Procedural Generation of Quests in Fallout 4

Irwin John Finster

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
I initially did not think this warranted its own topic, but I just finished playing more of Fallout 4 and this was my experience in that one or two hours:

*Preface: I do not actually know whether or not these quests are procedurally generated, but if they aren't they might as well be because they are all the same thing.

I began my game by setting up the MILA transmitter thing for Tinker Tom from the Railroad at the top of a raider-infested building that I had to clear out to do so. When I returned, I was surprised to hear him tell me he has more locations to set up his devices, and he hands me another MILA transmitter and I have another location to do the same thing again and again.

After walking away from Tinker Tom, Drummer Boy came up and gave me another base to clear out and set up for the Railroad. P.A.M. also had a base-clearing quest for me. So that is a total of 3 base-clearing quests so far.

After walking away from Drummer Boy, Doctor Carrington gave me another dead drop quest. This also appears to be repeating. So 4 procedurally generated quests in that one visit.

During this hour I fast traveled to Sanctuary Hills 3 times. Each time a new settler came up with the exact same dialogue telling me I had to rescue a friend who had been kidnapped by raiders and was being held captive in a building which would have to be cleared out. In addition, Preston Garvy had "something a little different for me this time" in that he had a new settlement for me to travel to in order to receive yet another base-clearing quest. So that is another 4 procedurally generated base-clearing quests where the only goal is to kill everything and loot. A total of 8 base-clearing quests from visiting just 2 locations within a one hour period.

I also completed a main quest: I had to travel to the Greenwich Genetics building and clear the entire building, kill a Synth Courser and loot the body. In other words, I had to do the exact same thing that the other base-clearing quests asked me to do. As you can see, even the main quests are of the "Go here, kill everything, loot everything" variety. I have probably cleared out Corvega Assembly Plant 3 times by now.

During this time, I hacked enough computer terminals that Nick Valentine decided I was adorable.

This game feels more shallow than Borderlands. I am in absolute shock at the quality of Fallout 4 after this 1-2 hour session I just had. It might actually be more shallow and inept than Dragon Age II at this point. I have played this game for 90 hours now and I have tried and tried and tried and all I have found is procedurally generated MMORPG grindfest quests. So far, very few quests stand out as not being procedurally generated base clearing quests, and that includes the main story. And given the fact that Cabot House and Kid in the Fridge are among the non-procedurally generated group, I don't think I can even believe people were paid real money for this. If there was an actual story-driven RPG in addition to this MMORPG grindfest, it would be an amazing game with lots of content. But without that RPG writing and dialogue, it's Bored-er-lands 3.

A final point: if this really was Borderlands 3, I would call it a tremendous improvement on the series. This is Fallout, and as such it is a tremendous dumbing down of the series.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. Most quests in Fallout 4 really suck ass. I'm curious if Bethesda pulled over some people from Elder Scrolls Online and had them work on it. They wreak of being from a bad MMO and hey, ESO fits the bill..

Quests aside I believe the companion like/dislike system could've been good if they pulled their heads out of their asses and tried making sense of what it is the companion is liking. I can understand why the system's there and what good it could bring to the game if it were done right. But Piper Wright getting hot & bothered by the player lockpicking is a bit too much to stomach..
 
Yeah. Most quests in Fallout 4 really suck ass. I'm curious if Bethesda pulled over some people from Elder Scrolls Online and had them work on it. They wreak of being from a bad MMO and hey, ESO fits the bill..

Quests aside I believe the companion like/dislike system could've been good if they pulled their heads out of their asses and tried making sense of what it is the companion is liking. I can understand why the system's there and what good it could bring to the game if it were done right. But Piper Wright getting hot & bothered by the player lockpicking is a bit too much to stomach..
I doubt it had much to do with the ESO team. Skyrim's quests were also pretty weak, especially the radiant ones.
 
It's insulting because of the attitude associated too - "something different" = not only not different, not only the exact EXACT same as before - but the EXACT same as every other quest.

What, they thought SAYING it is "different" will make it different? What stopped them from saying "something extraordinary, life-changing"??

As I've said before, FO4 is the only fallout game where I lose patience SO fast, so profoundly, I will just flip my gun out and shoot NPCs in the face. I didn't even treat FO3 that carelessly. It's just insulting.

Here, let me mark it on your map.
 
Worse still the locations keep repeating I can't count how many fucking times I've had to clear the national guard armory of ghouls or raiders from dunwich borers. Or how once people got kidnapped from the slog three times in a row!
 
Last edited:
yea srs wtf I beat the main story and thr isn't much else to do, all my quests are gather this or kill that. Guess its time to try out wasteland 2 on xbox
 
Back
Top