Timelines, First 4 Graphs, my impressions so far.

[Master David]

One of my complaints about the stories in the normal sandbox was that if you unlock the HQ through the mission where you get a Cerberus and then have to start over, if you pick a start where the HQ is already unlocked, then you don't get that ship that you earned.

The same is true with the HAT plot and the Callisto.

Sure, it is just a Cerberus but it bugged me. If I unlock something then I want the whole thing unlocked. It's also annoying since 75% of the time, neither Argon nor Antigone have enough hull parts to build a Cerberus. If I want one without picking it up during the Boso mission, then I have to build it myself three quarters of the time.

It doesn't have to be this way. It should be the case the that if you set the HQ to unlocked, then the cerberus is just over there chilling, waiting of you to claim it. If the HAT plot is unlocked then the Callisto should show up next to your HQ the same as the Raven if you unlock that. Clearly the game can do it.

But enough about the base game. Now with Timelines, we have a system to unlock ships. And other stuff too. And since it is unlocked outside of the sandbox, if you have to start the sandbox over again, the unlock doesn't go away. The ships you unlock will be there waiting for you to go get them. I like that.

The story of Timelines is weird and a bit meta. You are playing a dude who is playing another dude. So that's funny. There is also some personality drama with the other people and seeing if they agree or like each other. Nothing too heavy except that Split biology is clearly different from humans.

The second mission in Graph 1 is too difficult. The other missions are pretty easy to get at least get a 1 star but that second mission with the cloud that blocks travel drive sucks. I can't get one star in that one.

The racing missions are pretty good.

There is a secret room that you can very easily find by accident before you are supposed to find it if you look hard enough. There is a very difficult mission you can take there.

There is a recruiting mission that is just a conversation tree. Pick the right dialogue options and you can get 5 starts.

Explain, Explain carefully, Skip for time, Higher power, Be tough, You can do this, have fun

Each mission you can get zero to five stars. Zero unlocks nothing. 1 star unlocks what will be unlocked, so it's not that hard. Five is the maxx and will get you a crown mark on that mission.

The missions are divided into "Graphs". Graph just means group, I decided. The first Graph has three missions and a big finale mission. Each Graph has the big finale mission that has to be unlocked. So your progress is, little missions unlock the big mission, the big mission unlocks the next graph.

Right now I am stuck at Graph 4 because I have to earn a total of 10 stars combined in the little missions to unlock the big President's End mission. I only have 1 star in each. So I haven't gotten to the end yet.

As for the quality of the missions themselves, they're ok. There are basically two kinds of missions.

1: Letting the player experience something they probably don't normally do when playing X4 sandbox.

Example: every time I start a new game I immediately go to the void and get my free mining ship. I put a pilot on it and send it to the reach to mind ore for the Argon. I never pilot that ship myself. So in Timelines I now have to pilot the ship myself when doing the mining run as if I was suddenly teleported into Elite Dangerous.

Same with the trading mission. I hire pilots to do my trading in the base game. Even the HAT Callisto gets a pilot for that medical supplies mission that unlocks it. I don't do that mission myself.

The racing is something that just isn't a thing in the base game.

There's also role play stuff where I'm not running my own faction but it plays off like I'm just a member of another faction taking orders.

2: Story stuff. Timelines is trying to tell the story of what happened in previous games and let you experience those big moments that veteran players might have played in a previous game. This is mostly good but it has one drawback.

The good part is, now I don't have to play the first x game. I do own the first game but haven't played it because I'd have to get it working on Linux and get the keyboard mapped to my PS5 controller and all of that. Plus, if X3 is any indication, the engine works on a throttle up and down mechanic similar to Elite Dangerous instead of the much better X4 way of foot on the gas peddle and it goes. No, I'd much rather play the missions from the previous games in X4. No, I don't want to have to learn an entire new way of doing an economy in order to build up a character for X2 or X3. I like the X4 economy. I like the X4 controls. By all means, let me play the story missions from the first game in X4 as something outside of my normal character. I like that.

Now for the bad part. I haven't played X: Beyond the Frontier. I have no idea what the missions were. I haven't played X2 or any of the X3 games. I don't' know what he story was in those games. I did a mission that I think has something to do with a previous game but which game, and what time, and what context, the Timelines missions isn't clear.

So yeah, Egosoft, Please fix that. Add some encyclopedia stuff.

No, don't add a long explanation before I can jump in an do a mission. Let the long explanation be somewhere else that I can do at my leisure. But the information should be somewhere so the player can realize the significance of what they've done.

And so that's it. Those are my impressions so far. I like TImelines. I'm glad I bought it. It is a very good system to optionally add to the base game. I like it. I haven't finished it yet so I don't know how many missions in total there are. The devs mentioned letting modders make more missions but honestly, I would hope that the devs themselves could add more missions as well if those missions have really good isolated gameplay. But again, that's with me only getting to the end of Graphy 4. I don't know how many Graphs there are. If there are a hundred then I won't feel that any more ever needs to be added. But I got this DLC for about ten dollars so I can't imagine there was that much in it. I'd be happy to buy more missions based on what I've seen so far.

[Patola [Linux]]

Great post (even if I disagree with some points), but let me correct you a bit:

Originally posted by Master David:

The racing is something that just isn't a thing in the base game.

There are racing missions that you must perform when researching engine modding to your ship. And in the Tides of Avarice DLC, there's a small chain quest related to racing (through rings, the same as in Timelines) with a particular ship that you can easily cheese to win.

[ZERO]

I can't get any further than graph 2 (1/2/1/3)
racing is not my thing
mining mission ..i need the 2-4min only to land
battle mission... when the destroyer appears and i should change to ares i cant get out the ship to ares and thats the end to

no i know again why my last long save was 4 and 6 years ago and i played x3 again....

[🎮 PalkoVvodets 🔑]

Originally posted by Patola Linux:

but let me correct you a bit:

Originally posted by Master David:

The racing is something that just isn't a thing in the base game.

There are racing missions that you must perform when researching engine modding to your ship.

I'd say if player ever attacked capital ships / station modules via small ship all these maneuvering / feeling of ship mass etc is important.
I only stand against duplicating races in the secret Nodus room.