I remember the OLD tutorials... "hmmm...okay, lets try youtube, alt+F4" - and then I found captain Collins and learned to set ships for auto-mining , pilfer battle remains etc. and really got into it.
I really wish they'd have added these types of missions into the sandbox. Like I get they're doing very specific missions with hand-picked equipment, but I can't help but feel this type of one-off questing stuff would have added so much social depth to the sandbox galaxy. Right now, most of the NPCs in the galaxy are so bland and lifeless. It would give more reasons to talk to people on-station. Heck, the only big way to get side missions in the sandbox right now is by scrolling a list of local station markers for available missions. Why can't we have missions that spawn in faction HQs based on your empire value? Fleet value? Small missions from shady people in the bars, or on pirate stations?
Absolutely. I think they missed the mark here, obviously. They need to focus on making the sandbox more alive. They can tell stories all they want and people will love it but it needs to be within the sandbox.
I don't think forcing me to play timelines to unlock things in the sandbox is fair. I love the sandbox. Bought Timelines to support the devs, but this feels like a bit of a punishment instead of a thank you.
Do you still feel the same after some months? I got into the game with timelines (as a tutorial) and got really surprised with the community not liking it, the only thing that i did not enjoy was that some missions are really really hard if you are aiming at getting the 5 stars.
@@tiago.suares I'm guessing you must be working for Egosoft. The simple problem with timelines is that it's not the main game and people want the main game. They only want timelines for the extra content such as new ships, sectors, etc. Timelines is a very annoying round about way to go about doing that and then the situation is compounded by there being very little information given upfront on how it works. Bad communication is a growing problem on every level from gaming in general to search engines no longer working to the developer being too coy to in game communication errors. Players legitimately worry about certain things that should be made reasonably clear up front such as if the things you unlock will apply to a current save or not. These are known worries. Players are always known to be worried if they have to start again to get something when they have a save representing the culmination of tens or even hundreds of hours investment. Then there are things like when you first try it you're told you need rank 1. Then you try out the race and when you do a near perfect run first time you see only rank five with it being seemingly impossible to get much better. Then when you look more closely it's 5 stars and I didn't see anything notifying me of the unlock. Things like this are really misleading, having the rank terminology like this and not saying things like at least rank one or one star. Eventually you can get over these things but the player shouldn't be put through such a traumatising experience in the first place. Now that search engines barely work if at all extra effort often is required to communicate things to players. It's bad enough that not as much as would be hoped has really been fixed in the main game and that this DLC is a bit condescending and kludgy. Things are far more exacerbated thanks to headaches caused by a lack of or bad upfront communication.
As a new player, I recently tried out Timelines and found the experience to be quite jarring and in my review, I likened the experience to beginning with a leisurely tour of an airport and then abruptly finding myself in the cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet. Even after completing the basic tutorials, the game prompts directs you into Timelines, assuming you're ready. As someone unfamiliar with the game's lore or backstory, I approached it with a blank slate. While I don't mind diving into action, Timelines does a poor job of providing context or setting the stage. You get the hang of very basic ship controls, and then you're thrust into your first mission: the race. After just an hour or two in the game, suddenly you're expected to master precise ship maneuvers through rings, often overshooting or struggling to keep pace in the fast-paced and needlessly stressful environment. At that point, I hadn't even been introduced to Flight Assist. Overall, I felt like I was thrown in at the deep end without a life jacket. In open play, I can overlook the somewhat odd voice acting-it's functional, doing its job. However, coming from games like Homeworld that feature realistic and well-acted voiceovers, Timelines falls short with a sort of uncanny valley in its writing and voice acting. It feels like a computer trying to simulate human interactions and doing so poorly. Some of the voices even made me cringe, eliciting a genuine recoil reaction. Perhaps this speaks more to my expectations, but that's been my experience. You're spot on in saying that the marketing misrepresents it. This isn't geared towards new players at all, and as for the story, well, it's definitely there, somewhere. Not sure how much AI gen is in there but that is a major red flag as well. A good comparison would be Elite Dangerous or Warhammer 40K, where no matter where you start, you can generally piece together what's going on. X4, on the other hand, is incredibly messy and convoluted, and if Timelines was intended to simplify that complexity, it failed spectacularly from my perspective as a newcomer. The mission summaries were confusing to the point of being frustrating. Trying to make sense of "Incursion of the False Pontifex" without any context was headache-inducing.
Timelines is a recap for veterans of X4 alone, that been said... I would suggest to you start the sandbox first,do the tutorials and immerse yourself with all other dlcs, the fun thing about been a newcomer in the sandbox is precisly be a newcomer, most starts you have would begin as a representative of a major faction, that is just now reconnecting with the galaxy, mostly you don't know the situation out there, you just started, then a good part of the story is you finding out about the story while carving your own... I didn't play Timelines yet, but... I imagine a plot about time travel with the player insertion in certain events from the past of the franchise would be convoluted... So yeah, timelines definitely isn't for newcomers of X4, but veterans of X4 like me who are newcomers in the X franchise...
@@ciel-lf6vd the only "newbie friendly" mode is the Terran campaign rookie start. I forget the name, but it holds your hand a fair bit and is mostly flying focused so you can explore the rest of the game at your leisure. The main drawbacks are that you don't get access to the Commonwealth until fairly late. The bright side is that the Terran systems let you learn all the game systems without having to deal with the overwhelming Commonwealth materials and construction trees. The stories in the other starts all assume you can figure out how to build an economy.
@@efxnews4776 The problem is they need to move the final mission of graph 3(the m0 mission) out. Some of the stuff is annoying, the mining mission particularly("use magnet" and "sell the ore at the refinery" with zero explanation during a timed run while being attacked). These actions would immediately solve some of the problems. Make graphs 1,2 and 3 EASY. Once you complete graph 3, the star moves to "Play open universe" currently. So that is the currently coded definition of playing timelines for newbies, which is obviously not "complete timelines".
@@tiago.suares for veterans of X4 the advantages are the story that for newcomers of the X (like me) are really great to see beyond just the slides you get from collect history bits on data vaults. For everyone else is mostly to get some new ships that are unlocked in the sandbox after you finish it. For noobs, Timelines is the worst entry in the franchise. And don't worry the dlcs aside from Timelines can all be experienced on the sandbox independently wich start you chose. But again, for newcomers of both X series and X4, timelines isn't essential.
I played Timelines once to unlock the ships and sectors, and I don't plan on revisiting it again (unless it's to brush up on X universe story). Not saying it's bad, it just isn't my style of play. I play X4 more as an economy simulation game. More often than not, I have a streaming service up on my other monitor. But I am a real sucker for player-unique ships.
It not the marketing. Its the fact that content is locked behind boring, repetitive missions. If it didnt lock open universe content behind it I wouldnt care.
It is okay to criticize and it is okay to not like a dlc - it's not a personal attack against anyone. For me, I like Timelines (I am not through but I enjoy it so far), but not everyone has to like it!
You're right about the beginners thing. This was my first time playing. After the first few _basic_ tutorials it AUTOMATICALLY dumped me into timelines, as if this was the tutorial progression, skipping about 80% of the actual tutorials, and I just starting getting my butt handed to me in those annoying timelines missions. The only reason I didn't refund the game, DLC and all, was I found someone who'd posted their user file, and I was able to edit my save from that to unlock all the DLC content and start playing in the sandbox, skipping those stupid missions.
Egosoft has refused to do a fundamental rework of X4 for years, preferring to bring out 1000 new things. Fans are supposed to collect ideas that are then ignored, and that's exactly what Egosoft is being penalised for. Timelines is just a vent of the frustration that has been smouldering for a long time.
As someone who joined the X franchise at this timelines dlc after a friend who played X3 told me it was on summer sale. I really liked timelines as it got me engaged with the actual franchise storyline. I found it very neat to see stuff appear in forum posts and youtube that I then already encountered in the timelines or I was about to encounter. I do agree it is marketed the wrong way. I did basic tutorial, went sandbox, did the more detailed tutorials as I went ahead in my sandbox and had to figure stuff out. After a couple of days playing sandbox I switched to timelines and with exception of the timed mining I enjoyed the challenges. It also showed me how X4 could be, because being a newbie with only like 30-40h into the game, my empire was still very small with only couple ships and a wreck of a home station, but it showed me stuff like bigger fleet battles where you FC your own fleet.
I didn't play timelines, but as far as i know it is about time travel and stuff like that... Clever way to recap the whole story franchise so too if you ask me... I love X4, and i been playing since splitt vendetta dlc. I kinda love how the story is presented in X4, all DLCs add story bits and essentially you gain one or two background with each one aside from the story for each DLC, you can experience all stories, but never be all backgrounds in a single playthrough. As for the sandbox itself, you can literally write your own story as you go, and that is the beauty X4, so i do understand why some veterans are piss off with timelines...
Honestly, the biggest problems are structural, even for players with lots of hours: *1.* Racing in X4 is outright bad: the "realistic" version of sandbox racing is either bootlegging, or combat with Terran engines, which requires you to disable pilot assist to get the most out of otherwise unconventional combat movement. No racecourse helps develop or test these skills. *2.* Singular combat is self-sabotaged: the first Graph gives the terrible advice of "boost, use missiles, fly away," and this is the exact opposite of the tactic needed to get a good score, which is to park yourself behind the ship engines, destroy them, and _then_ flee using the boost. With the other Graphs also being blind-spot heavy, the last thing people need is being told to unlearn what actually works. *3.* Fleet commanding is counter-intuitive: if you already know how fleet combat work, it's a straightforward "stay away from their main guns, while hitting them with yours," so not really that hard. If you _don't_ know that X4 enemy capital ships have no tactics beyond, "fire main guns at whatever's close" though, you'll be too cautious to get a good score, because you'll assume that all the enemy ships will try to stop you from killing the biggest thing, even when they won't. In the interest of fairness though, the mining missions were genuinely useful (personally leading mining missions is more viable than I thought,) the trading missions were a good lesson on balancing time, distance, and potential profit, and the fighter combat was indeed challenging.
My main complaint is the unlocks are tedious. Despite gaining high rating in individual nodus the final mission of each graph *require* you to go through each mission which takes away player agency. Nodus is practically the worst part as they're essentially mandatory grinds, while I'm fine with implementation of every graph's "main mission" cuz they're actually tied to the history of the universe. I almost requested refund for the entire game (bought it in all DLC bundle during summer sale) when I struggle against the very first nodus thinking this game is all about a worse microsoft flying sim.
I have over 3,500 hours in X4 (been playing since X2). Yes, Egosoft has always released buggy new releases and, yes, the DEVs and dedicated players always step up with Beta testing support. This DLC doesn't add anything to the storyline - it's just a recap of history. It does make you do things that you are not used to doing and that is fun. However, if you really want a challenge in X4 try playing the game by not interacting with Boso Ta. The game becomes a real challenge when you don't have the time saving processes introduced by Boso.
There is nothing worse than when a developer add mission(s) you cannot work around or have alternative routes. The DLC should have been added as an extension to the sandbox universe IMHO, then have options in those sectors for the missions within.
I am a seasoned gamer with hundreds of games under my belt and I somehow missed the X universe until a week ago. I played the tutorials and jumped into the sandbox, it took me a day or two to wrestle with the controls but it was fine. After reaching a fairly late stage game in the sandbox (I have a self sufficient empire sporting multiple destroyers, fleets, auxiliaries and soon to have a fully in house L/XL ship building) I decided to play timelines (yesterday). It took me one game session to get through the missions, some were annoying and hard, some were easy (for me). The mining/trading/racing was really easy for me as this is what I mostly do in the game, the fighter only challenges where you are facing big fleets were annoying and I had to replay those a few times. Managing multiple ships/fleets was also fairly easy. I have 2 complaints about the timelines. 1. It is definitely NOT the next step after the tutorial, I was part frustrated even after playing the sandbox first and I would have been even more so if I did it immediately. 2 I wish that some stages in the game (especially those long multi stage escort missions) had checkpoints or saving or something similar. The biggest frustration for me was escorting that auxiliary ship only for it to be destroyed by the Paranid bombers right at the end of the mission because I was tangled by the xenon and didn't notice. All in all the story writing for timelines is kind of bad and the AI voice acting isn't helping (also I feel like the AI isn't AI but rather a couple of people in Bangladesh (MD gives it away if you know you know)). But this is something I got accustomed to through the sandbox, the game missions feel like an MMO most of the time (in a bad way) with all the fetch and kill X, but then again the freedom in the sandbox is what sells this game. And with that I come to my last point, Collins is right, this DLC was marketed all wrong, if you look online or anywhere else, the game is marketed as this second coming of Christ in regard to sandbox freedom. Then the games bombards you with several hours of tutorials and on top a series of challenges followed with bad story telling that has no context for new players. Change the marketing, allow for checkpoints/saving/lower difficulty for people who just want the rewards, maybe change some of the missions (or don't) and you will have a much better package.
I was a complete noob going into this expansion. I followed their recommendations to play Timelines after tutorials. I definitely felt lost. I failed several missions and moved on with many 1 stars. Once I got into the sandbox, I was blown away how great it was. Timelines is forgettable. The quests from expansions in the sandbox are the best.
I could tell from the way it was described pre-release I wasn't going to enjoy Timelines. I'm glad some people like the challenge of the individual missions but to me the magic of X will always be in the emergent gameplay and sandbox experience. It is disappointing that there are things I'll miss out on in the sandbox because of it, but it's just not worth it to me to get a dlc I don't even want to play, and then force myself to play it to unlock those few things I do care about.
I think its marketed for beginners because its a sort of "campaign mode" that shows off the different aspects of the sandbox, without overloading them with the feature bloat.
I refunded it after playing 1 hour. Did 4 missions. Buggy, uninteresting, more anoying than challenging. At least for me. If i want a real challenge i would play games like Elden Ring or Cuphead for example. I think most of X players wants to expand their universe sandbox. Thats why they supported the X4 project. I dont know what Egosoft was thinking but they really need to sit and rethink. Cause "challenges enthusiasts" are not going to pay for their bills. Simple as that.
I felt like 80% of timelines was an extended tutorial. The "real" missions were great. But then that would be only like 5 mission for one DLC worth of content. I can see that this is a now a building block Egosoft and modders can use to make custom campaigns. Lets see what the future brings. Edit: i did not completly finish the video before my comment. I disagree with you here, they advertised it for what it is, a extended tutorial.
My issues with timelines was a combination of factors that made some of the missions either impossible to complete (i.e. The Ferryman), or beyond frustrating (i.e. The Hazing I think it was called). The worst offender was when you were facing off against the Kha'ak obliterator and had to maintain a position while being actively pushed in random directions, which turned using a keyboard into a handicap. Overall I felt like the underlying story and history being told was engaging, as was the epilogue with Kaori. It's just frustrating that a bulk of the DLC was spent on a game mode detached from the main universe when it could've been integrated like the previous DLCs. I mean, the devs added several sectors, a unique bartering system, scripted events, and old Terran ships into the sandbox, why not also add the history lessons as well?
That is exactly correct but as someone with 700h in the game my original thoughts for it was 'wow this is pretty hard' so I agree its not a great fit for n00b X4 players fresh outta the gate.
As a begginer I am confused as to why this is recommended for begginers. The first graph is very hard, the last mission "fade" is near impossible. But apparently they don't introduce mining challenges until graph 3 ? Why it got us to slug through 6 missions of fighting without zero guidance before that ??? Why isn't mining the first or second mission in the first graph ?
Thank you for saving me the money I would have spent on this as I am not the target audience for this DLC. Only way this would have been worse was integrating this into the main game. The main game's draw was play the way you want, not the way the "get good crowd" thinks you should play. Hoping the Steam Score continues to drop.
Fu-ck you, the DLC just wasn't to your taste and that's it, a lot of people are enjoying it, especially beginners who don't want to be overwhelmed with so much information and resources available in the sandbox.
Timelines is a good DLC especially for beginners, veterans can try it but only if you want challenges that you haven't experienced in a long time. In short: for beginners it's a good DLC, for veterans not so much.
I could talk for hours about Timelines but I think the best way to sum it up is: EgoSoft playing to their weaknesses, not their strengths. After being very good at delivering a certain type of experience for a certain type of audience, instead of keeping doing that and being even better at it, they pulled an 180 and tried to do something they really suck at it, and it showed and it got reflected in the reviews. That's it. When you're a really good BBQ chef and you make a really good steak, don't expect to just turn around and expect to be as good at baking cakes as you are at making steaks. Even more so, don't expect the people that have been coming to your BBQs for years and years, and that love a good steak, to just settle to being served mediocre cake one day, and be anything besides deeply disappointed about it. That's pretty much it. It was a bad choice with a mediocre (at best) result that is reflected in the user reviews. That's all there is. And one more thing, IF they were the kind of company to deliver top-quality voice acting, epic story telling, and pure all-out fun, this would have been totally different. But they're not, they played to their weaknesses, not to their strengths, and it shows.
x4 is my singleplayer eve online i love this game, but locking content behind these minigames takes me out of my world and into a temp one, that was my whole drive to play these types of games in the first place. If i wanna try new things or make a silly play to see what happens i can just drop a quicksave (now that it doesn't take a year XD) and see what happens. I'm sad to admit i used someone else's save code to skip/unlock the timelines content on my save. If this was a toggle, perhaps with a new world rather than a requirement it may have came across better. That being said I've not hated any of the content just had better things to do. At the end of the day
First time I have never been excited for an X series Xpac and first time I have not bought the dlc as well. But its a silly direction and brings nothing overly to the base game, which is the reason we play, not some spin off garbage outside the main game. Just wasted resources that could have made the base game better.
I like the idea of some standalone missions with fixed content. It can be hard to get an actual "balanced" battle in the sandbox. Generally you bring overwhelming force to any battle in the sandbox, making combat quite easy. X4 actually has some really good combat mechanics that we never get to fully enjoy because of that. I was really hoping we'd get X4 meets TIE Fighter, but sadly mission design is not Egosoft's strongest area.
I'm enjoying Timelines. And for all those complaints about forcing ppl to do things they don't do in sandbox - you don't even need to "get good" in order to make it AT LEAST 1 star. You don't need 5 stars to unlock stuff in open world. Just get in, finish the mission and fk off to the next one. Instead of focusing on a great storyline of this DLC people frustrated on thing that is not intended to be focused on. I was amazed with Timelines plot in open world game. It's short, but so nice to find it AFTER completing all this missions.
I detest Game Devs that try to force you to play a certain way, they have made it so that the best way to start your empire is Piracy. you can no longer hunt crystals easily, you can no longer hack stations for blueprints which are RIDICULOUSLY expensive as well as requiring high Faction status. So, you either start by scavenging battle debris or you Pirate other factions ships which mess with your faction standings and makes it harder in Late game. I haven't started a new game in years because of this.
Dude, we have everything today in the open games market, the X4 is not what we saw, it is not an arcade, again I say, I would play something else just to prove challenges, the game's strength is the sandbox and all the immersion that it brings to each new expansion and addition of updates, I understand your point of view of liking it and that was your opinion, but having spent many hours and knowing the game for years this DLC was not good, and in fact it was a great waste, so many possibilities were wasted , and one of them that is interesting could be the fact that Ego stops messing with the past and brings new and great things to the game, nothing ever seen in the series, a lot of people like that, especially the old ones who always keep the game, Let's see what the company's next steps will be, so that they don't make any more mistakes, and if they aren't going to add anything new to what the X4 is, let's bring the X5!
First: I like your point of view. Playing X4 for more then 1000h and I Love Timelines, is enough to enjoy, it is challenging, funny Story, and i had tears in my eyes in one Mission. And it adds something for sandbox Plays. Good Job Egosoft.
Agree with your take here, I’m an inexperienced player, I found the scenarios really hard but I did learn a bunch of stuff too. The bigger scenarios where you had to manage things in the UI were really hard but I enjoyed trying the range of scenarios all the same. Always happy to support small developers and as always appreciate your content.
I fully agree that timelines is worth the cost! I really enjoyed the timelines missions and look forward to doing them again to get the 5 stars. My only real complaint with this DLC is that one of the ships you unlock is unique, so if it gets destroyed it is gone forever.
You're right, accepting that you are boxed into an experience that is overwhelmingly more rigid than the rest of the game will help you deal with it but I doubt the majority of the X4 player base asked for anything of the sort. What's worse, real sandbox content is locked behind this obtrusive DLC. People aren't giving it bad reviews because they are confused, they know what is happening in front of their eyes and in their hands, turns out they don't like it.
Got a question about timelines, if I just launch a save from Kingdom End where i have stations, ships missions, what exactly will happen if I install timelines? Shall I be forced to do this expansion missions? Or I can just enjoy graphical overhaul and not bother ?
Nothing will happen in your main game, since timelines only adds stuff outside of the sandbox that will not affect your game until you finished specific parts of timelines 👍
This expansion was sold as finally getting the endgame challenge we waited for, only to receive the beginners tutorial. I had to return mine after less than 1 hour played. The endgame challenge they added is in insult to any x4 fan (you get your whole empire swatted by a bunch of magically spawning enemies). If they had developed timelines AND a endgame expansion that has proper content, i'd have been happy to pay for at minimum one of them. At this point its just pressing the $$$ juice out of the dry lemon.
It added very little I was interested in. The only thing I welcome is a few new ships. Marred somewhat by the fact I think I have to do some of the stuff i'm not interested in to unlock them. I'm sure mods will fix that but that's not the point. Note: I bought the DLC anyway to support Egosoft but the DLC itself? It's a dud, imo.
The problem is that no one has prevented Egosoft from making the same story missions in sandbox that will challenge you and require to be highly skilled. What I mean, that most combat missions in storylines in sandbox are so easy, that I always thought about them as placeholders. Maybe except ToA VIG station demolition and Getsu Fune battle in the start of Terran plot
yes it is, 7.0 brought some shader optimizations and other thingys but don't expect any improvements whatsoever if you're already playing on low and/or your CPU is severely lacking
Unfortunately this is the worst dlc. I thought they learnt the lesson of rebirth but clearly they didn’t. This dlc locks all the new stuff you pay for behind game mechanics you don’t want to play. The game is overall a 4X game so all add ons should add to this game mechanic not add ones none of us want. If we wanted it we would buy something else, a sandbox 4x is what X4 is.
Prior to timelines, i had about 600hrs in the game. I have not played in about a year prior to picking it up. I think it should have been marketed to returning players. It gave enough of an intro that I remembered how things work generally and I was able to complete all missions with at least 2-3 stars. The only missions I personally struggled with were the trade missions because the AI kept getting caught on the station.
I enjoyed it, it let me revisit a lot of events in x history in modern graphics wich was nice I believe it was more geared towards the veteran crowd wich have some knowledge of the lore beforehand (for example: nathan r gunne, the sohnen etc) Sure there is busywork like those mining or trade mission but its nothing too bad Also: if you score high enough ratings in other missions you can essentially skip the shitty ones (like the mission where you have to take out all guns of a xenon station in a f-in fighter wich is an insane proposal)
I never cared for racing, but that Xenon H is my new favorite ship! Flying in and unleashing a swarm of drones is incredible, I just wish they were a LITTLE easier to get my hands on. The scenarioes are pretty fun, I love getting to see some of the old sectors again.
i found one sitting without a crew in tharka's cascade as i was on my way with my fleet to take that antenna tower in savage spur. i imagine the terran battleship that came through that region had something to do with it.
I wish I had captured one before eliminating the Xenon. I thought it was bugged after sending something like 60 veteran marines in 12 at a time and always failing. Now there are no H to capture.
My complaints with the Timelines is mostly technical. The load times from a HDD are a bit long for something that's supposed to be tried again and again. And the game requires a lot of processing power. It won't be such an issue in the winter but when it's hot you really don't want an extra 500W of heating next to you and it's the reason I've not yet progressed beyond graph 2. The gameplay content is fine. As a kind of veteran of the series I got usually 3 stars on the first try and the challenges were quite nice to play since it's not something I usually get to do. Except the escort mission. It's a textbook case of why people hate escort missions.
@@jamolotl HDDs are definitely getting old and sometimes thy are required for a good experience. However, X4 has worked well from a HDD before. Sure, the initial load was a bit long but once you got in the game everything ran just fine. With Timelines the requirement changed. I do have the space to move X4 to a SSD but for an expansion to force the change I feel like it is a valid piece of criticism.
hmm idea about racing, it would be fun to construct race tracks in the sandbox and I know this is about timelines which I see as the campaign mode of x4 not a tutorial, but still having the ability to construct race tracks and hold race events that make you credits would be fun, i would love more ways to make money as currently it al feels like factory or mining, sure you can make parts sure you can make food but what about having a salvage station where the others races can bring wrecks you would gain a small amount of the salvage as well as credits or a repair station where you would repair the ships of customers for credits these things don't seem to hard to implement not a game dev however.
I'm actually loving timelines, I totally agree with egosoft that this is totally for new players after tutorials and it's good challenge for experienced players. New players can use the scenarios in this after getting 1 star all the way thru and learn essential game skills like attacking stations or capitals and it even let's you put bombs on stuff. My two complaints on DLC. 1. this should of been I'm the base game. 2. Lag spikes during missions really tick me off.
Timelines is a good DLC especially for beginners, veterans can try it but only if you want challenges that you haven't experienced in a long time. In short: for beginners it's a good DLC, for veterans not so much.
I haven't even tried the new Timelines stuff. I was already in late game in my second playthrough when Timelines came out. I got to check out the new sandbox content late, and missed out on some of it due to the the DLC drop coinciding with my Xenon extermination campaign. But I'm happy with it. And when I decide to try it, I have the new Timelines missions available to me. At $15 I think the DLC is nice. It's a reasonable price for a significant addition to the game. Would I have designed the DLC differently if it were my choice? Yes. I would have liked more sandbox content, with additions that are significantly useful (at least as alternatives to prior choices) in early, mid, and late game stages. That's my jam. But what Egosoft added made me happy too. And as a Linux gamer, I appreciate Egosoft for supporting gamer freedom. I'll buy the next DLC too, if there is more to come.
The biggest problem with timelines is that it is not bound up with the sandbox, and has linear, gated content flow. This means you cannot just go away for a while and improve skills in the universe while improving your sandbox game at the same time. Instead, you endlessly bash your head against any any mission type that you have difficulty with, which is not "fun" for most people, particularly new players or intermittent players like me. Challenge != Fun for all players, so Egosoft just set themselves for bad reviews by assuming that it is. The story as a whole is quite interesting, but like many X universe stories before it, there are times when you just want to temporarily abandon the plot to do something more appealing, but in Timelines, you cannot. I do not begrudge the cost of timelines ( or any other X4 DLC ) since that helps fund the continual improvement of the base game, but it's not something I will spend much time with, nor really recommend for most players.
I played through all the missions in pretty much one sitting and finished the expansion and eventhough i was like *nah this sint for me before* i did appreciate the variety of activities it made me do and i can see how someone new to the game can actually learn and experience alot the game has to offer across the board without having to invest 50 hours for that same initial experience. As someone who didnt get into X properly until x foundation, i can say that ALOT of what the game offers isnt actually visible until you get to that point and its very easy to boot up the game and play 25 minutes and then put it down because you dont actually know the cool stuff and the scale you experience later on, because thats why ive put x rebirth and x foundation down before But i can also see how someone who already is a hardcore x foundations fan and has clocked several hundred hours on it would feel disappointed by how little the expansion adds to their experience
I think I like the way the DLC was released better than having it added as another bloat to the sandbox. The missions are very performant and run fluid while the sandbox universe usually gets slowed down after a few days because of things like the massive snub spam of VIG. Of course the DLC has some weaknesses - the entire part with Mitsuno feels... silly, and I certainly wouldn't have named the systems after her. But this DLC was definitely a good purchase for anyone who grew up with the previous X games. The battle against the M0? Awesome, although a bit too easy, and the VA for Ban Danna is hilariously bad. (Oh. This is it.) I will say that the Sapporo alone is a massive plus in my book, even though it is... horrible in combat. The Odachi and the Cutlass are insanely good, though. The X-Shuttle might just be too good for the sandbox, but the player can regulate themself. A lot of the missions were neat, but only a very few stand out. Much more interesting are the hidden achievements in the missions. Missions, missions, missions! I don't think the Quettanauts would have been needed to get added to the sandbox as a faction, but grinding rep with them to get the Antigone station parts is not bad at all. All in all, I think the DLC was a better purchase than Tides of Avarice, which I only bought for the closed-loop system. In fact, with Split Vendetta being #1 and the Boron and Terran DLCs sharing #2, I think Timelines scores a solid #3. I know many people will not share this opinion, but I'm fine with that. Having the X2 Mission Simulator back is really neat.
I'm down for timelines. However, most people live for the sandbox. Earning stuff for the sandbox and to support the Devs was the only reason I bought it. I work long hours, so I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet. Good hunting captain.
3154 hours of x4 experience and I found Timelines challenging at times. I had to go out and learn to do things I do not do in my sandbox games. Now that I have completed it I do have fond memories. I would buy it again.
I prefer thought that timelines is just a preparation to a new DLC with a playable xenon faction or something telling more about these enigmatic machines.
I am a beginner and I like X4 to chill and carebear. So Timelines is actually a good revulsive to me. I stopped playing timelines and waiting for a HOTAS which is the proper way to enjoy those fights. Also now in the main game now Im not so afraid of red dots on the radar anymore.
We kinda figured going in that this wasn't going to be a critical darling simply by virtue of being a side mode to the main game rather than a proper expansion. I got off on the wrong foot with it, hating the racing missions and only really getting along with about half the nodi, but I did enjoy the framing story and the main events at the end of each graph, and I think we get some genuinely good stuff for the main game without having to invest too much effort. I like that we're being challenged to develop skills to use within the game, rather than just upgrading to something better and brute forcing the problem. The thing I really wish Timelines had was a slightly clearer set of briefings (the fluff bits being a page long while the actual instructions just said "do better to get a better score" should have been the other way around) and a bigger budget for voice acting. The VA work is egregiously bad in this DLC for how character-centric it is.
I'm an X player since 1999 and while Timelines could have used some polishing, I really enjoyed it overall. It was really fun to (re?) visit certain things in the game..
I'm new to the series and started a month before TL dropped. I'm not a big fan of campaigns or scripted missions, so the DLC already was not going to be my thing. My only actual disappointment is that given where my campaign is, I would have loved to see a "proper" dlc to invigorate my play through. I bought it in any case to support the devs as it seems like I've found a great franchise with a small and dedicated team and I want them to make more patches and dlc.
Here are my issues. 1) there isn't a ton of content. With this system, Egosoft could have added a dozen bonus nodes that are pretty basic. Stuff we don't ever have to do not even related to the Timelines story. Cool stuff like you having a carrier with damaged hanger bays that need 2 minutes to be fixed while you fight off enemy fighters that swarm larger and larger. Sure modders MIGHT add stuff like this but it might make our saves flagged for using mods. I think EGOSOFT just needs to expand what is given with Timelines to make it feel a bit better with MORE. 2) having not played the X-games other than Rebirth and AP, most of the 'story stuff' scenarios are not told well. I would have liked a Betty-voiced intro with 2D art to go over the situations, politics, war standings, and so on to give me a real immersive feel to know it's some big event (like the Terran Conflict intro). As of now, I don't know what is what or why... It is just a thing with a briefing worded rather flowery that I don't fully understand. This was what I was expecting the DLC to be. Condensed story stuff from the other 7(?) X games are presented in an epic forum and redone in the X4 engine. I am not a peak player. I fall pretty hard with challenges esp in games like this but I do enjoy the DLC. Many of the same reasons you do actually. It is a nice separate mode to do. I do think they could add one-time claim rewards for our saves that we can repeat as the 'online' features gave us rewards. Not guaranteed drops to make farming them cheesy... but a progress bar of sorts to reach a certain total score to get a 'loot box' with mods and player inventory items. Even adding new 'treasures' based on the race lore that can be sold for credits or even placed in our personal office HQ. There is a lot they can 'add' to this to make it better. Smaller things that won't change how it is set up.
The missions are cute and I recognize a couple things since I've been playing since X2, however I think it should've been a ship pack (Which it is basically when you finish the missions.) Less dev time on this, and more dev time on something better. (Co-op please) Still, X4 would be my "all the time" game if they added drop in/out Multiplayer. Kinda like how Bellwright has you working the same faction. My bro and I recently have been clocking X4 hours again after all.
This DLC is absolutely useless for this game. It provides some challenge, yes, but who plays an economic sandbox simulator for challenges? I love this game because of its universe, which feels alive, not because I want to be challenged with races! If I want to race, I'll play Forza. If I want space racing, I'll play Star Citizen because its flight model is a hundred times better than X4's. The timelines force you to do things you never do in the sandbox, like manual mining. I don't do manual mining in my sandbox, not because it's impossible, but because it's boring! Again, I'm not playing Minecraft; I'm here for a space economics sandbox! I could forgive this DLC for being useless if it had a good story. Initially, the story seems intriguing, but the finale is disappointing. Egosoft has shown once again that they are incompetent at storytelling. The final cutscene is awful. I was trying to learn more about this place, how we travel to the future, and whether escape is possible. But in the end, an inanimate object just says: "Well, it's all been just a simulation. We are simulants, you know?" How can simulants predict so many things in the future? Why do you need us completing these missions? Why create robots that think they are real people to complete these missions? Why not just use a big computer to simulate all possible outcomes? Why recruit more people for missions to make more employees if you can literally just build more employees? Who even are you? Why do you need to simulate the entire universe? If you could simulate every terrible event in the universe, why didn't you tell everyone about them? If you can simulate and predict everything, why couldn't you predict that Mitsuno would try to escape? After nearly six or seven hours of completing these missions while being intrigued by a promising start, this finale frustrates me a lot. I'm furious that I wasted so much time only to learn "we are simulants, we simulate stuff." Damn, even I, a RUclipsr who barely speaks English, could write better stories than this. Hire me, Egosoft! I really love X4; it is the only game that offers so many cool opportunities. But I hate this DLC because it doesn't align with any of the reasons I love X4. To be honest, when i've been buying this DLC I already knew it's gonna be awful experience. Bought it only to give developers some of my money in hope they will spend it better next time. I really wish Egosoft would hire some UI and quest designers and move on to developing X5 already.
@@jamolotl Anything new is really good. New faction means new ships and maps. But if Egosoft is really hellbent on brining something fresh, in my humble opinion they should improve the first person experience. New character models, add new ship interiors, and more immersive AI walking around those interiors. To make the ship more lively. Maybe utilize the Brig to convert captured people floating in space. Add a mess hall, and quarters etc etc and see your crew going around the ship doing their job. And if they're really bold, maybe add an actual boarding mechanic in the game, where you can join the boarding party and see it all unfold. Maybe add a station invasion too, and steal an entire station.
i love X4. Bought the DLC but wont finish it, touch it again nor care for any unlocks it gives. Egosoft sometimes gets into that mood to make a new space game, that isnt X-Sandbox, but for some reason put that game into a X-Sandbox game. I understand that they want to innovate but i realy hope, that they one day just make a 2. franchise and call it "X-Stargazer, the adventures of Mac Frakson" or something, instead of risking the wrath of X-Sandbox players. They tried it with X-Rebirth, explaining its not a usal X game and had to "patch it back" to resemble a usal X game. i have no hate towards Egosoft for this, but they realy should stop "milking" their loyal fanbase, because they are afraid of risking it with a new franchise.
Sure people will love more huge fleet battle scenarios and they are maybe not even all to hard to mod. But just big fights where you can clash with another big fleet. Also, for the price of that DLC you go to the cinema once and buy popcorn and a drink and your done in two hours. So i don't think it is to expensive. And it is 2024, watch some streamers and see if the DLC is something for you, you don't buy something you can't know what it is.
You're wrong on this. You need on average 2 stars per mission not 1. The missons are obtuse. Like one mission you are supposed to get black boxeds from destroy ships. But it just says to survey the wecks.
I finished timelines a few days ago and it's okayish. I think the other DLC's are better but timelines isn't bad. I also made contact to a new faction and think it was pretty interesting. But my critics are why they didn't switched the designs for the battle of omicron lyrae to the x2 Designs that took away a lot of the flair. And why they didn't hired the old speakers for the characters and why they messed up the designs for Julian and saya kho? The other criticism i have is why they didn't chaged the design of the Colossus and the behemoth. Also it would have been nice to have the old designs in other scenarios like the Elite, Nova and so on.
The update itself is good, love the radial wheel and redesign, but literally the only reason I’ve bought the dlc is due to VRO requirement I feel timelines main feature is to tell the story of the x universe, but let’s be real storytelling has never been egosofts strength
I like the short scenarios. If I don't want to continue playing the sandbox and don't have much time, I just hop in and do what I want at the moment. I like the challanges.
I just wish the sectors would be implemented automatically, but I agree it's a nice extra challenge. I'm not ready yet for the Xenon existential crisis but I'm happy they finally added it.
Couple of points: 1. Egosoft being known to release buggy games on launch is not an excuse. Release it as early access with a discount, fine, but not a full game like that. 2. For a separate game type that is supposedly story-driven, they have done an awful job... At least take us through a good narrative! Then again, that is their biggest weak point. Remember the end of the Boron campaign? Sheesh... 3. Rehashing missions from previous X games felt sooooo lazy! Especially when those were the best missions from this DLC... Nothing else stood out to me. Yay for nostalgia, 0 for originality and cool new things! 4. That lifeless hub... Pointless waste of time designing that empty void of lifeless space... Hardly 0 NPC interaction in something standalone is not acceptable. I can deal with it in the sandbox universe but we're in 2024 - having NPCs limited to saying "Hello" really bugged me. 5. Instead of having introductions to missions read out by someone, or an interaction with a hub NPC, you just need to read the text if you want to know more about that mission etc... Seriously, just make a mission menu in that case and throw out that garbage hub if it's so damn useless for us to be there! 6. I found difficulty not hard, but that's just personal I guess... There are only a handful of missions where 5 stars is a challenge. Not a reason to complain. 7. I agree with the linear aspect of the missions, which is a real shame for a game that promotes sandbox features... 8. Timelines is indeed not marketed the right way and for newbies could be very intimidating. 9. Pushing players to do such challenges is good, but it would be better if it was implemented directly into the sandbox universe instead of the rubbish repetitive missions that are in the sandbox universe. I would have loved it if they had put more effort in revamping sandbox missions instead of this. 10. It's a shame for an X game to have a DLC that you will play through once to get the unlocks, perhaps even to get the star ratings, and then never touch it again... Sad. The only good thing this expansion brings are the cool ship designs, but even then, I see them more as collector ships than stuff I will actively bring into my navy...
I've heard for New player in a save, if they did timelines, and started the Boron plot before more PHQ stuff, apparently they are permanently locked out of all PHQ missions (maybe until 7.1beta goes live??) Just skiming reddit.
I'm a fan of X3 and X4. Over 1000 hrs in X4 - got all DLC except this one. I have no problem with Egosoft experimenting - but the way how Timelines were marketed left me with many questions, so I just waited for it to release and checked what it was all about. It was not for me: Did not like how it was integrated storywise. Nor do I feel that the ships from Timelines are "must haves" for my sandbox experience. I didn't buy it - so no complaints here. However I dont get the argument "we know that Egosoft releases buggy games" or "Modders will expand content of the DLC" - Negative review because of bugs is fully justified. I trust Egosoft will fix it - but it does not change the fact that it was released buggy. - Modders will add to DLC - The review is of Egosoft work, not modder work. The positive side for Egosoft would be that they added some API for modders. Lastly, I personally dont agree with opinion "To do something we dont like to get something we like" - If in any point in time, I feel that the game gives me anxiety is the point I exit it. In Elden Ring I loose time and time again because I choose some faith paladin build - not other more cheesy builds. So I have to "git gud" with the style I choose - and I'm enjoying it. There are better racing games, better mining games and better space combat games - but there are only few good space sandbox games, X4 included.
This is why I cheat in solo video games. The fact that content is locked behind boring content doesn't matter to me, since the content is trivial anyway. I can't die and kill all in one hit or have impossible speeds. Problem solved.
I wouldnt mind timelines if egosoft didnt lock content behind completing it... because then I wouldnt have to play it. Incredibly boring, feels like a half-baked tutorial that lasts waaay to long. Nevermind the bugs...I just want the content thats gated behind this nonsense.
Timelines makes you do seemingly random missions, outside the sandbox, that have little to no bearing on the timelines story. The story in the facility unfolds in an odd manner, ending as abruptly as it started. The reward for spending 20+ hours outside your playthrough? Some largely empty sectors, mediocre ships and a faction that doesn't trade traditionally and doesn't interact beyond some repeatable quests. I genuinely dont know what this story ended up being about? Trust no one? Choose between real life or "the dream"? Advanced civilisation puts simulation inside a simulation? 101 Claymations? 2999 Pinocchio? Never mind the mediocre rewards, what the hell was the story? Why did they need "permission" to "rescue" people if they were programmed puppets? It was so close to being good, but the messy disjointed nature of it just left me wanting to get it over with.
i paid for the DLC to support Egosoft since they create such good game. I can understand player who complain about DLC story. It was ok for me, but it felt like dragging. Nothing happend really much in the story. Just do the missions and unlock your stuff for the sandbox mode. Only the interesting part of the story was the beginning and end of the story. Everything between were just missions and i hadn't the feeling that any missions contribute something to the story. I hoped more from story and missions; more impact or any influences. Then i expected a really guided missions for really "freshmans" who never had any contact with the game..and i was disappointed somehow. It's same like the normal sandbox game without any tutorials where you have to learn from scratch by yourself. And since the DLC was advertised as beginner friendly...it wasn't. The fights have the same level of difficulty like in the sandbmox mode or the racing weren't easy at the beginning which should be the easiest thing as starter mission. As veteran X4 player (nearly 1000h gametime) is still enjoying the game and the DLC itself is okay. But from point of view for beginners, the DLC story lacks on quality.
Honestly finaly 7.0 is playable. Ok. Vanilla is nonbalanced, but with VRO it is really nice game now. Finally situation with carriers and missiles was fixed a litlle. And it is fun to play. At the same time with Borons and scavengers they fixe economic issues with water and energy cells. I bought new DLC. I don't want to play it because it is not interesting. But verison 7.0 + VRO is good. Finally after a lot of years it is interesting tobplay
I enjoy this DLC. It's just not suitable for all players imo. For me, I like both short sessions and sandboxes. :D This should be the biggest controversy since X: Rebirth... I think the reason why many players don't like Timelines is they just want sandbox gameplay.
I have more than 2000h in the Game now. Timelines actually showed me mechanics that I never used before. It forced me to use ships I never looked at with equipment I always had ignored. You would think after so many hours you have seen everything :) I like the idea of the DLC, I love the new ships and I had a blast playing some of the same missions as I played in my youth. (With awesome graphics, back then ships were a lot more… gray blocks)
If all the missions were about the story of previous games I would love timelines. That's actually what I expected the DLC to be when they announced it but sadly there is only like 5 story missions (the final one in each nodus) and the rest is just filler.
I think this is a very decent DLC. This timeline is a challenge, but it also serves as a showcase for new players. basic technology behind the X4 Foundation has continued to develop and I can now recommend it to someone more comfortably than before. I look forward to the next DLC because I think the current direction of development is right and I think the developer is well aware of the current reaction. So I hope the theme of the next DLC will be either wargames or landmarks.
Devs doubled down on the 1 thing they are the worst at... story telling... and asked money for it. Just make a good sandbox pls... and keep filing it with Content... thats it... really... but nooooo lets make a DLC nobody asked for.
I remember the OLD tutorials... "hmmm...okay, lets try youtube, alt+F4" - and then I found captain Collins and learned to set ships for auto-mining , pilfer battle remains etc. and really got into it.
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I really wish they'd have added these types of missions into the sandbox. Like I get they're doing very specific missions with hand-picked equipment, but I can't help but feel this type of one-off questing stuff would have added so much social depth to the sandbox galaxy. Right now, most of the NPCs in the galaxy are so bland and lifeless. It would give more reasons to talk to people on-station. Heck, the only big way to get side missions in the sandbox right now is by scrolling a list of local station markers for available missions. Why can't we have missions that spawn in faction HQs based on your empire value? Fleet value? Small missions from shady people in the bars, or on pirate stations?
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Sounds like you don't know the mission offer tab.
Absolutely. I think they missed the mark here, obviously. They need to focus on making the sandbox more alive. They can tell stories all they want and people will love it but it needs to be within the sandbox.
I think the missions were you guard a ship or a station would be perfect in the sandbox.
I'm in the camp of wanting more of sandbox stuff then what we got
I don't think forcing me to play timelines to unlock things in the sandbox is fair. I love the sandbox. Bought Timelines to support the devs, but this feels like a bit of a punishment instead of a thank you.
Do you still feel the same after some months?
I got into the game with timelines (as a tutorial) and got really surprised with the community not liking it, the only thing that i did not enjoy was that some missions are really really hard if you are aiming at getting the 5 stars.
@@tiago.suares I'm guessing you must be working for Egosoft. The simple problem with timelines is that it's not the main game and people want the main game. They only want timelines for the extra content such as new ships, sectors, etc.
Timelines is a very annoying round about way to go about doing that and then the situation is compounded by there being very little information given upfront on how it works. Bad communication is a growing problem on every level from gaming in general to search engines no longer working to the developer being too coy to in game communication errors.
Players legitimately worry about certain things that should be made reasonably clear up front such as if the things you unlock will apply to a current save or not. These are known worries. Players are always known to be worried if they have to start again to get something when they have a save representing the culmination of tens or even hundreds of hours investment.
Then there are things like when you first try it you're told you need rank 1. Then you try out the race and when you do a near perfect run first time you see only rank five with it being seemingly impossible to get much better.
Then when you look more closely it's 5 stars and I didn't see anything notifying me of the unlock. Things like this are really misleading, having the rank terminology like this and not saying things like at least rank one or one star.
Eventually you can get over these things but the player shouldn't be put through such a traumatising experience in the first place. Now that search engines barely work if at all extra effort often is required to communicate things to players.
It's bad enough that not as much as would be hoped has really been fixed in the main game and that this DLC is a bit condescending and kludgy. Things are far more exacerbated thanks to headaches caused by a lack of or bad upfront communication.
As a new player, I recently tried out Timelines and found the experience to be quite jarring and in my review, I likened the experience to beginning with a leisurely tour of an airport and then abruptly finding myself in the cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet. Even after completing the basic tutorials, the game prompts directs you into Timelines, assuming you're ready.
As someone unfamiliar with the game's lore or backstory, I approached it with a blank slate. While I don't mind diving into action, Timelines does a poor job of providing context or setting the stage. You get the hang of very basic ship controls, and then you're thrust into your first mission: the race. After just an hour or two in the game, suddenly you're expected to master precise ship maneuvers through rings, often overshooting or struggling to keep pace in the fast-paced and needlessly stressful environment. At that point, I hadn't even been introduced to Flight Assist.
Overall, I felt like I was thrown in at the deep end without a life jacket.
In open play, I can overlook the somewhat odd voice acting-it's functional, doing its job. However, coming from games like Homeworld that feature realistic and well-acted voiceovers, Timelines falls short with a sort of uncanny valley in its writing and voice acting. It feels like a computer trying to simulate human interactions and doing so poorly. Some of the voices even made me cringe, eliciting a genuine recoil reaction. Perhaps this speaks more to my expectations, but that's been my experience. You're spot on in saying that the marketing misrepresents it. This isn't geared towards new players at all, and as for the story, well, it's definitely there, somewhere. Not sure how much AI gen is in there but that is a major red flag as well.
A good comparison would be Elite Dangerous or Warhammer 40K, where no matter where you start, you can generally piece together what's going on. X4, on the other hand, is incredibly messy and convoluted, and if Timelines was intended to simplify that complexity, it failed spectacularly from my perspective as a newcomer. The mission summaries were confusing to the point of being frustrating. Trying to make sense of "Incursion of the False Pontifex" without any context was headache-inducing.
Timelines is a recap for veterans of X4 alone, that been said...
I would suggest to you start the sandbox first,do the tutorials and immerse yourself with all other dlcs, the fun thing about been a newcomer in the sandbox is precisly be a newcomer, most starts you have would begin as a representative of a major faction, that is just now reconnecting with the galaxy, mostly you don't know the situation out there, you just started, then a good part of the story is you finding out about the story while carving your own...
I didn't play Timelines yet, but...
I imagine a plot about time travel with the player insertion in certain events from the past of the franchise would be convoluted...
So yeah, timelines definitely isn't for newcomers of X4, but veterans of X4 like me who are newcomers in the X franchise...
@@ciel-lf6vd the only "newbie friendly" mode is the Terran campaign rookie start. I forget the name, but it holds your hand a fair bit and is mostly flying focused so you can explore the rest of the game at your leisure. The main drawbacks are that you don't get access to the Commonwealth until fairly late. The bright side is that the Terran systems let you learn all the game systems without having to deal with the overwhelming Commonwealth materials and construction trees. The stories in the other starts all assume you can figure out how to build an economy.
@@efxnews4776 The problem is they need to move the final mission of graph 3(the m0 mission) out. Some of the stuff is annoying, the mining mission particularly("use magnet" and "sell the ore at the refinery" with zero explanation during a timed run while being attacked). These actions would immediately solve some of the problems. Make graphs 1,2 and 3 EASY. Once you complete graph 3, the star moves to "Play open universe" currently. So that is the currently coded definition of playing timelines for newbies, which is obviously not "complete timelines".
Got into the same boat as you, but i see timelines as a way to train certain skills without suffering losses in a save that you've spent hours into.
@@tiago.suares for veterans of X4 the advantages are the story that for newcomers of the X (like me) are really great to see beyond just the slides you get from collect history bits on data vaults.
For everyone else is mostly to get some new ships that are unlocked in the sandbox after you finish it.
For noobs, Timelines is the worst entry in the franchise.
And don't worry the dlcs aside from Timelines can all be experienced on the sandbox independently wich start you chose.
But again, for newcomers of both X series and X4, timelines isn't essential.
I played Timelines once to unlock the ships and sectors, and I don't plan on revisiting it again (unless it's to brush up on X universe story). Not saying it's bad, it just isn't my style of play.
I play X4 more as an economy simulation game. More often than not, I have a streaming service up on my other monitor. But I am a real sucker for player-unique ships.
It not the marketing. Its the fact that content is locked behind boring, repetitive missions. If it didnt lock open universe content behind it I wouldnt care.
You don't even have to succeed the missions really most of them give you 1 star rating if you self destruct before losing allied ships.
It is okay to criticize and it is okay to not like a dlc - it's not a personal attack against anyone. For me, I like Timelines (I am not through but I enjoy it so far), but not everyone has to like it!
I guess Americans needed a quick explanation on the difference between opinions and personal attacks. 😅
You're right about the beginners thing. This was my first time playing. After the first few _basic_ tutorials it AUTOMATICALLY dumped me into timelines, as if this was the tutorial progression, skipping about 80% of the actual tutorials, and I just starting getting my butt handed to me in those annoying timelines missions. The only reason I didn't refund the game, DLC and all, was I found someone who'd posted their user file, and I was able to edit my save from that to unlock all the DLC content and start playing in the sandbox, skipping those stupid missions.
Egosoft has refused to do a fundamental rework of X4 for years, preferring to bring out 1000 new things.
Fans are supposed to collect ideas that are then ignored, and that's exactly what Egosoft is being penalised for.
Timelines is just a vent of the frustration that has been smouldering for a long time.
As someone who joined the X franchise at this timelines dlc after a friend who played X3 told me it was on summer sale. I really liked timelines as it got me engaged with the actual franchise storyline. I found it very neat to see stuff appear in forum posts and youtube that I then already encountered in the timelines or I was about to encounter. I do agree it is marketed the wrong way. I did basic tutorial, went sandbox, did the more detailed tutorials as I went ahead in my sandbox and had to figure stuff out. After a couple of days playing sandbox I switched to timelines and with exception of the timed mining I enjoyed the challenges.
It also showed me how X4 could be, because being a newbie with only like 30-40h into the game, my empire was still very small with only couple ships and a wreck of a home station, but it showed me stuff like bigger fleet battles where you FC your own fleet.
I didn't play timelines, but as far as i know it is about time travel and stuff like that...
Clever way to recap the whole story franchise so too if you ask me...
I love X4, and i been playing since splitt vendetta dlc.
I kinda love how the story is presented in X4, all DLCs add story bits and essentially you gain one or two background with each one aside from the story for each DLC, you can experience all stories, but never be all backgrounds in a single playthrough.
As for the sandbox itself, you can literally write your own story as you go, and that is the beauty X4, so i do understand why some veterans are piss off with timelines...
Honestly, the biggest problems are structural, even for players with lots of hours:
*1.* Racing in X4 is outright bad: the "realistic" version of sandbox racing is either bootlegging, or combat with Terran engines, which requires you to disable pilot assist to get the most out of otherwise unconventional combat movement. No racecourse helps develop or test these skills.
*2.* Singular combat is self-sabotaged: the first Graph gives the terrible advice of "boost, use missiles, fly away," and this is the exact opposite of the tactic needed to get a good score, which is to park yourself behind the ship engines, destroy them, and _then_ flee using the boost. With the other Graphs also being blind-spot heavy, the last thing people need is being told to unlearn what actually works.
*3.* Fleet commanding is counter-intuitive: if you already know how fleet combat work, it's a straightforward "stay away from their main guns, while hitting them with yours," so not really that hard. If you _don't_ know that X4 enemy capital ships have no tactics beyond, "fire main guns at whatever's close" though, you'll be too cautious to get a good score, because you'll assume that all the enemy ships will try to stop you from killing the biggest thing, even when they won't.
In the interest of fairness though, the mining missions were genuinely useful (personally leading mining missions is more viable than I thought,) the trading missions were a good lesson on balancing time, distance, and potential profit, and the fighter combat was indeed challenging.
My main complaint is the unlocks are tedious. Despite gaining high rating in individual nodus the final mission of each graph *require* you to go through each mission which takes away player agency. Nodus is practically the worst part as they're essentially mandatory grinds, while I'm fine with implementation of every graph's "main mission" cuz they're actually tied to the history of the universe. I almost requested refund for the entire game (bought it in all DLC bundle during summer sale) when I struggle against the very first nodus thinking this game is all about a worse microsoft flying sim.
I have over 3,500 hours in X4 (been playing since X2). Yes, Egosoft has always released buggy new releases and, yes, the DEVs and dedicated players always step up with Beta testing support. This DLC doesn't add anything to the storyline - it's just a recap of history. It does make you do things that you are not used to doing and that is fun. However, if you really want a challenge in X4 try playing the game by not interacting with Boso Ta. The game becomes a real challenge when you don't have the time saving processes introduced by Boso.
Timelines = "Museum Mode"
There is nothing worse than when a developer add mission(s) you cannot work around or have alternative routes.
The DLC should have been added as an extension to the sandbox universe IMHO, then have options in those sectors for the missions within.
I am a seasoned gamer with hundreds of games under my belt and I somehow missed the X universe until a week ago. I played the tutorials and jumped into the sandbox, it took me a day or two to wrestle with the controls but it was fine. After reaching a fairly late stage game in the sandbox (I have a self sufficient empire sporting multiple destroyers, fleets, auxiliaries and soon to have a fully in house L/XL ship building) I decided to play timelines (yesterday).
It took me one game session to get through the missions, some were annoying and hard, some were easy (for me). The mining/trading/racing was really easy for me as this is what I mostly do in the game, the fighter only challenges where you are facing big fleets were annoying and I had to replay those a few times. Managing multiple ships/fleets was also fairly easy.
I have 2 complaints about the timelines.
1. It is definitely NOT the next step after the tutorial, I was part frustrated even after playing the sandbox first and I would have been even more so if I did it immediately.
2 I wish that some stages in the game (especially those long multi stage escort missions) had checkpoints or saving or something similar. The biggest frustration for me was escorting that auxiliary ship only for it to be destroyed by the Paranid bombers right at the end of the mission because I was tangled by the xenon and didn't notice.
All in all the story writing for timelines is kind of bad and the AI voice acting isn't helping (also I feel like the AI isn't AI but rather a couple of people in Bangladesh (MD gives it away if you know you know)). But this is something I got accustomed to through the sandbox, the game missions feel like an MMO most of the time (in a bad way) with all the fetch and kill X, but then again the freedom in the sandbox is what sells this game. And with that I come to my last point, Collins is right, this DLC was marketed all wrong, if you look online or anywhere else, the game is marketed as this second coming of Christ in regard to sandbox freedom. Then the games bombards you with several hours of tutorials and on top a series of challenges followed with bad story telling that has no context for new players.
Change the marketing, allow for checkpoints/saving/lower difficulty for people who just want the rewards, maybe change some of the missions (or don't) and you will have a much better package.
This whole video sounds/feels like egosoft is in the room with him holding a gun
I was a complete noob going into this expansion. I followed their recommendations to play Timelines after tutorials. I definitely felt lost. I failed several missions and moved on with many 1 stars. Once I got into the sandbox, I was blown away how great it was. Timelines is forgettable. The quests from expansions in the sandbox are the best.
I could tell from the way it was described pre-release I wasn't going to enjoy Timelines. I'm glad some people like the challenge of the individual missions but to me the magic of X will always be in the emergent gameplay and sandbox experience. It is disappointing that there are things I'll miss out on in the sandbox because of it, but it's just not worth it to me to get a dlc I don't even want to play, and then force myself to play it to unlock those few things I do care about.
I think its marketed for beginners because its a sort of "campaign mode" that shows off the different aspects of the sandbox, without overloading them with the feature bloat.
I think it was marketed purely for cash grab. There is nothing about timelines that seems geared towards noobs at all.
@@ClaytonMileto don't be so cynical man, they're probably trying their best to make a good game
I refunded it after playing 1 hour. Did 4 missions. Buggy, uninteresting, more anoying than challenging. At least for me. If i want a real challenge i would play games like Elden Ring or Cuphead for example. I think most of X players wants to expand their universe sandbox. Thats why they supported the X4 project. I dont know what Egosoft was thinking but they really need to sit and rethink. Cause "challenges enthusiasts" are not going to pay for their bills. Simple as that.
It's just your opinion, it doesn't apply to everyone.
I felt like 80% of timelines was an extended tutorial. The "real" missions were great. But then that would be only like 5 mission for one DLC worth of content. I can see that this is a now a building block Egosoft and modders can use to make custom campaigns. Lets see what the future brings.
Edit: i did not completly finish the video before my comment. I disagree with you here, they advertised it for what it is, a extended tutorial.
This isnt what i play this game for lol. All id want different is co-op. But i dont want anything out of sandbox
Exactly that. I just want co-op in my sandbox. Then it's basically my dream game.
My issues with timelines was a combination of factors that made some of the missions either impossible to complete (i.e. The Ferryman), or beyond frustrating (i.e. The Hazing I think it was called). The worst offender was when you were facing off against the Kha'ak obliterator and had to maintain a position while being actively pushed in random directions, which turned using a keyboard into a handicap.
Overall I felt like the underlying story and history being told was engaging, as was the epilogue with Kaori. It's just frustrating that a bulk of the DLC was spent on a game mode detached from the main universe when it could've been integrated like the previous DLCs. I mean, the devs added several sectors, a unique bartering system, scripted events, and old Terran ships into the sandbox, why not also add the history lessons as well?
I tried to care about the story, but by the second time the game made me trade/mine for 40 minutes for no reason I just stopped caring.
first :) i enjoyed it but id rather just have a DLC in the proper sandbox universe
That is exactly correct but as someone with 700h in the game my original thoughts for it was 'wow this is pretty hard' so I agree its not a great fit for n00b X4 players fresh outta the gate.
The biggest problem? It feels like a mod they want $15 for.
As a begginer I am confused as to why this is recommended for begginers. The first graph is very hard, the last mission "fade" is near impossible. But apparently they don't introduce mining challenges until graph 3 ? Why it got us to slug through 6 missions of fighting without zero guidance before that ??? Why isn't mining the first or second mission in the first graph ?
Thank you for saving me the money I would have spent on this as I am not the target audience for this DLC. Only way this would have been worse was integrating this into the main game. The main game's draw was play the way you want, not the way the "get good crowd" thinks you should play. Hoping the Steam Score continues to drop.
Fu-ck you, the DLC just wasn't to your taste and that's it, a lot of people are enjoying it, especially beginners who don't want to be overwhelmed with so much information and resources available in the sandbox.
Timelines is a good DLC especially for beginners, veterans can try it but only if you want challenges that you haven't experienced in a long time. In short: for beginners it's a good DLC, for veterans not so much.
I could talk for hours about Timelines but I think the best way to sum it up is: EgoSoft playing to their weaknesses, not their strengths.
After being very good at delivering a certain type of experience for a certain type of audience, instead of keeping doing that and being even better at it, they pulled an 180 and tried to do something they really suck at it, and it showed and it got reflected in the reviews. That's it.
When you're a really good BBQ chef and you make a really good steak, don't expect to just turn around and expect to be as good at baking cakes as you are at making steaks.
Even more so, don't expect the people that have been coming to your BBQs for years and years, and that love a good steak, to just settle to being served mediocre cake one day, and be anything besides deeply disappointed about it.
That's pretty much it. It was a bad choice with a mediocre (at best) result that is reflected in the user reviews. That's all there is.
And one more thing, IF they were the kind of company to deliver top-quality voice acting, epic story telling, and pure all-out fun, this would have been totally different. But they're not, they played to their weaknesses, not to their strengths, and it shows.
x4 is my singleplayer eve online i love this game, but locking content behind these minigames takes me out of my world and into a temp one, that was my whole drive to play these types of games in the first place. If i wanna try new things or make a silly play to see what happens i can just drop a quicksave (now that it doesn't take a year XD) and see what happens. I'm sad to admit i used someone else's save code to skip/unlock the timelines content on my save. If this was a toggle, perhaps with a new world rather than a requirement it may have came across better. That being said I've not hated any of the content just had better things to do.
At the end of the day
First time I have never been excited for an X series Xpac and first time I have not bought the dlc as well. But its a silly direction and brings nothing overly to the base game, which is the reason we play, not some spin off garbage outside the main game. Just wasted resources that could have made the base game better.
i got bored really quickly
I like the idea of some standalone missions with fixed content. It can be hard to get an actual "balanced" battle in the sandbox. Generally you bring overwhelming force to any battle in the sandbox, making combat quite easy. X4 actually has some really good combat mechanics that we never get to fully enjoy because of that. I was really hoping we'd get X4 meets TIE Fighter, but sadly mission design is not Egosoft's strongest area.
I'm enjoying Timelines. And for all those complaints about forcing ppl to do things they don't do in sandbox - you don't even need to "get good" in order to make it AT LEAST 1 star. You don't need 5 stars to unlock stuff in open world. Just get in, finish the mission and fk off to the next one.
Instead of focusing on a great storyline of this DLC people frustrated on thing that is not intended to be focused on. I was amazed with Timelines plot in open world game. It's short, but so nice to find it AFTER completing all this missions.
I detest Game Devs that try to force you to play a certain way, they have made it so that the best way to start your empire is Piracy. you can no longer hunt crystals easily, you can no longer hack stations for blueprints which are RIDICULOUSLY expensive as well as requiring high Faction status. So, you either start by scavenging battle debris or you Pirate other factions ships which mess with your faction standings and makes it harder in Late game. I haven't started a new game in years because of this.
Dude, we have everything today in the open games market, the X4 is not what we saw, it is not an arcade, again I say, I would play something else just to prove challenges, the game's strength is the sandbox and all the immersion that it brings to each new expansion and addition of updates, I understand your point of view of liking it and that was your opinion, but having spent many hours and knowing the game for years this DLC was not good, and in fact it was a great waste, so many possibilities were wasted , and one of them that is interesting could be the fact that Ego stops messing with the past and brings new and great things to the game, nothing ever seen in the series, a lot of people like that, especially the old ones who always keep the game, Let's see what the company's next steps will be, so that they don't make any more mistakes, and if they aren't going to add anything new to what the X4 is, let's bring the X5!
First: I like your point of view.
Playing X4 for more then 1000h and I Love Timelines, is enough to enjoy, it is challenging, funny Story, and i had tears in my eyes in one Mission. And it adds something for sandbox Plays. Good Job Egosoft.
Agree with your take here, I’m an inexperienced player, I found the scenarios really hard but I did learn a bunch of stuff too. The bigger scenarios where you had to manage things in the UI were really hard but I enjoyed trying the range of scenarios all the same. Always happy to support small developers and as always appreciate your content.
I fully agree that timelines is worth the cost! I really enjoyed the timelines missions and look forward to doing them again to get the 5 stars.
My only real complaint with this DLC is that one of the ships you unlock is unique, so if it gets destroyed it is gone forever.
I feel like you just said exactly what I wrote in my steam review.
We very much think alike! 👍🏻
Timelines is a great way to reintroduce all of the lore from the previous games .
You're right, accepting that you are boxed into an experience that is overwhelmingly more rigid than the rest of the game will help you deal with it but I doubt the majority of the X4 player base asked for anything of the sort. What's worse, real sandbox content is locked behind this obtrusive DLC. People aren't giving it bad reviews because they are confused, they know what is happening in front of their eyes and in their hands, turns out they don't like it.
If they somehow found some way to integrate some of the time travel concepts into the sandbox game, that would be amazing.
Got a question about timelines, if I just launch a save from Kingdom End where i have stations, ships missions, what exactly will happen if I install timelines? Shall I be forced to do this expansion missions? Or I can just enjoy graphical overhaul and not bother ?
Nothing will happen in your main game, since timelines only adds stuff outside of the sandbox that will not affect your game until you finished specific parts of timelines 👍
This expansion was sold as finally getting the endgame challenge we waited for, only to receive the beginners tutorial. I had to return mine after less than 1 hour played.
The endgame challenge they added is in insult to any x4 fan (you get your whole empire swatted by a bunch of magically spawning enemies). If they had developed timelines AND a endgame expansion that has proper content, i'd have been happy to pay for at minimum one of them. At this point its just pressing the $$$ juice out of the dry lemon.
It added very little I was interested in. The only thing I welcome is a few new ships. Marred somewhat by the fact I think I have to do some of the stuff i'm not interested in to unlock them. I'm sure mods will fix that but that's not the point.
Note: I bought the DLC anyway to support Egosoft but the DLC itself? It's a dud, imo.
The problem is that no one has prevented Egosoft from making the same story missions in sandbox that will challenge you and require to be highly skilled. What I mean, that most combat missions in storylines in sandbox are so easy, that I always thought about them as placeholders. Maybe except ToA VIG station demolition and Getsu Fune battle in the start of Terran plot
Is X4 better optimized now ? How is the FPS right now?
yes it is, 7.0 brought some shader optimizations and other thingys but don't expect any improvements whatsoever if you're already playing on low and/or your CPU is severely lacking
Unfortunately this is the worst dlc.
I thought they learnt the lesson of rebirth but clearly they didn’t.
This dlc locks all the new stuff you pay for behind game mechanics you don’t want to play.
The game is overall a 4X game so all add ons should add to this game mechanic not add ones none of us want.
If we wanted it we would buy something else, a sandbox 4x is what X4 is.
Prior to timelines, i had about 600hrs in the game. I have not played in about a year prior to picking it up. I think it should have been marketed to returning players. It gave enough of an intro that I remembered how things work generally and I was able to complete all missions with at least 2-3 stars. The only missions I personally struggled with were the trade missions because the AI kept getting caught on the station.
I enjoyed it, it let me revisit a lot of events in x history in modern graphics wich was nice
I believe it was more geared towards the veteran crowd wich have some knowledge of the lore beforehand (for example: nathan r gunne, the sohnen etc)
Sure there is busywork like those mining or trade mission but its nothing too bad
Also: if you score high enough ratings in other missions you can essentially skip the shitty ones (like the mission where you have to take out all guns of a xenon station in a f-in fighter wich is an insane proposal)
I never cared for racing, but that Xenon H is my new favorite ship! Flying in and unleashing a swarm of drones is incredible, I just wish they were a LITTLE easier to get my hands on.
The scenarioes are pretty fun, I love getting to see some of the old sectors again.
i found one sitting without a crew in tharka's cascade as i was on my way with my fleet to take that antenna tower in savage spur. i imagine the terran battleship that came through that region had something to do with it.
@@jonyngvesyland5461 I think that one is a reward from one of the timelines missions, it's the same one I have and it's my baby.
I wish I had captured one before eliminating the Xenon. I thought it was bugged after sending something like 60 veteran marines in 12 at a time and always failing. Now there are no H to capture.
My complaints with the Timelines is mostly technical.
The load times from a HDD are a bit long for something that's supposed to be tried again and again. And the game requires a lot of processing power. It won't be such an issue in the winter but when it's hot you really don't want an extra 500W of heating next to you and it's the reason I've not yet progressed beyond graph 2.
The gameplay content is fine. As a kind of veteran of the series I got usually 3 stars on the first try and the challenges were quite nice to play since it's not something I usually get to do. Except the escort mission. It's a textbook case of why people hate escort missions.
@@jamolotl HDDs are definitely getting old and sometimes thy are required for a good experience.
However, X4 has worked well from a HDD before. Sure, the initial load was a bit long but once you got in the game everything ran just fine.
With Timelines the requirement changed. I do have the space to move X4 to a SSD but for an expansion to force the change I feel like it is a valid piece of criticism.
hmm idea about racing, it would be fun to construct race tracks in the sandbox and I know this is about timelines which I see as the campaign mode of x4 not a tutorial, but still having the ability to construct race tracks and hold race events that make you credits would be fun, i would love more ways to make money as currently it al feels like factory or mining, sure you can make parts sure you can make food but what about having a salvage station where the others races can bring wrecks you would gain a small amount of the salvage as well as credits or a repair station where you would repair the ships of customers for credits these things don't seem to hard to implement not a game dev however.
I'm actually loving timelines, I totally agree with egosoft that this is totally for new players after tutorials and it's good challenge for experienced players. New players can use the scenarios in this after getting 1 star all the way thru and learn essential game skills like attacking stations or capitals and it even let's you put bombs on stuff. My two complaints on DLC. 1. this should of been I'm the base game. 2. Lag spikes during missions really tick me off.
Timelines is a good DLC especially for beginners, veterans can try it but only if you want challenges that you haven't experienced in a long time. In short: for beginners it's a good DLC, for veterans not so much.
I haven't even tried the new Timelines stuff. I was already in late game in my second playthrough when Timelines came out. I got to check out the new sandbox content late, and missed out on some of it due to the the DLC drop coinciding with my Xenon extermination campaign. But I'm happy with it. And when I decide to try it, I have the new Timelines missions available to me.
At $15 I think the DLC is nice. It's a reasonable price for a significant addition to the game. Would I have designed the DLC differently if it were my choice? Yes. I would have liked more sandbox content, with additions that are significantly useful (at least as alternatives to prior choices) in early, mid, and late game stages. That's my jam. But what Egosoft added made me happy too.
And as a Linux gamer, I appreciate Egosoft for supporting gamer freedom. I'll buy the next DLC too, if there is more to come.
The biggest problem with timelines is that it is not bound up with the sandbox, and has linear, gated content flow. This means you cannot just go away for a while and improve skills in the universe while improving your sandbox game at the same time. Instead, you endlessly bash your head against any any mission type that you have difficulty with, which is not "fun" for most people, particularly new players or intermittent players like me. Challenge != Fun for all players, so Egosoft just set themselves for bad reviews by assuming that it is.
The story as a whole is quite interesting, but like many X universe stories before it, there are times when you just want to temporarily abandon the plot to do something more appealing, but in Timelines, you cannot. I do not begrudge the cost of timelines ( or any other X4 DLC ) since that helps fund the continual improvement of the base game, but it's not something I will spend much time with, nor really recommend for most players.
I played through all the missions in pretty much one sitting and finished the expansion and eventhough i was like *nah this sint for me before* i did appreciate the variety of activities it made me do and i can see how someone new to the game can actually learn and experience alot the game has to offer across the board without having to invest 50 hours for that same initial experience.
As someone who didnt get into X properly until x foundation, i can say that ALOT of what the game offers isnt actually visible until you get to that point and its very easy to boot up the game and play 25 minutes and then put it down because you dont actually know the cool stuff and the scale you experience later on, because thats why ive put x rebirth and x foundation down before
But i can also see how someone who already is a hardcore x foundations fan and has clocked several hundred hours on it would feel disappointed by how little the expansion adds to their experience
I think I like the way the DLC was released better than having it added as another bloat to the sandbox. The missions are very performant and run fluid while the sandbox universe usually gets slowed down after a few days because of things like the massive snub spam of VIG. Of course the DLC has some weaknesses - the entire part with Mitsuno feels... silly, and I certainly wouldn't have named the systems after her. But this DLC was definitely a good purchase for anyone who grew up with the previous X games. The battle against the M0? Awesome, although a bit too easy, and the VA for Ban Danna is hilariously bad. (Oh. This is it.)
I will say that the Sapporo alone is a massive plus in my book, even though it is... horrible in combat. The Odachi and the Cutlass are insanely good, though. The X-Shuttle might just be too good for the sandbox, but the player can regulate themself.
A lot of the missions were neat, but only a very few stand out. Much more interesting are the hidden achievements in the missions. Missions, missions, missions!
I don't think the Quettanauts would have been needed to get added to the sandbox as a faction, but grinding rep with them to get the Antigone station parts is not bad at all.
All in all, I think the DLC was a better purchase than Tides of Avarice, which I only bought for the closed-loop system. In fact, with Split Vendetta being #1 and the Boron and Terran DLCs sharing #2, I think Timelines scores a solid #3. I know many people will not share this opinion, but I'm fine with that. Having the X2 Mission Simulator back is really neat.
I'm down for timelines. However, most people live for the sandbox. Earning stuff for the sandbox and to support the Devs was the only reason I bought it. I work long hours, so I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet. Good hunting captain.
3154 hours of x4 experience and I found Timelines challenging at times. I had to go out and learn to do things I do not do in my sandbox games. Now that I have completed it I do have fond memories. I would buy it again.
I prefer thought that timelines is just a preparation to a new DLC with a playable xenon faction or something telling more about these enigmatic machines.
I am a beginner and I like X4 to chill and carebear. So Timelines is actually a good revulsive to me. I stopped playing timelines and waiting for a HOTAS which is the proper way to enjoy those fights.
Also now in the main game now Im not so afraid of red dots on the radar anymore.
We kinda figured going in that this wasn't going to be a critical darling simply by virtue of being a side mode to the main game rather than a proper expansion. I got off on the wrong foot with it, hating the racing missions and only really getting along with about half the nodi, but I did enjoy the framing story and the main events at the end of each graph, and I think we get some genuinely good stuff for the main game without having to invest too much effort. I like that we're being challenged to develop skills to use within the game, rather than just upgrading to something better and brute forcing the problem.
The thing I really wish Timelines had was a slightly clearer set of briefings (the fluff bits being a page long while the actual instructions just said "do better to get a better score" should have been the other way around) and a bigger budget for voice acting. The VA work is egregiously bad in this DLC for how character-centric it is.
I'm an X player since 1999 and while Timelines could have used some polishing, I really enjoyed it overall. It was really fun to (re?) visit certain things in the game..
I'm new to the series and started a month before TL dropped. I'm not a big fan of campaigns or scripted missions, so the DLC already was not going to be my thing. My only actual disappointment is that given where my campaign is, I would have loved to see a "proper" dlc to invigorate my play through.
I bought it in any case to support the devs as it seems like I've found a great franchise with a small and dedicated team and I want them to make more patches and dlc.
Here are my issues.
1) there isn't a ton of content. With this system, Egosoft could have added a dozen bonus nodes that are pretty basic. Stuff we don't ever have to do not even related to the Timelines story. Cool stuff like you having a carrier with damaged hanger bays that need 2 minutes to be fixed while you fight off enemy fighters that swarm larger and larger. Sure modders MIGHT add stuff like this but it might make our saves flagged for using mods. I think EGOSOFT just needs to expand what is given with Timelines to make it feel a bit better with MORE.
2) having not played the X-games other than Rebirth and AP, most of the 'story stuff' scenarios are not told well. I would have liked a Betty-voiced intro with 2D art to go over the situations, politics, war standings, and so on to give me a real immersive feel to know it's some big event (like the Terran Conflict intro). As of now, I don't know what is what or why... It is just a thing with a briefing worded rather flowery that I don't fully understand. This was what I was expecting the DLC to be. Condensed story stuff from the other 7(?) X games are presented in an epic forum and redone in the X4 engine.
I am not a peak player. I fall pretty hard with challenges esp in games like this but I do enjoy the DLC. Many of the same reasons you do actually. It is a nice separate mode to do. I do think they could add one-time claim rewards for our saves that we can repeat as the 'online' features gave us rewards. Not guaranteed drops to make farming them cheesy... but a progress bar of sorts to reach a certain total score to get a 'loot box' with mods and player inventory items. Even adding new 'treasures' based on the race lore that can be sold for credits or even placed in our personal office HQ.
There is a lot they can 'add' to this to make it better. Smaller things that won't change how it is set up.
Did the first 3 missions and lost intrest for now.
I will try again in winter when i got more time.
No one asked to be challenged. If there was any request for a challenge. It was to improve in game AI.
The missions are cute and I recognize a couple things since I've been playing since X2, however I think it should've been a ship pack (Which it is basically when you finish the missions.) Less dev time on this, and more dev time on something better. (Co-op please)
Still, X4 would be my "all the time" game if they added drop in/out Multiplayer. Kinda like how Bellwright has you working the same faction. My bro and I recently have been clocking X4 hours again after all.
I love X4 6.20 and I have no plan on updating to 7.0 or buying Timelines until they remove to goofy missions to play the new ships and sectors.
This DLC is absolutely useless for this game. It provides some challenge, yes, but who plays an economic sandbox simulator for challenges? I love this game because of its universe, which feels alive, not because I want to be challenged with races! If I want to race, I'll play Forza. If I want space racing, I'll play Star Citizen because its flight model is a hundred times better than X4's. The timelines force you to do things you never do in the sandbox, like manual mining. I don't do manual mining in my sandbox, not because it's impossible, but because it's boring! Again, I'm not playing Minecraft; I'm here for a space economics sandbox!
I could forgive this DLC for being useless if it had a good story. Initially, the story seems intriguing, but the finale is disappointing. Egosoft has shown once again that they are incompetent at storytelling. The final cutscene is awful. I was trying to learn more about this place, how we travel to the future, and whether escape is possible. But in the end, an inanimate object just says: "Well, it's all been just a simulation. We are simulants, you know?" How can simulants predict so many things in the future? Why do you need us completing these missions? Why create robots that think they are real people to complete these missions? Why not just use a big computer to simulate all possible outcomes? Why recruit more people for missions to make more employees if you can literally just build more employees? Who even are you? Why do you need to simulate the entire universe? If you could simulate every terrible event in the universe, why didn't you tell everyone about them? If you can simulate and predict everything, why couldn't you predict that Mitsuno would try to escape?
After nearly six or seven hours of completing these missions while being intrigued by a promising start, this finale frustrates me a lot. I'm furious that I wasted so much time only to learn "we are simulants, we simulate stuff." Damn, even I, a RUclipsr who barely speaks English, could write better stories than this. Hire me, Egosoft!
I really love X4; it is the only game that offers so many cool opportunities. But I hate this DLC because it doesn't align with any of the reasons I love X4. To be honest, when i've been buying this DLC I already knew it's gonna be awful experience. Bought it only to give developers some of my money in hope they will spend it better next time. I really wish Egosoft would hire some UI and quest designers and move on to developing X5 already.
Any idea what's gonna be on X4: 8.00? Or at least what you want to see.
@@jamolotl Anything new is really good. New faction means new ships and maps.
But if Egosoft is really hellbent on brining something fresh, in my humble opinion they should improve the first person experience. New character models, add new ship interiors, and more immersive AI walking around those interiors. To make the ship more lively.
Maybe utilize the Brig to convert captured people floating in space.
Add a mess hall, and quarters etc etc and see your crew going around the ship doing their job.
And if they're really bold, maybe add an actual boarding mechanic in the game, where you can join the boarding party and see it all unfold.
Maybe add a station invasion too, and steal an entire station.
i love X4. Bought the DLC but wont finish it, touch it again nor care for any unlocks it gives.
Egosoft sometimes gets into that mood to make a new space game, that isnt X-Sandbox, but for some reason put that game into a X-Sandbox game.
I understand that they want to innovate but i realy hope, that they one day just make a 2. franchise and call it "X-Stargazer, the adventures of Mac Frakson" or something, instead of risking the wrath of X-Sandbox players.
They tried it with X-Rebirth, explaining its not a usal X game and had to "patch it back" to resemble a usal X game.
i have no hate towards Egosoft for this, but they realy should stop "milking" their loyal fanbase, because they are afraid of risking it with a new franchise.
Sure people will love more huge fleet battle scenarios and they are maybe not even all to hard to mod. But just big fights where you can clash with another big fleet. Also, for the price of that DLC you go to the cinema once and buy popcorn and a drink and your done in two hours. So i don't think it is to expensive. And it is 2024, watch some streamers and see if the DLC is something for you, you don't buy something you can't know what it is.
I'll not buy Timelines so long as it contains AI generated voices.
I don't think it happens in Timelines, but it was pretty funny to hear AI voices freakout in a different game.
That's a very good video, if one day we can go on planets for doing some missions people will complain again 😂.
You're wrong on this. You need on average 2 stars per mission not 1.
The missons are obtuse. Like one mission you are supposed to get black boxeds from destroy ships. But it just says to survey the wecks.
I finished timelines a few days ago and it's okayish. I think the other DLC's are better but timelines isn't bad. I also made contact to a new faction and think it was pretty interesting. But my critics are why they didn't switched the designs for the battle of omicron lyrae to the x2 Designs that took away a lot of the flair. And why they didn't hired the old speakers for the characters and why they messed up the designs for Julian and saya kho? The other criticism i have is why they didn't chaged the design of the Colossus and the behemoth. Also it would have been nice to have the old designs in other scenarios like the Elite, Nova and so on.
unpopular opinion, the DLC paid more for the update's development than the DLC itself. I wish egosoft was more clear about it
The update itself is good, love the radial wheel and redesign, but literally the only reason I’ve bought the dlc is due to VRO requirement
I feel timelines main feature is to tell the story of the x universe, but let’s be real storytelling has never been egosofts strength
I like the short scenarios. If I don't want to continue playing the sandbox and don't have much time, I just hop in and do what I want at the moment. I like the challanges.
I just wish the sectors would be implemented automatically, but I agree it's a nice extra challenge. I'm not ready yet for the Xenon existential crisis but I'm happy they finally added it.
Couple of points:
1. Egosoft being known to release buggy games on launch is not an excuse. Release it as early access with a discount, fine, but not a full game like that.
2. For a separate game type that is supposedly story-driven, they have done an awful job... At least take us through a good narrative! Then again, that is their biggest weak point. Remember the end of the Boron campaign? Sheesh...
3. Rehashing missions from previous X games felt sooooo lazy! Especially when those were the best missions from this DLC... Nothing else stood out to me. Yay for nostalgia, 0 for originality and cool new things!
4. That lifeless hub... Pointless waste of time designing that empty void of lifeless space... Hardly 0 NPC interaction in something standalone is not acceptable. I can deal with it in the sandbox universe but we're in 2024 - having NPCs limited to saying "Hello" really bugged me.
5. Instead of having introductions to missions read out by someone, or an interaction with a hub NPC, you just need to read the text if you want to know more about that mission etc... Seriously, just make a mission menu in that case and throw out that garbage hub if it's so damn useless for us to be there!
6. I found difficulty not hard, but that's just personal I guess... There are only a handful of missions where 5 stars is a challenge. Not a reason to complain.
7. I agree with the linear aspect of the missions, which is a real shame for a game that promotes sandbox features...
8. Timelines is indeed not marketed the right way and for newbies could be very intimidating.
9. Pushing players to do such challenges is good, but it would be better if it was implemented directly into the sandbox universe instead of the rubbish repetitive missions that are in the sandbox universe. I would have loved it if they had put more effort in revamping sandbox missions instead of this.
10. It's a shame for an X game to have a DLC that you will play through once to get the unlocks, perhaps even to get the star ratings, and then never touch it again... Sad.
The only good thing this expansion brings are the cool ship designs, but even then, I see them more as collector ships than stuff I will actively bring into my navy...
I've heard for New player in a save, if they did timelines, and started the Boron plot before more PHQ stuff, apparently they are permanently locked out of all PHQ missions (maybe until 7.1beta goes live??) Just skiming reddit.
I'm a fan of X3 and X4. Over 1000 hrs in X4 - got all DLC except this one. I have no problem with Egosoft experimenting - but the way how Timelines were marketed left me with many questions, so I just waited for it to release and checked what it was all about.
It was not for me:
Did not like how it was integrated storywise.
Nor do I feel that the ships from Timelines are "must haves" for my sandbox experience.
I didn't buy it - so no complaints here.
However I dont get the argument "we know that Egosoft releases buggy games" or "Modders will expand content of the DLC"
- Negative review because of bugs is fully justified. I trust Egosoft will fix it - but it does not change the fact that it was released buggy.
- Modders will add to DLC - The review is of Egosoft work, not modder work. The positive side for Egosoft would be that they added some API for modders.
Lastly, I personally dont agree with opinion "To do something we dont like to get something we like" - If in any point in time, I feel that the game gives me anxiety is the point I exit it.
In Elden Ring I loose time and time again because I choose some faith paladin build - not other more cheesy builds.
So I have to "git gud" with the style I choose - and I'm enjoying it.
There are better racing games, better mining games and better space combat games - but there are only few good space sandbox games, X4 included.
I'm still waiting for a mod that recreates Beyond the Frontier in its full form.
I played x4 since 2019, and I still don’t know marking an enemy as hostile when using friend/foe mines. That’s very interesting.
I enjoyed quite a bit. While It would have been great to also have more content added to the sandbox, I am content with what we got.
This is why I cheat in solo video games. The fact that content is locked behind boring content doesn't matter to me, since the content is trivial anyway. I can't die and kill all in one hit or have impossible speeds. Problem solved.
I wouldnt mind timelines if egosoft didnt lock content behind completing it... because then I wouldnt have to play it. Incredibly boring, feels like a half-baked tutorial that lasts waaay to long. Nevermind the bugs...I just want the content thats gated behind this nonsense.
Timelines makes you do seemingly random missions, outside the sandbox, that have little to no bearing on the timelines story. The story in the facility unfolds in an odd manner, ending as abruptly as it started. The reward for spending 20+ hours outside your playthrough? Some largely empty sectors, mediocre ships and a faction that doesn't trade traditionally and doesn't interact beyond some repeatable quests.
I genuinely dont know what this story ended up being about? Trust no one? Choose between real life or "the dream"? Advanced civilisation puts simulation inside a simulation? 101 Claymations? 2999 Pinocchio? Never mind the mediocre rewards, what the hell was the story? Why did they need "permission" to "rescue" people if they were programmed puppets?
It was so close to being good, but the messy disjointed nature of it just left me wanting to get it over with.
i paid for the DLC to support Egosoft since they create such good game. I can understand player who complain about DLC story. It was ok for me, but it felt like dragging. Nothing happend really much in the story. Just do the missions and unlock your stuff for the sandbox mode. Only the interesting part of the story was the beginning and end of the story. Everything between were just missions and i hadn't the feeling that any missions contribute something to the story. I hoped more from story and missions; more impact or any influences.
Then i expected a really guided missions for really "freshmans" who never had any contact with the game..and i was disappointed somehow. It's same like the normal sandbox game without any tutorials where you have to learn from scratch by yourself. And since the DLC was advertised as beginner friendly...it wasn't. The fights have the same level of difficulty like in the sandbmox mode or the racing weren't easy at the beginning which should be the easiest thing as starter mission.
As veteran X4 player (nearly 1000h gametime) is still enjoying the game and the DLC itself is okay. But from point of view for beginners, the DLC story lacks on quality.
Honestly finaly 7.0 is playable.
Ok. Vanilla is nonbalanced, but with VRO it is really nice game now. Finally situation with carriers and missiles was fixed a litlle. And it is fun to play. At the same time with Borons and scavengers they fixe economic issues with water and energy cells.
I bought new DLC. I don't want to play it because it is not interesting. But verison 7.0 + VRO is good. Finally after a lot of years it is interesting tobplay
I enjoy this DLC. It's just not suitable for all players imo. For me, I like both short sessions and sandboxes. :D
This should be the biggest controversy since X: Rebirth... I think the reason why many players don't like Timelines is they just want sandbox gameplay.
I have more than 2000h in the Game now. Timelines actually showed me mechanics that I never used before. It forced me to use ships I never looked at with equipment I always had ignored. You would think after so many hours you have seen everything :)
I like the idea of the DLC, I love the new ships and I had a blast playing some of the same missions as I played in my youth. (With awesome graphics, back then ships were a lot more… gray blocks)
If all the missions were about the story of previous games I would love timelines. That's actually what I expected the DLC to be when they announced it but sadly there is only like 5 story missions (the final one in each nodus) and the rest is just filler.
I think this is a very decent DLC.
This timeline is a challenge, but it also serves as a showcase for new players.
basic technology behind the X4 Foundation has continued to develop and I can now recommend it to someone more comfortably than before.
I look forward to the next DLC because I think the current direction of development is right and I think the developer is well aware of the current reaction.
So I hope the theme of the next DLC will be either wargames or landmarks.
Devs doubled down on the 1 thing they are the worst at... story telling... and asked money for it.
Just make a good sandbox pls... and keep filing it with Content... thats it... really... but nooooo lets make a DLC nobody asked for.