I haven't seen a topic like this so I figured, why not.

How do you guys explore once you leave The Vault? Ignore the main quest and just kind of walk around? Which direction are you guys initially traveling? What's your favorite part of exploration?

ME:

I traveled straight to Sanctuary and Red Rocket Gas Station right out of the vault. I am TRYING to stay on the top portion of the map before I venture more south. It gets super overwhelming with all the side quests icon all over the place. I am a completionist so this really bothers me to no end.

I tend to, literally, look at EVERYTHING and scan my current surroundings like a snake. Takes me FOREVER to get anywhere...

What do you guys do?

This is how I usually do it.


"Forget everything else, just focus on the mission!"


"Oh, what's over here? What's over there? Hey, can I scale that skyscraqer in the distance?"

I've been ignoring the main quest most of the time. I have yet to go to the glowing sea. Usually I discover new places on the way to quest objectives.

That's usually how I am. Once I completed all the surrounding misc. quests, I start to venture out to another quest area and end up exploring any and everything a long the way. Needless to say, takes me a few days to really complete the quest I initially started.

I just wander aimlessly, no rhyme or reason.

My first play through I payed attention to everything, scavenged through everything. Go off the path just to see what the gun shots I'm hearing are, just took as much time as possible, this play through I am trying to get the main quest done before anything else but I still have problems getting sidetracked then end up doing side quests for other people. I'm pretty sure This game is the most addicting game I've ever played, it seems like it will never get old. I love everything about it.

^{I kinda do a grid search pattern, that way I don't miss anything. Once I finish one area I kinda take a look at the whole map, pick a empty space and move to the middle of it and start a grid search pattern again.}

I guess 70% of the time I'm "on track" with a quest, and I only stop by non-questy buildings when I pass straight by them. The other 30% is when I feel like I've been going at the quests for a while and I want a change of scenery. I take off into the horizon and just dig through whatever ruin I find. I actually like using the BOS repeatable missions to find cool places to explore for no good reason other than to shoot bad guys. I'm not clearing everything like a lawnmower, and I have the continuous feeling of "wow this world is huge and dangerous and there's stuff going on, but I'll just head over here for the moment, oooh I have to remember to get back to this place sometime" and I really like it

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the scope of the map; during searching?

Yes I hear alot of people say they cant stand having a long list of quest build up.. Personally I am able to ignore what I need to and do what I want. I go thru three main stages in any day..

Scavenge - Just go somewhere I have not been for a day and load myself and companion up to the gills and rinse repeat a few times as needed.

-This funds my adventures and quests, gets my towns built up. Just good practice testing out new armor and weapons. Even safes get refilled just need to be repicked.

Wandering - Much like scavenging but with no destination and bright lights and yeah distant gunfire attracts me like a moth to flame.

-This opens new areas, adds quests, gives me a better idea where things are and what areas to avoid till later. Or get back to when I level a skill up more.

Questing - Yup bring up my Pip boy and start knocking off items from my list.

-This just gets the pip boy list cleaned up, also seems best way to level up and clear out new areas to go scavenge later.

Sometimes I take my time and scan the horizon and svck in the view... Especialy Deathclaw territory. Other times its gun holstered and trotting along, and mole rats, wild dogs, raiders and deathclaws bedeviled.. I seem to be able to out run alot of danger. I have not yet raced a Yui Gui, but have out distanced a Deathclaw, once even escaping one by jumping into a seedy looking whirlpool and ten minutes later berated myself that it would have just been easier to die and respawn.

I am more drawn to earning loot.. Caps and items then filling the story line. Unless I get wind of a time element bound to such a quest. Or if its defending a settlement sometimes I just have to say no... Sorry guys I built you bunkers, turrets, and set you up with better gear and I cant do everything for ya. I am still discovering things even right next to sanctuary.. Shaun could be any age really, I was frozen 200 years right? No telling what year it was when they took him out. DSS can drag me off if they want but I am sure I have a rock solid alibi if they want to charge me for neglect.

I just go whereever Preston tells me to. I've tried not to wander into too many buildings. I figure missions or repeatable missions will send me there eventually. Except they keep sending me to the same places. If it were local or regional I'd understand but they sent me to the other side of the map.

I don't mind some foreknowledge so I look stuff up I hear about here or suspect and set off in search of some weapon or bobble head. I get sidetracked easy and go in random places. Before I go to a settlement to upgrade stuff I'll do one of the mm missions to get junk. I try to pick an outline on the compass and go unlock a new building.

That's exactly how I do it.

I try to mix things up. Doing the main quests now, after about 100 other missions. Am at a choke point, so just exploring more at the moment.
If I need to find a new location, I try sneaking up on it 1st without P armour, and then fast travel back home, get the Armour, and come back, etc.

My biggest concern with sticking to the main story quests is that i'll auto-fail other side quests. It's happened to me before in FO3, so I tend to complete all my quests from oldest to newest. So far so good! Haven't had any 'Failed Quests' pop up.

To clarify, after reading what I typed it sounds confusing. I know quests can link up; do this quest and it opens up another. Complete said quest for 'person', and fail a potential side quest attached to the quest line. I hope I am explaining that right.

I swear I'm going to have a panic attack one of these days...

I tend to try and completely clear out an area before I move on. I have noticed certain places re-spawn enemies if they were originally tied to a quest before. I hate re-visiting places I've already been, thankfully most of these populated areas have something nice to plunder.

Ping-pong around via quests.

Once I run out of those, start uncovering map markers.

Once those are done, I play a new game.

There's a main quest? I just wander myself. I went straight south along the edge this time. I like the edge and will go all the way around sometimes then work my way inward.

I do all the side quests in my journal and some of the radiant quests, then pick up the next part of the main quest, which tends to bombard me with bunches more side quests and radiant quests, so then I'll do those. I'd say that I then pick up another part of the main quest, but I'm actually still in the midst of the side quests from first setting foot into DC. I even now have a companion quest in my journal for when I want to go farther south on the map.

Even though I spend a lot of time questing, I look into every nook and cranny of wherever the quests send me. One of my companions keeps remarking to my character, "You're very thorough, aren't you?"

I do fast travel a bit, but I tend to wander around a lot too since I get lost trying to find my way to various places. Even that VATS trail marker perk doesn't keep me from losing my way.

I have no idea how people have completed the main quest so quickly, much less multiple times, but I suppose they were super-focused on it and ignored a lot of other things. I get distracted way too easily. It's really fun exploring new places and I've found some really nice things along the way.

I explore by following the roads. Most of the time, I'll see a building or place of interest from the road, then investigate. I popped the 100 locations achievement long before I did most quests, simply because it's fun following the roads.

There is a caveat with this, though. Several times now, I've discovered a location, swept it clean, and had to come back to it later because a quest now says there's an item I need to get when I should have been able to pick it up from the first time I was there.

I do a mix depending on my mood. I've got a couple of characters, and now I avoid Preston and all of the settlement quests for a long time. I get a base setup in sanctuary, sui I can return to site junk and loot, then I just wander. I'll take quests but often avoid fast travel and just hoof it so I can explore.

Even when I'm doing quests, I'll sometimes see something off in the distance that looks interesting, and go check it out. I have more fun exploring like this than just knocking out raiders group after raider group. Then when I get in the mood for combat, I start focusing more on quests.

I buy the game guide for the maps.. Then use the maps and explore zone by zone going to every single thing marked. The game makers went through all the trouble to put this stuff in there.. I feel I might as well go take a look at it. Plus, there are so many things just not shown on the pip-boy map. Not sure how you'd find half of anything without the guide maps. In real life I wouldn't go traipsing off into the wilderness without some sort of map. I don't like to do it in games either.

The most fun are the "blue dots" in the game guide. There's absolutely no description of what you're supposed to be looking for. Sometimes it's a spawn location for events, sometimes it's oodles of treasure, sometimes it's just a landmark of some sort.. and many times, I can't find what the heck it's supposed to be or have a really hard time locating the exact position of the blue dot. Fun nonetheless.

I pick up quests as I come across them but don't actively pursue them. I always save the main story for dead last. I actually enjoy endings.. when I'm done with the story I want to be done with everything else in the game.... so I can then start a new game with a different character. Continuing after the story ends always just feels weird and out of sync.

As of now I've played 6 days, 19 hours and 16 minutes and have just reached 9 zones explored.. 9 left to go. Zones I've explored so far, in order are 1, 3, 7, 9, 8, 2, 13, 12, 10. I'll start on 11 next and probably just finish up the rest of the city zones before exploring 4, 5, and 6.

^This. Whatever strikes my mood of the moment. I collect things mostly. Magazines, bobbleheads, junk for settlement building, etc. My goal is to visit each location at least once. It's always fun to find those locations that aren't fast travel spots. Yet there are days where I just go sneaking around shooting raiders and super mutants 'cause it's fun too.