Is this a good quest strategy?

[Lymond]

My gaming experience is primarily Diablo 2 and Icewind Dale, so I'm not very familiar with non-linear quest options. I like it- don't get me wrong- but I'm a little overwhelmed. It seems like everywhere I go, someone is asking me to do something for them. Not having a clear idea of where I'm going or what I'll run into, I've been accepting all quests. I've been making great use of the journal, but there are many open quests. Is this a bad strategy? Is there a penalty for not completing a quest I've accepted?

Lymond

[Lord]

Some quests have penalties if you don't complete them (especially NPC quests, they might leave if you don't complete their quest).
I don't think your strategy is good. I always try to complete quests as soon as possible, with out leaving any undone.

[Feral]

That being said, your first time through, it's hard to know what else is waiting out there and whether, if you turn down a quest, you'll get a second chance to accept it. My first time through, I accepted everything that sounded the least bit interesting. You'll find that, as you try to complete the first quests, you'll run into people giving you other quests. Most don't have a time limit. If they do, you'll get a clear warning. If I were you, I'd start trying to complete some of the quests now that you've got them, rather than exploring the whole city for the sake of it before getting to work (if that's what you're doing). Seems like the thing to do if you're role-playing.

If you want to know something about a specific quest, post a question here.

Better yet, go through the game and make your own discoveries and mistakes.

[ 03-03-2004, 06:17 PM: Message edited by: Feral ]

[Hank Parsons]

Your strategy is perfect. That is how this game is played. Everyone you run into, talk to them (especially anyone with a Name rather than just "commoner" or "noble"). If they give you a quest, keep track of it in your journal. As you complete quests, they will automatically be resolved in your journal and moved to the "Done Quests" section. In this way you will always know what quests are available to you, by checking what is left in your journal. The great majority of the quests, you can talk to the person who gives you the quest, and then do the quest whenever you are ready. Be sure to check your journal or remember if you are supposed to go back to the person after you do the task, to get your reward or whatever. Have fun! It is very open-ended.

[Lord]

Originally posted by Hank Parsons: Your strategy is perfect. That is how this game is played. Everyone you run into, talk to them (especially anyone with a Name rather than just "commoner" or "noble"). If they give you a quest, keep track of it in your journal. As you complete quests, they will automatically be resolved in your journal and moved to the "Done Quests" section. In this way you will always know what quests are available to you, by checking what is left in your journal. The great majority of the quests, you can talk to the person who gives you the quest, and then do the quest whenever you are ready. Be sure to check your journal or remember if you are supposed to go back to the person after you do the task, to get your reward or whatever. Have fun! It is very open-ended.

Lymond was doing find with the journal, but isn't completeing the quests, that's all

[Nerull]

Originally posted by Lymond: My gaming experience is primarily Diablo 2 and Icewind Dale, so I'm not very familiar with non-linear quest options. I like it- don't get me wrong- but I'm a little overwhelmed. It seems like everywhere I go, someone is asking me to do something for them. Not having a clear idea of where I'm going or what I'll run into, I've been accepting all quests. I've been making great use of the journal, but there are many open quests. Is this a bad strategy? Is there a penalty for not completing a quest I've accepted? Lymond

Yes, it can be overwhelming in the beginning; I was used to linear games as well when I first played the BG series. You still want to talk to everyone and accept all of the quests, but if you begin to have trouble keeping track of all of them, then go and "clean out your journal" by doing some of the quests. A lot of times, you'll find that you can go to one district in the city and resolve (or at least finish one step of) a number of quests at the same time, as well as talk to the people who assigned the quest to get the reward. However, the big ones that have time limits are the party member quests; they will get impatient and eventually leave if you do not do their quest after a time. You may have to drop everything and go do those quests. But the others really have no time limits. Use that to your advantage by just jumping to an area and cleaning out as much as possible, then moving to the next area. If you are still getting overwhelmed, go do one of the wilderness quests. Usually, there is only one quest (at least in the beginning) that will take you out to a specific wilderness area. Just go concentrate on the one quest (and any smaller quests that happen to arise while there); however, most of those are larger quests than the ones in the city, so you'll be doing those a while (make sure to bring plenty of ammo, supplies, etc. just like in real life wilderness travel).

[Hank Parsons]

Originally posted by Lord: Lymond was doing find with the journal, but isn't completeing the quests, that's all

Why don't you ask Lymond that. That's not what I got out of his question. I doubt he is roaming around just collecting quests and never actually doing any. I thought he was asking if he needs to go: Collect#1, Solve#1, Collect#2, Solve#2. Or if he can go Collect#1, Collect#2, Collect#3, Solve#2, Collect#4, Solve#1, Collect#5, etc. BG2 isn't dependent on contiguous linear quest completion. In the few cases it is, the game lets you know. Lord, you may just have a different approach than me. I think Lymond is doing fine.

[ 03-04-2004, 01:59 AM: Message edited by: Hank Parsons ]

[Lymond]

Thanks for the help, all!

I like the idea of clearing out my journal by completing quests. I'm currently in an area where I think I can knock two off, so that should help.

Lymond

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

That's important, to be efficient when completing quests. Especially with longish load times and autosaves... For example, I like to wait to do everything in the Copper Coronet in one swoop. That means starting several quests and finishing a few as well as meeting people I have to meet to continue or finish other quests. I for one don't have time to sit around and wait for the game to save, load an area, take ten steps, save, and load another area.

[Lord]

Originally posted by Hank Parsons: quote: Originally posted by Lord: Lymond was doing find with the journal, but isn't completeing the quests, that's all

Why don't you ask Lymond that. That's not what I got out of his question. I doubt he is roaming around just collecting quests and never actually doing any. I thought he was asking if he needs to go: Collect#1, Solve#1, Collect#2, Solve#2. Or if he can go Collect#1, Collect#2, Collect#3, Solve#2, Collect#4, Solve#1, Collect#5, etc. BG2 isn't dependent on contiguous linear quest completion. In the few cases it is, the game lets you know. Lord, you may just have a different approach than me. I think Lymond is doing fine. [/QUOTE]

Originally posted by Lymond: Not having a clear idea of where I'm going or what I'll run into, I've been accepting all quests. I've been making great use of the journal, but there are many open quests. Is this a bad strategy? Is there a penalty for not completing a quest I've accepted?

So there [img]tongue.gif[/img]