I thought it might to be fun to try to capture different questing approaches as a formula.

(ok, whatever floats my boat, but please bear with me).

Example (and my own favourite):

The easily distracted survivor

General approach

• Talk to everyone in my path
• Enter every building in my path ('In my path' means buildings or people passed within pistol range)
• Clear buildings/locations/foes of loot before moving on
• Side quests are prioritised over main quests
• Settlement development is prioritised, resources permitting

Dependencies

• Start with the initial main quest.
• Head for the location of the next main quest point by foot, with no fast travel.
• If exploring or talking en route triggers a side quest, continue to follow the side quest.
• If triggering a side quest whilst on a side quest, address the one that is nearest.
• If a quest ends (or a particular route leads to repeated death) update/check nearest settlement.
• Once settlement updates have been made, select the nearest viable side quest for attention.
• If all side quests are complete, continue with the main quest.

I used the above and it saw me through well with both Dragon Age Inquisition and Wither 3, essentially leaving Main Quest beats through and later into the games.

What about you?

(inb4, 'I just walk where I fancy and kill sh*t...')

I'm of several minds on this issue.

On the one hand, I like getting a quest, following it through its stages and reaching a conclusion. Makes it easy to keep straight in my head what this mini-story is about. Unfortunately, this almost -never- happens, because while following the stages of that first quest, I'll run into some NPC that I'll talk to and he'll tell me about this other quest... and then even if I fight off the urge to investigate that new quest and coninue on the previous one.... maybe I pick up some object that -clearly- is involved in some quest....

Sometimes it can be annoying to follow a quest through to the end and find out after you're finished that, oh, there was another quest that had me go to the same area, and collect this doo-dad that I already collected without knowing why.... or you find out after the fact that you killed an NPC that ---- if you had only taken this other quest ---- you could have talked to or rescued or somehow otherwise used.

In MMOs, it's not uncommon for them to chain many quests in the same area, so you leave the "hub" with a journal full of quests, some of which amount to just doing things you would have done anyway (kill 20 rats! Okay, but I had to kill 40 rats just to get to the quest door, but whatever)...

Since we (presumably) don't need "filler" quests like collect-10-flowers and kill-30-rats, one would hope that the quests would not necessarily overlap too much. It can be nice to have ~competing~ quests... one NPC tells you to find this doo-dad, another NPC begs you not to take it and instead do this other task.... chaining onto, or altering an existing quest is more appealing to me than just having one long list of things to check off.

I've honestly yet to see a game that does questing in an open world 'perfectly'.... either you end up with a journal full of things to check off and good luck remembering any story content associated with them.... or if you somehow rigorously stick to one quest at a time you end up going back over the same areas again, or even worse find out you've screwed yourself because you didn't take all the extra quests in the first place.

Like, the 'main' quest has you go to a base and blow it up. Then you get back to town and find out a doctor could have used the medical supplies and it would have been nice if you'd picked them up.... and the mayor wanted some historical documents from the computers but, no, you've blown up the base, now. Too bad, so sad. Should have left town with a giant list of things to do.

This is how I play as well. I put well over 400 hours into Fallout 3.

I think I'm going to try my hardest to stay in a RPing mindset and deal with what Beth throws at me one step at a time. I can hardly wait! I plan to RP a combination of myself in the protagonists shoes and Bob Dobbs the "saint" of the Church of the Subgenious (a real church based on the principles of slack, look it up). A 50's businessman who could sell a record player to a deff person. A perfect character for Fallout. +10 Charisma.

I go where the wind takes me... I'm very whimsical like that.

The Way it Should Be

• The main quest is the main theme that everything is centered around
• This means that all side-quests have some relation to the main quest
• This is done by making the main quest carry some underlying theme which all the quests sort of reinforce
• It might sound a bit familiar, but this was done in Fallout New Vegas
• The game starts with the main quest and the game ends at the main quest
• Every single quest should take into account choices and consequences.
• The main quest should go well beyond side-quests as far as choices and consequences go.
• The main quest should be important!!
• If the quest is truly important, than it should effect many many people.

My route is usually as followed,

Main, Side, Side, Side,Main, Side, Side, Main and so on. With looting and collecting on the way

- I will follow the main quest to the first sort of hub (e.g. Megaton/Goodsprings) haha which isn't usually very far.

- Then branch out to side quest and explore the area.

- Once I feel I've done enough in that area I will pick up the main quest again and move on to the next hub (e.g. Rivet City/Novac), saving some side quests and exploration for another time/play through.

My first character is always a bit more focused on the main story line. I prefer to save somethings for my other "lives" in the wastelands.

Oh wow, I thought there would not be many people being this pedantic patient...

I agree it does generate a long play through with the main quest denouement at the very end.

I'm not going to see the ending until 2016 (hopefully it's not a twist ending that gets spoiled on day one !)

I rushed through the end of New Vegas recently --- was getting tired of it, and did not want to burn out on Fallout stuff ---- and as the end slideshow ran, I realized i had entirely forgotten the Powder Gangers in Vault 19. I also never went to the Thorn in the Northwest Freeside/Vegas area (underground arena match, etc).... and I'm sure there are other quests I missed entirely. They were out of the way and (clearly) I did not run across them during the main questlines (or if I did, I thought, yeh, yeh, I'll explore there later, I've got to finish this quest I'm on)....

While it does help with replay to constantly find 'new' content you missed in previous plays --- because the quests / area were not directly tied to the main quest path ---- it can also be a bit vexing to have "missed" something. Guess I just have to be more dogged about investigating side quests / areas as I find them.

I like the 'Explorer' perk and will pick up unvisited locations en passant in late game if not otherwise encountered.

With almost 1000 hours invested in Skyrim, I can safely say this has been my model, without ever finishing the main quest. It really wasn't that interesting to me, so I just did other stuff. A lot.

I don't think all side quests should have something to do with the main one. The world feels less big and too centered around the player.
Basically, it's like "Hey, see this thing this guy is going to talk about? It will have a huge impact on the main quest!" every time you do something.

Same. There's really no rhyme or pattern to how I do quests. Some quests sit in my checklist until I'm good and ready to do them. If it's timed, or under a timed pressure, then that takes priority, because clocks ticking, naturally. Otherwise, I take it at my pace.

The only pattern I can think of, is say I'm traveling to Location A, and I come across someone who needs a thing done at Location B, which is not along the way, I will tend to business at Location A first, then make preparations for Location B. Anything else I pick up along the way, will also just have to wait until I finish my initial and original plan. Unless the objective is not very far, then, what the hell, I'm in the neighborhood.

Well in New Vegas, the main quest centered on highlighting many issues that were facing the player and the world. The main quest really was about who would take over New Vegas and because of the war, all these other issues were created. Like, every single side quest dealt with some of these issues that the main quest was trying to solve. In effect, the main quest felt more believable. Do you ever hear about how the world in Skyrim doesn't interact with the dragon threat and the civil war (less so but still) as much as it should. You can create soooo many quests just based on how those 2 conflicts effect the region. Now fallout 4 will deal with faction struggle yet again and there are many issues that come with this struggle. I would say, have the side-quests highlight actual problems that should be happening in the game as a result of the main issue. The main issue to which the main quest will fixate itself on.

Initially I leave no stone unturned in my path. However, if the game starts to drag or it is my third playthrough I will bypass the small stuff and go for whatever goal I have currently set.

I agree. While not ALL side quests should be ripples caused by the main quest line, it does make the main quest feel that much more significant if the majority ties back to it. I'm with the New Vegas and more recently TW3 Wild Hunt approach. Almost every side quest you did felt like it added to the narrative instead of being MMO-esque chores (DA:I) or in a vacuum (Skyrim's Guild Quests). I think the most important thing about sidequests is that they stand on their own in quality and that they don't resemble 'fetch quests' in the slightest.

Many quests didn't tie to the MQ (but changed slides), Vault 22, Jacobstown, Black Mountain, The Thorn...but if the PC really cared about the future of the Wasteland, he might deal with all of those places how he desires.
Quest that make the MQ feel meaningful are okay, but people have other problems too, even if you decide not to care about them.

I start with the main quest, someone talks to me about something and I'm off to find Uncle Bob's pet molerat. On the way someone else asks me to get them some deathclaw eggs for omelettes and away I go....something always distracts me. I frequently have 4 or 5 quests to turn in at a time and it takes forever to get back to the main quest. I also might see a building on the horizon that needs to be explored. I'm from the tabletop and dice D&D days so exploring is big for me