Missed quests or not exploring enough?

[function9]

Picked this up during the sale and for the most part I like it. Thing is, I was at lvl 26, just about 27 and was at the "point of no return". It seemed odd because it didn't feel like I'd done all that much. So I reloaded a previous save, leveled up and chose the Explorer perk. I was surprised to see just how many locations I hadn't discovered yet! If you split the map into quadrants, other than Raven Rock (because of the quest), I have literaly not discovered a single location in the upper left quadrant.

So, I'm just wondering, have I missed some quests around Megaton, Rivet City, or the DC area that would lead me to that part of the map or should I just be exloring more? I figured at some point I'd get some quests that would take me that way. But, with a whole quadrant of the map untouched, I feel like I might've inadvertently skipped part of the game/story.

[Belanos]

You probably didn't miss any quests. There are a lot of areas in the game that aren't tied to any quests, they're just there for you to go out and explore.

[IllicitSmile]

yes, a dlc location is up there. Just play. talk to people. They will give you things to do. and of course, explore.

[SeriousCCIE]

yeah--this is one of those games that people can race to the finish line, tell their friends they won, say it sucks, and never have understood what makes the game as good as people told them it was before they bypassed most of the content by following the main quest line and only getting exposed to the areas they were told to visit.

There are many areas that serve no point to the plot line, but do a lot to help flesh out the world. Or just little goofy things like the teddy bears set up in various positions and so on.

Some places exist to provide junk ammo for rock-it launchers, too... by the time I could make that weapon, I had better stuff available, but it was more fun to go back later when I wasn't goal oriented and just explore and launch crap at people and watch their heads roll on the ground and so on.

Good thing karma doesn't persist between save games!

[function9]

Ok cool. I remember the first time I played New Vegas and I'd usually go exploring around. I ended up missing some things because I uknowlingly missed a previous part of a quest. So, with this game I wanted to stick to the story/main quests so I didn't bypass anything. But, I usually love exploring. There were plenty of times in NV I'd be near a quest destination and start looking around, next thing I knew I'm on the other side of the map.

Thanks for the clarification!

[SeriousCCIE]

Yeah--you will get the same experience in fallout 3. the explorer perk reveals a whole lot of sites, and those are just named sites. Sometimes there are scripted encounters near areas, intended to trigger as you get close or after other events in the game, that you just won't see unless you go off the beaten path.