Finished all the Timelines content, got all the Sandbox rewards, here are my thoughts, with no spoilers

[Dreamer]

First of all, I love X4, I have all DLC's, and of course I got Timelines as well, since I love what Egosoft has done with X4 in general, its one of my favorite games.

So, overall, for me, what Timelines offered wasn't quite enough. Not saying it wasn't worth the money, it kinda is worth it, but it had the potential to be better than it currently is, and like others have said in the comments and reviews, the effort would have been much better spent expanding the Sandbox further.

But I get the idea, to experience events that wouldn't have been possible to recreate in the sandbox, but the implementation was insufficient in my opinion. A bit of a spoiler of some missions For example the mission to fight the massive Xenon weapon of mass destruction was awesome; or the one with the Kha'ak kidnapping a human to make their own super weapon using him, that was very interesting; and exploring that devastated sector trying to survive was different in a good way; I liked the epilogue as well, with the ship reward. But besides these few exceptions, most of the other content was skippable. I don't agree with the idea of making Timelines a sort of more advanced tutorial. If you wanted an advanced tutorial you should have made it separate and free, and keep Timelines full of those unique and interesting missions. And the races, scores, ratings, leaderboards I found completely useless, I don't care about that at all, and it has zero connection to how we play X4 in general.

Regarding the Sandbox rewards, I like them, but I really hoped we could mass produce the Xenon ships. It was a real disappointment after finishing the research to see that I could only get some new equipment and that's it. A fleet of those ships would have been awesome. A lot of new ships, but since all are unique, it means that they are mostly useless in a normal playthrough, besides the Destroyers.

And there you have it, my thoughts on the DLC. I don't regret buying it, but I regret that it could have been much more interesting with more focus on the good parts, the missions with the dialogue, instead of the tutorial type filler missions, which were the majority. Now once I am done with the content, I know I will never interact with the Timelines content again, and that's a shame, and that's why I think it would have been far better if the content was instead completely focused on the Sandbox.

[Tomonor]

Thank you for the feedback!

This term of "Advanced tutorial for new players" that's being thrown around about X4: Timelines is incorrect. The intention of the scenarios were to put new and old players alike in sometimes new, sometimes already existing scenario-based situations. However, considering new players would be new to the sandbox mode right away, the game suggest to experience Timelines before hopping into the Open Universe game mode.

The Xenon ships are actually part of the 7.00 update, not X4: Timelines itself. Their capturability is supposed to be a rarer instance. Mass production of them would not be adviced, for the last time that happened, a galaxy-wide war ensued between the Community of Planets and the Terrans. ;)

[KRL2811]

How long did it take you.

[nulian]

Also feel like difficulty order makes it feel weird like the path 1 and some path 2 things are much harder then about all the content after it.
Really enjoyed several of the later missions.

[Geist]

I also now finished Timelines and the Epilog.

I felt that some of the Timelines Missions could need some more narration (maybe you can still add it) For example the last mission where we lure the Xenon out of the sector and closed the gate behind them, this one was great because, it was narrated and gave context. While for example the Mission with the colonization ship lacked in narration and context and therefore felt not very relatable.

I liked the overall Timelines story outside of the sandbox and the plot twist in the end was great.
I think that the Epilog was a bit rushed. It build up great and interesting until, well the very last scene when it was over much too abrupt and it felt like there should be at least a few more things happen to feel like a satisfying epilog.

I won't go into the ships and their actual usability in the sandbox as I personaly don't care much about more ships. The Xperimental looks pretty cool but I will probaply not use it much as its very overpowered.

The new Mitsunos sectors are very beautiful but I hope you will make a bit more with the new faction that lives in it. Maybe another sandbox gamestart where you originate as a Quettanaut from the sector and go out to explore what would be a complete new world for you. Maybe with the order to find that "signal", which would lead you to the main quest as usual.

Contrary to the Dreamer I personaly liked the races and their presentation. I disliked the "speedmining" missions. The Teladi in the spacesuit tunnel racing labyrinth was ok except for the one with the cameras, that one was annoying and I don't really know what it was supposed to teach me that I will ever need in the rest of the game.

Its good that you made only one star the requirement for the unlocks because otherwise more people would complain. Its a bit sad that we can not unlock anything with higher star rating tho (not ships but at least a few loot containers or seminars for higher star ratings) and the leaderboard seems to be bugged because there are several results that should be impossible to achive without editing the files.

[Dreamer]

Originally posted by Tomonor:

Thank you for the feedback!

This term of "Advanced tutorial for new players" that's being thrown around about X4: Timelines is incorrect. The intention of the scenarios were to put new and old players alike in sometimes new, sometimes already existing scenario-based situations. However, considering new players would be new to the sandbox mode right away, the game suggest to experience Timelines before hopping into the Open Universe game mode.

You are welcome :).
A lot of the missions sure felt like they were meant to be an advanced tutorial, maybe that's why this idea gets thrown around.

The Xenon ships are actually part of the 7.00 update, not X4: Timelines itself. Their capturability is supposed to be a rarer instance. Mass production of them would not be adviced, for the last time that happened, a galaxy-wide war ensued between the Community of Planets and the Terrans. ;)

Yea, from a lore perspective it makes sense, but after seeing the Timelines ship rewards and the research I just hoped...

[Dreamer]

Originally posted by KRL2811:

How long did it take you.

I wasn't paying attention, maybe 20 hours...

[KRL2811]

Originally posted by Dreamer:

Originally posted by KRL2811:

How long did it take you.

I wasn't paying attention, maybe 20 hours...

Cool thanks, will slowly start myself

[Bozz 💀]

I was afraid it would have some "tutorial" missions, mining and trading is completelly useless in this kind of configuration, I do a lot of those in the sandbox but it has meaning, supplying a shipyard or a computronic's factory in order to make it consume minerals so I can sell more to it etc.... in TImeline it's just a waste of time.

They are 3 interesting missions in the middle of it, the rest is stuff you alrady do in the sandbox, It may be worth it for a newcomer to learn those activities but the DLC should not be about that. Make a separate tutorial, stop giving us those boring tutorial plots like the whole Tides of avarice plot where you learn how to be a pirate...

Nobody asked for this, or maybe a minority as the reviews shos..
Egosoft did what they wanted now honestly start listening to the comunity, in the last survey a lot of people said they are interested in ship DLC why not make that, add more interesting ships to the factions.

[Patola [Linux]]

Originally posted by Tomonor:

Thank you for the feedback!

This term of "Advanced tutorial for new players" that's being thrown around about X4: Timelines is incorrect.

Well, in the "Timelines" section of the main menu, the hover text said:
"Timelines - Play self-contained game scenarios while experiencing an overarching story of mystery and galaxy-altering events. Timelines is recommended for new players after playing the basic tutorials."

This pretty much implies Timelines are advanced tutorials, no?

[Ruiner]

Originally posted by Patola Linux:

Originally posted by Tomonor:

Thank you for the feedback!

This term of "Advanced tutorial for new players" that's being thrown around about X4: Timelines is incorrect.

Well, in the "Timelines" section of the main menu, the hover text said:
"Timelines - Play self-contained game scenarios while experiencing an overarching story of mystery and galaxy-altering events. Timelines is recommended for new players after playing the basic tutorials."

This pretty much implies Timelines are advanced tutorials, no?

That text needs to be removed. I'm a massive fan of X and if I'd been steered in that direction as a new player I'd have refunded it.

[Geist]

Originally posted by Patola Linux:

This pretty much implies Timelines are advanced tutorials, no?

Not really.

But I have a different "problem" with that.

Lets say I'm a new player and not a grumpy old vet that has played all the other DLCs.

I play timelines, and finish the story, then I hop into the Sandbox and play the epilog for it after I unlocked the HQ (so pretty fast after starting because when i'm fresh out of timelines I want to know what happens next in this story arc) and then I'm rewarded with the Xperimental shuttle. Which is awesome. But now here is my problem with that. Why would I, the new player ever try out any other S (or even M) ship in the game (as a player ship) when the ship I got for free is so much better than all the others I could buy. This ship should be available only in endgame because otherwise it devalues all the other ships and the progression from small and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ship, to awesome cool shiny ship. It makes the modding uninteresting because even modded ships will be worse than the Xperimental. It also makes all the options of different engines and guns uninteresting because this thing can shoot down everything that is not a destroyer.

[Patola [Linux]]

Originally posted by Geist:

I play timelines, and finish the story, then I hop into the Sandbox and play the epilog for it after I unlocked the HQ (so pretty fast after starting because when i'm fresh out of timelines I want to know what happens next in this story arc) and then I'm rewarded with the Xperimental shuttle. Which is awesome. But now here is my problem with that. Why would I, the new player ever try out any other S (or even M) ship in the game (as a player ship) when the ship I got for free is so much better than all the others I could buy. This ship should be available only in endgame because otherwise it devalues all the other ships and the progression from small and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ship, to awesome cool shiny ship. It makes the modding uninteresting because even modded ships will be worse than the Xperimental. It also makes all the options of different engines and guns uninteresting because this thing can shoot down everything that is not a destroyer.

Oh, please don't ask them to nerf the shuttle... Even if you're right, player fighter ship progression is just one of the many parts of the game. Having a good ship doesn't "end" this aspect in any way, not more than you not using an Eclipse Vanguard anymore since it's so bad. You might just try to use other ship sizes (e.g. the wonderful Erlking) or even if you stick to the shuttle for the entirety of the game, it's not a bad thing either.

Modding does not get uninteresting only because of this ship, because you'd mod your important ships too, like your strongest destroyers.

[JonVT]

I came in to the Timelines DLC with a pretty much 'blind' approach - the only thing I knew was that it was going to allow for the player to be able to play through and experience some of the old nostalgic encounters from the prior X games. I want to say I spent about 12-15 hours playing through each of the missions at least once - some of them between 2-3 times. I've had a bit of a love it/leave it relationship with some of the X game missions - guess it depends on my mood that day.. lol Overall, I think the most enjoyable part of the Timelines DLC was the sort of 'passive' quest that you do on the Timelines station itself, as well as the epilogue. After each time I completed a mission, I'd go through the station and talk to everyone - check out if any of the areas opened up to explore, etc., then would go back and do another mission. Rinse & repeat. I'd agree with other comments that the best of the missions were definitely the historic encounters, and that the rest of the missions (racing, mining, commerce, etc.) felt more like tutorials or missions that would try and make you do things faster or with an added curveball thrown in. Not bad, but I think they could have been made to possibly be more relatable to the pinnacle mission of that graph (as each tier of missions were called).

Moving to future hopes, thoughts, etc., in my opinion, the overall sandbox universe map is probably as big as is needed (not that I'd turn down a few more uncontrolled sectors, mind you) and that adding in more ship variety would be fun - but a big part of me really hopes for more aspects of each ship that I can personally walk through and experience - similar to what was done with the Astrid for example. Some of the Timelines mission specific ships let you walk through them a bit, and I'd love to be able to board my miner and walk up a ramp and through the cargo hold, for example, passing by my cabin to get to the pilot seat. Just like how X4 added walking on stations and immersing yourself more in the station-world of the game when compared to X3 and prior, I'd love to be more immersed in walking through my ships - especially the larger capital ships. Maybe, nothing as large was what Star Citizen does, but give me the chance to really feel that sense of excitement when buying that shiny new destroyer, and that first walk through where you get to admire what it was that you achieved by being able to afford and buy it.

Anyway, I'll sign off on this overly wordy response - probably should have put this in a review, but here it is. :-D

[Ruiner]

Originally posted by JonVT:

Anyway, I'll sign off on this overly wordy response - probably should have put this in a review, but here it is. :-D

FYI, I read and appreciated your post. I don't have anything to add to it, but the Steam forums needs more of these.

[Dreamer]

Originally posted by Geist:

Originally posted by Patola Linux:

This pretty much implies Timelines are advanced tutorials, no?

Not really.

But I have a different "problem" with that.

Lets say I'm a new player and not a grumpy old vet that has played all the other DLCs.

I play timelines, and finish the story, then I hop into the Sandbox and play the epilog for it after I unlocked the HQ (so pretty fast after starting because when i'm fresh out of timelines I want to know what happens next in this story arc) and then I'm rewarded with the Xperimental shuttle. Which is awesome. But now here is my problem with that. Why would I, the new player ever try out any other S (or even M) ship in the game (as a player ship) when the ship I got for free is so much better than all the others I could buy. This ship should be available only in endgame because otherwise it devalues all the other ships and the progression from small and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ship, to awesome cool shiny ship. It makes the modding uninteresting because even modded ships will be worse than the Xperimental. It also makes all the options of different engines and guns uninteresting because this thing can shoot down everything that is not a destroyer.

I don't consider the Shuttle to be that OP in my experience. It pretty much replaced my explorer, because its fast, to easier get to mission locations, and that's about it. Its guns are strong, but its shield weak, you have to focus a bit to survive in fights against stronger targets, and that's perfectly fine. If I want to fight I jump into a corvette or a destroyer.

But it still feels useful enough to be happy that I got it as a reward.