Follow quests or explore?

[Paulo2400]

Hi, I'm new to the game (lvl 30) and loving it! FO4 was great, but FO76 is even better I think (harder and more realistic). One question though:

At the moment I'm playing solo to learn the game. When crossing the landscape I often encouter larger buildings that I want to explore. But sometimes it seems that it's too early to explore these buildings or sites because it looks like they are part of a quest.

What is the best way to discover large buildings with often many enemies: just explore them when I encounter them or avoid them until they are part of a quest?

Hope I've explained myself well. :-)

[BizarreMan]

Not every building is a part of a quest line.

Some quest lines are not opened up until you get close enough to the building.

Unless you've got a specific destination in mind when you encounter a new map location. Dive in and check it out. Where you're going will still be there when you get there. Unless it's a timed event in which case you might need to wait for it to re-trigger.

[Chudwick]

both?

[Amanandhisdog]

if i may share my "way" of playing a fallout game or many rpgs with big maps...
the people making the game want new players to at least head in the general direction of the tutorial and starter quests... but since fallout 3 and with oblivion and skyrim, I will purposefully go out of my way to not head in the general direction. when i first came out of the vault i had a few days to see this map and all the tourist attractions... my kids also were looking at the map, one said goto the giant alligator eating cars... and thats what i did day one of the beta. headed for that car eating alligator.. i never did make it to the actual giant alligator that day, but we had a helluva adventure trying and dying and discovering ft locations for when i could actually survive in that area...fallout 4, i found decons nest and a raider camp, bunch of dogs, mire lurks then molerats and a sentry bot, a big quarry and a nice guy who wanted me to help him empty it, then this big satellite station.... and then this big town full of ghouls which chased me into the arms of raiders living in a car factory... all this before i ever set foot in sanctuary. new vegas? i tried many times to run the canyons towards vegas and benny i found a prison and this mountain of invisible super mutants and this crazy dust storm valley where the brother hood took refuge and then ceasars legion well before i talked to whats her name trudy about those powder gangers and that guy up in th egas station...fallout 3 i found arafu and went to the trains tation of horrors and then a bunch of other places all over the upper side of the map long before i ever set a foot in megaton... skyrim? sure i walked with the dude to that town by the river then i peace'd out back the way we came and around helgen thru a bunch of towns and died many times to creatures... until i stumbled on giants and this fortress town with all these people and a tavern... and turned out i was supposed to be there... just not 8 hours later...
bethesda might just give as much world lore thru exploration and visual storytelling with a smattering of holotapes and notes as they do thru the story quests and side quests imho.

[Arcanix]

Explore to know where things are. Which is important for various reasns.

Questlines to unlock things. If the devs add content they assume people have completed whatever quest required to fully experience that content.

[Paulo2400]

Thanks for all your replies. Reason I asked: on my way to Top of the World I found Arktos Pharma. A large factory in which I seemed to have to solve a sort of chemistry puzzle. The puzzle came out of nowhere, so I left because I thought it was part of a larger quest.

Going further on my way to Top of the World I found the aeroplane at Horizon's Rest. I wanted to go up the mountain. But there were so many super mutants that I also thought it was part of a quest. The battle seemed too large for a random encounter.

With all these explorations I'm thinking: I can clear this location right now and use a lot of recources to do it. But what if it is part of a later quest where I have to collect a specific reward? Do I have to clear this location all over again and spend so many recources again?

[BizarreMan]

Originally posted by Paulo2400:

Thanks for all your replies. Reason I asked: on my way to Top of the World I found Arktos Pharma. A large factory in which I seemed to have to solve a sort of chemistry puzzle. The puzzle came out of nowhere, so I left because I thought it was part of a larger quest.

Going further on my way to Top of the World I found the aeroplane at Horizon's Rest. I wanted to go up the mountain. But there were so many super mutants that I also thought it was part of a quest. The battle seemed too large for a random encounter.

With all these explorations I'm thinking: I can clear this location right now and use a lot of recources to do it. But what if it is part of a later quest where I have to collect a specific reward? Do I have to clear this location all over again and spend so many recources again?

If there are items in a location that are relevant for a future quest, you won't find them now so the future quest is intact.

As far as clearing out a location and then later on having to do it again. Locations don't stay cleared. They reset on a set schedule so you can strip it to the floor, and come back later and do it again.

[Phantom]

I'd say follow quests - then you get a lot of areas explored, lots of exp gain, lots of unlocked things

[Ficelle]

Both, but it is probably better to focus on quests, at least early

Otherwise, you could end up with a gigantic list of started quests and totally lose focus about the whys and such...
Plus, some quests unlock stuff

[RMPyro]

Reach higher level before you continue on with the mainquest, some dialogs require you to be a part of a faction or have a special check.

[BizarreMan]

Originally posted by Ficelle:

Both, but it is probably better to focus on quests, at least early

Otherwise, you could end up with a gigantic list of started quests and totally lose focus about the whys and such...
Plus, some quests unlock stuff

I always turn off the quests I'm not interested in at the time. no map pointers, nothing excess on the screen.

[Paulo2400]

Thanks. I'll keep on doing both, but will discretely retreat when a challenge seems too big for my modest lvl 30 power. :D

[Grendalcat]

Originally posted by Paulo2400:

Thanks. I'll keep on doing both, but will discretely retreat when a challenge seems too big for my modest lvl 30 power. :D

Heh, I just recently ran into a Grafton monster for the first time. Hate that thing, with it's weird noises and poo flinging at me. A few rounds from a hunting rifle, and a couple of grenades, didn't hurt it much, so I retreated for now.

[vikpr]

Follow the main quest line(s), they reward pretty nice plans most of which you can't obtain otherwise. You can explore the rest of the map once you're finished with those.

[RMPyro]

Some rewards from the companions are quite nice, for example the 50 cal from becket. But do that quest when you are lvl 50+ so you get a max level version of the weapon. If you decide to do the raider questline, do the last quest at lvl 50+ aswell because you can find a nice plasma rifle in one of the rooms in the last mission.

Make quest for both factions until you have to chose what faction you want to do the last mission with. So you got good rep with both factions.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

How I generally play these games is "Follow the Main Story" but if any other quests lead near or around the Main story quest paths, I'll do them too. It's a technique I learned in Morrowind because it's very easy to get lost in exploration, and completely gun the content of tons of quests' on accident. So generally I don't go into something unless I have an objective to check it out. At least, not in the general region.

Skyrim got a little bit better with this, using more natural means to "Block" Critical quest locations until the associated quest is active. Oblivion did it with obnoxious "Unpickable" locks.