I could understand where people are coming from. I bought the DLC to support the Devs, I knew even before it came out that it wouldn't be my cup of tea. But to be honest I have had more fun than I expected. I hope they add a way for the community to submit challenge scenarios or even just continue to add more over time.
Forgot to mention, Timelines comes with a brand new soundtrack from Alexei Zakharov! His music justified the price for me. It is disappointing in some aspects for sure but we did get some sweet goodies in the DLC. All in all. It's their weakest DLC and devs just missed the mark on what the community wanted. Still worth the price and I have no regrets. Still very excited for Egosoft and the future of X4!
Certain Timelines missions are almost impossible for me to do because of an extremely short mission timer. Two of the missions required the player to make 500 million Credits. I don't know how to even get there in a reasonable amount of time! I have a lot of savegames but only in two of them I'm at 500 mil or beyond and in these saves I run my own wharf. It took quite some time to get there with just trading. I hate battles. All the blueprints and resources cost a fortune. As I said, I hate battles and so all the fighting missions were pure annoyance to me and yes, I cheated just to get this sht done. The common denominator is that the player is forced to do things which he normally wouldn't do.
Seems sound advice, I know the devs might read the comment so I'll add a bit more. I haven't bought this DLC because it didn't really add what I like, the whole new faction thing, new ships, new things to do in the open world. But once the next DLC comes out, i'll go buy that and this DLC so I have a complete game
I just wanted more lore and story, and I wanted to beable to control how the factions view each other. Timelines didn’t provide any of it. It just went over previous stories.
I think you nailed it: Egosofts intention to use Timelines as a sort of introduction and training for new players was misguided. This problem was obvious soon after the release, since on Reddit new players asked desperately what to do in this or that scenario, completely confused, one even wanted to return the game, and it was clear that he ONLY had played Timelines and thought it would be needed for the rest of the game. He was very happy, when we told him just to stop Timelines, as his progress would be kept and use one of the game starts - he liked the game and had fun with it. I purchased Timelines, but never tried it or the new 7.x release, because every damned time the bring out a new release they 'adjust' everything, nothing is as it was with the previous release, and this even gets worse with higher releases. I hate it if anybody 'adjusts' or 'improves' (most of the time nerf) things in my running game. Bug fixes are nice, but if everything looks, feels and plays different, I will wait until the new things actually work (which they did not with 7.0) and if I have time and the motivation to start a new game. They added a lot of things nobody asked for, changed mechanics (boarding) and some of the new things did not even work. It will take 7.2 probably to make it good again, as it happened with 6.x. Until then I continue my running game with 6.2. That said - I installed 7.1 on my Notebook, just to have a look (I normally do not play on the Notebook), and I liked even the voices in the first minutes of Timelines. Not Witcher 3 for sure, but good enough.
Although the dlc is not meant for everyone the new ships and sectors in open universe were worth it for me I can build fleets of the new Terran fighter for low cost
Honestly, for me the announcement of Timelines and the details that followed was kind of like hearing my favorite local taco stand is going to start offering yakisoba. I'm not sure I'll ever pick up this DLC even on sale. Combined with the tragically implemented "crisis" that came free with 7.0 it feels like Egosoft has lost the plot a little bit. Oh... and we won't even speak about ventures.
There are three things that I hate about X4, races, and space suit and be forced to use a ship that I will not choose or prepare for the mission like in Rebirth. I bought the DLC... it is the last time.
New player. Bought all DLCs in a steam bundle. So no experience without timelines. Tried the racing, etc once then went straight to the main game. I agree that the new stuff is too hard for new players such as me. Loving the main game, though. Like your content, its helped me figure stuff out. Cheers!
I like the concept and the dlc self in most point. But the big negative is the quality. Even the story is weird is has a redline. Not like i start and do not finish.
Weakest DLC and I don’t want to see something like this again. That said I did purchase it because I simply want Egosoft to continue to exist and build more on to X4.
I could understand where people are coming from. I bought the DLC to support the Devs, I knew even before it came out that it wouldn't be my cup of tea. But to be honest I have had more fun than I expected. I hope they add a way for the community to submit challenge scenarios or even just continue to add more over time.
Forgot to mention, Timelines comes with a brand new soundtrack from Alexei Zakharov! His music justified the price for me. It is disappointing in some aspects for sure but we did get some sweet goodies in the DLC. All in all. It's their weakest DLC and devs just missed the mark on what the community wanted. Still worth the price and I have no regrets. Still very excited for Egosoft and the future of X4!
This comment, I completely agree with.
An insightful, honest, constructive review. Even your negatives were sort of positive... excellent.
Ive been a manager in my worklife ;)
Certain Timelines missions are almost impossible for me to do because of an extremely short mission timer.
Two of the missions required the player to make 500 million Credits. I don't know how to even get there in a reasonable amount of time! I have a lot of savegames but only in two of them I'm at 500 mil or beyond and in these saves I run my own wharf. It took quite some time to get there with just trading. I hate battles. All the blueprints and resources cost a fortune.
As I said, I hate battles and so all the fighting missions were pure annoyance to me and yes, I cheated just to get this sht done.
The common denominator is that the player is forced to do things which he normally wouldn't do.
Seems sound advice, I know the devs might read the comment so I'll add a bit more. I haven't bought this DLC because it didn't really add what I like, the whole new faction thing, new ships, new things to do in the open world. But once the next DLC comes out, i'll go buy that and this DLC so I have a complete game
I just wanted more lore and story, and I wanted to beable to control how the factions view each other. Timelines didn’t provide any of it. It just went over previous stories.
I think you nailed it: Egosofts intention to use Timelines as a sort of introduction and training for new players was misguided. This problem was obvious soon after the release, since on Reddit new players asked desperately what to do in this or that scenario, completely confused, one even wanted to return the game, and it was clear that he ONLY had played Timelines and thought it would be needed for the rest of the game. He was very happy, when we told him just to stop Timelines, as his progress would be kept and use one of the game starts - he liked the game and had fun with it.
I purchased Timelines, but never tried it or the new 7.x release, because every damned time the bring out a new release they 'adjust' everything, nothing is as it was with the previous release, and this even gets worse with higher releases. I hate it if anybody 'adjusts' or 'improves' (most of the time nerf) things in my running game. Bug fixes are nice, but if everything looks, feels and plays different, I will wait until the new things actually work (which they did not with 7.0) and if I have time and the motivation to start a new game.
They added a lot of things nobody asked for, changed mechanics (boarding) and some of the new things did not even work. It will take 7.2 probably to make it good again, as it happened with 6.x. Until then I continue my running game with 6.2.
That said - I installed 7.1 on my Notebook, just to have a look (I normally do not play on the Notebook), and I liked even the voices in the first minutes of Timelines. Not Witcher 3 for sure, but good enough.
Although the dlc is not meant for everyone the new ships and sectors in open universe were worth it for me I can build fleets of the new Terran fighter for low cost
Honestly, for me the announcement of Timelines and the details that followed was kind of like hearing my favorite local taco stand is going to start offering yakisoba. I'm not sure I'll ever pick up this DLC even on sale. Combined with the tragically implemented "crisis" that came free with 7.0 it feels like Egosoft has lost the plot a little bit. Oh... and we won't even speak about ventures.
There are three things that I hate about X4, races, and space suit and be forced to use a ship that I will not choose or prepare for the mission like in Rebirth. I bought the DLC... it is the last time.
New player. Bought all DLCs in a steam bundle. So no experience without timelines. Tried the racing, etc once then went straight to the main game. I agree that the new stuff is too hard for new players such as me. Loving the main game, though. Like your content, its helped me figure stuff out. Cheers!
I like the concept and the dlc self in most point. But the big negative is the quality.
Even the story is weird is has a redline. Not like i start and do not finish.
Weakest DLC and I don’t want to see something like this again. That said I did purchase it because I simply want Egosoft to continue to exist and build more on to X4.