeat multiple times before you manage to free everything. No, no, no. Sure there's the odd ok mission, but so what? Incorporate the good stuff into the sandbox instead.

We play X4 for the SANDBOX adventure and management stuff. Not some repeat the level a zillion times mode or I would've bought some beat-em-up or something.

I would've gladly paid the same cash for a DLC that just added lots of costumes and character custominsation and improvements to the sandbox big time than this.

Seriously disappointed.

I don't understand the Dev thinking. Were they just bored and wanted to go the opposite of a sandbox?? Guess so.

I hate to whine, but I must so we don't have to go through this again.

i do believe i know what they were thinking. , it was an effort to bring casual players, and those new within the universe, to try expand their reach, veterans imho was never the focus for this. for veterans we got the patch 7.0 wich is by far better rewarding (than timelines itself)

[sirdeadmark]

It was definitely a mistake. I didn't like the idea, but tried. I've been trying over the weekend. It's painfully annoying. The forced repetition in what's basically repeat arcade mode is such a huge time waster that you may have to repeat multiple times before you manage to free everything. No, no, no. Sure there's the odd ok mission, but so what? Incorporate the good stuff into the sandbox instead.

We play X4 for the SANDBOX adventure and management stuff. Not some repeat the level a zillion times mode or I would've bought some beat-em-up or something.

I would've gladly paid the same cash for a DLC that just added lots of costumes and character custominsation and improvements to the sandbox big time than this.

Seriously disappointed.

I don't understand the Dev thinking. Were they just bored and wanted to go the opposite of a sandbox?? Guess so.

I hate to whine, but I must so we don't have to go through this again.

i do believe i know what they were thinking. , it was an effort to bring casual players, and those new within the universe, to try expand their reach, veterans imho was never the focus for this. for veterans we got the patch 7.0 wich is by far better rewarding (than timelines itself)

As a new player I disagree, The tutorial teaches basic controls then funnels you straight in to the nexus. I then spent two hours just trying to get one star on the first two missions. I'm just learning the game, why make it so damn difficult? Surely the game should ease new players into the systems and give them practice, not make them miserable and defeated. I was about to get a refund until a forum user enlightened me, I know now to ignore the DLC until I'm a veteran so to say this is for casual players makes 0 sense to me.

[iceshard]

As a new player I disagree, The tutorial teaches basic controls then funnels you straight in to the nexus. I then spent two hours just trying to get one star on the first two missions. I'm just learning the game, why make it so damn difficult? Surely the game should ease new players into the systems and give them practice, not make them miserable and defeated. I was about to get a refund until a forum user enlightened me, I know now to ignore the DLC until I'm a veteran so to say this is for casual players makes 0 sense to me.

Having played through the first half or so of the DLC, I think I can say it *could* have been great for new players, if it was more guided. Defending the Paranid research station against the Xenon would have been a great opportunity to teach new players about how you would go about tackling a Xenon K with a much smaller ship, and how to prune it like a bonsai tree. They could have given a detailed explanation of how you should approach from the rear, take out the M turrets, then the engines, then slide around the sides to carefully remove the L turrets, etc. etc. Several other mission offer similar, very useful learning opportunities. But since it doesn't actually explain any of it, or tell you how to approach those situations, it is actually completely overwhelming to a new player, and not at all instructional. So, kind of see the angle of saying it is aimed at new players, but I do think it missed the mark.

Another issue is the ranking system. To progress, you don't need all of the stars for the mission. At least by the 3rd tier, you don't even need an average of more than 2 per mission. But getting 1/5 stars feels like failure, even though it is a perfectly adequate result both for unlocking the sandbox rewards and progressing to the next set of mission.

[Socratatus]

Yea, I don't see it for new guys at all. I'm relatively experienced (I know how to trade and cotrol ships) which is probably why the later missions where I had to control a huge ship and destroy another huge ship I did first time and got 5 stars I couldn't believe it.

Then i realised. If you know the game this will be VERY easy on some missions.

But it's the new stuff that catches out both the new and old guys: The races for instance (that needed new skills which I simply don't need at all in Sandbox) and some of the weirder ones that seem designed to destroy your soul by making you do it over and over to proceed. You gotta get at least 1 Star and if you can't it's DLC prison or just go Sandbox.

I did like the rescue mission when a base was about to explode- Now put THAT in the sandbox. Whenever a base in danger of destruction, trigger rescue missions for the player. He'll be on a time-limit to rescue one or more people (no don't make a time limit just let the base blow up when it does which may be soon or late). Done.

[M@ReK]

I must say as a longtime fan I have a mixed feelings about it as well, however... I understand the devs. I am programmer as well and despite mainly I do now something else in IT (but still programming from time to time) you need to understand, it is like with your favorite rock band - they make great music for years and suddenly they want to try something else... nobody understands it... what the hell thy were drinking... for fans it is like sacrilege! Still even if you created a successful project, you really have to try something other than everyone is expecting after some time, just for your peace of mind. That is how it works, I know it from experience. You try it, sometimes it is a success, sometimes not, but then you come back to the thing you are the best. I think you all know what I mean

To be clear I have done all the missions, finished the DLC, had some fun with it had some frustration as well. It feels like a different game - more polished ex. I am a BIG fan of new UI glow - it makes this AAA feel... and the voice acting in the DLC - top notch! Don't get me wrong, the biggest advance of Egosoft is their independence, I do not want them to become AAA studio, but still some more polished product is appreciated

All in all, the biggest issue I can see with this DLC is simple... sadly almost nobody will want to come back to it. You do it once to unlock everything and forget, just go back to the sandbox. Each and every DLC is repayable except Timlines. It is a little bit of a shame, since lots of work and effort was put into the design, but again let me give you the example - I bet there would be no X4 without hated Rebirth - it is like Windows Vista that everybody hated so much but without it there would be no loved Windows 7 since Vista was the initial version of the same technology... you get the point. Let''s see what it will bring us in the future

Call me a fanboy, but Ego is my favorite studio of all time, and I will buy every DLC they will come up with in the future for sure. Can be sandbox or more experimental like this one. I think there are no more studios like that in the industry anymore...

[raUlo]

One thing I can say for sure is how absolutely divided the people are when it comes to their feelings on this DLC.

For me this was one of the most immersive experiences and probably the DLC I enjoyed the most. I'm not saying it's perfect, but for me the X Universe never felt so alive before.

I like the sandbox element of the game, but I'm also into the story. I'm willing to play any game even if the gameplay part or the graphics are sub-par if it's doing a great job from a story perspective. And I think Timelines relies heavily on the story element. I've finished the epilogue also and I think it's really amazing and fits well into the sandbox universe.

The part where you walk around on the facility talking to NPCs, the secret missions and the looking for certain clues also contributed a lot to the immersion. And I think this was the thought behind it, to try to connect the player with the actual universe of the game. It's not the best implementation, but it's something I didn't expect from a game like X4 and I really enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed the missions, even though I agree not all of them were my cup of tea. I'm not really into trading, so those scenarios that required piloting a trading ship felt a bit dull, but I still enjoyed getting some hands-on action. When you build your empire you just have a list of freighters that you give orders to. Actually having to pilot one of these and doing the trading myself really puts things into perspective. Same observations for the mining scenarios, I realised how much is actually going on "behind the scenes".

And everyone criticises the racing missions, which again I think were really enjoyable. Not just the mechanics, but simply flying around stations or asteroids puts into value how good the visuals are in X4.

I totally agree that with my 2500+ hours of experience in X4, maybe even more in X3, and the fact that I've played space sim games all my life, I've had a really easy time getting through the scenarios. And since Timelines is targeted at newer players it would make sense to adjust the difficulty or add more guidance. A good example is a friend of mine who probably never touched a space sim game and saw me going through a jump gate in X4 and was impressed. And it made me realise that to me it's something normal because jump gates in general are a normal occurrence in space sim games, but for somebody completely new to the genre even simple stuff like these could be confusing.

Having said that, I want to congratulate Egosoft and the entire team for this DLC. I feel like there was a lot of effort put into it and I personally enjoyed it a lot. I'm sure they'll continue to improve the open universe mechanic in the future, as they already did with every patch since X4 was released. And if you watch the original launch trailer from 2018, it's easy to see how much this game has evolved. Perhaps some time in the future when the sandbox element will get more mature and reach the quality that some people are expecting from it, a DLC like Timelines would make more sense

[Jamolotl]

While playing through Timelines I regularly found myself asking why Egosoft created a DLC that plays to their weaknesses rather than their strengths.

On that alone I probably would've called the DLC a failure, but given that they did add a bunch of ships, new areas and an endgame crisis I'm overall totally fine with it and happy to support them trying something different.

[gj3ka]

Oh, I agree about the visuals. I find myself continuously pausing the game and taking screenshots, be it a new ship, a station (I want to rebuild the station from the second race) or a cascade of explosions on the station or M0

I really do not understand where the "newbie-friendly" came from. That was a huge mistake, setting such expectations for this challenging crash-course.
All other DLCs have same balance of a learning curve - 60% of story and cool stuff + 40% expecting you to have a proper economy and a battle-fleet. But here it's knowledge and skill instead of an achieved progress in an Open Universe.

I played "only" 500+ hours, but already have zero problems with it, no need to have 2000+hrs experience. Although luckily I got "racing" skill from other games as X4 has zero opportunity to use it, unless you like how the ship handles (there are very few such ships) and just roll around stations/asteroids.

[Virtualaughing]

There is a Twin Peaks explained video on youtube which is 4+ hours long. It is basically a video essay which gives you a perspective about media consumption and the expectations of the fans. How we become numb. It is a complete spoiler for the entire series. Basically we are focusing too much on our expectations which "poisoning the well".
Watching the video will dramatically reform your view on any media.

[YourOlympicHero]

Myself, I just find it frustrating that rewards are not litsted, I can not find logs of things I have done and when I do get a reward i get a 2 second flash of something that says something like you got XX but, never have any idea what it was or anywhere to look to find this info.

The DLC itself I really have no issues with, it is what it is.

Please add logs of things I complete or list the rewards for doing so. I know I can click on the missions and get a small summery with my star rating but thats not really what I am looking for.

[Jamolotl]

Just a small bit of feedback, but I found my Odachi and I think it might be one of my favourite ships in the entire game.

It's very buggy right now, but I'm sure it'll get patched soon.

[FrenzyGr]

I am honestly baffled how anyone with authority in the studio would have greenlit this idea.

The DLC is cheap yeah, but there is just nothing there. A modder could have done these scenarios in a few days. I don't understand what they were doing this whole time.

[adeine]

I feel conflicted about this DLC. I preordered the Collector's Edition of X4 and bought every following expansion at launch. Probably would have done the same here, despite the fact that I have zero interest in playing disconnected minigames. But given how they decided to ignore their community with the crisis feature this is the first DLC I've held off. Doesn't feel right to reward this trajectory with a purchase.

Locking generic building modules behind it also feels kind of bad. Seriously, people have to buy and play through this thing to be able to use connector modules? I don't understand these decisions.

[Jamolotl]

But given how they decided to ignore their community with the crisis feature this is the first DLC I've held off.

I'm really curious about this, can you elaborate?

I have no idea how it's implemented, but as a concept I love things that add excitement to the often boring endgame many genres have an issue with.

[adeine]

But given how they decided to ignore their community with the crisis feature this is the first DLC I've held off.

I'm really curious about this, can you elaborate?

I have no idea how it's implemented, but as a concept I love things that add excitement to the often boring endgame many genres have an issue with.

Feedback thread of beta testers

An appeal

[Jamolotl]

Feedback thread of beta testers

An appeal

Thank you!

So it's not the concept but rather the implementation. Very fair.
Hopefully they get it to a state you enjoy more in the future.