Don't trigger it

[Pifanjr]

I got the idea for this thread when my wife was playing Skyrim and intentionally didn't do the main quest so she wouldn't have to deal with dragon attacks. I personally always avoided the main quest of Oblivion because I did not care for the Oblivion gates. I only finished the main quest once and the Oblivion gates were in my opinion the worst part of the entire game.

Some other examples that have come to mind since then:

In Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, in the The Southern Gate level, you have to shoot two catapults and go up a tower, all the while being attacked by orcs. My friend and I would intentionally not fire the catapults so we could just keep fighting the hordes of orcs until we eventually killed all of them. It was great because there was no time limit and there were only basic orcs, so wecould just keep mashing through them and get tons of experience.

In Black & White, I'd often avoid moving onto the next level, especially on the first and second level, to train my creature some more and play around on the island for a bit longer, as those were the best levels in my opinion.

Anyone got any other examples of games in which you intentionally (or unintentionally) prevented triggering a next part of the game?

 

[DXCHASE]

The most recent one for me is Cyberpunk 2077. Its set up where there is a part in the main campaign that once you complete the mission, you complete the game and you are done and cant go back, it takes you back to the last save point you have before you complete the last quest if you try loading back in.

So i held off specifically on doing that quest for a long time so i can get all the side quests done. I dont like being forced to be done with a game and not have the ability to play afterwards like you can with most games.

 

[mainer]

I generally avoid working on a game's main questline (mainly RPGs) for as long as possible, preferring to explore as much as I can and complete as many side quests as possible. It varies by game as some are more linear than others, but with open world games, I can play for literally hundreds of hours before I work on the main story.

Similar to your wife, I always avoid the main quest in Skyrim, though not as early as I do like random dragon attacks and learning shouts. I'll usually stop following the main quest once I get the quest The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. So much more to do, especially with the DLCs, that I find more interesting.

Fallout 4 is another one. I'll rescue Preston Garvey and his crew, but after that I'm really into finding settlements and building them up, as well as all the side quests that pop up. I can often play a couple hundred hours before I even get to Diamond City.

"Don't trigger it", is how I approach just about every game I play.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Similar to your wife, I always avoid the main quest in Skyrim, though not as early as I do like random dragon attacks and learning shouts. I'll usually stop following the main quest once I get the quest The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. So much more to do, especially with the DLCs, that I find more interesting.

I'm the same with Skyrim. I play the main quest until I get the shouts from the Greybeards, then I move on to other side quests. I think it's best to build your skills up before you get too far into the main quest. The good thing about Skyrim is that it's not like Cyberpunk 2077, and it lets you keep playing after you beat the main storyline.

By the time I get to where the dragons start attacking more, I'm usually built up pretty well with dragon armor and weapons, and dragons are nothing to kill.

 

[Zloth]

Well, I certainly try to do as most of the quests before a game finishes, or before an area is closed off. One of the bad things about older games is that they don't warn about that sort of thing, so a seemingly harmless quest can suddenly fail a bunch of other quests. But purposefully avoiding the main quest until the very end for some other reason? The only time I remember doing that was the demon attack on the castle in the early parts of Oblivion. The first time I played, I went into that quest terribly under levelled. The second time, I avoided it (and thus the main quest) for quite a while to make it easier. (TOO easy, as it turned out.)

 

[Brian Boru]

Seems to be mainly a RPG thing, judging from above posts. I can only think of minor examples in the genres I play.

In RTS C&C missions you often need to keep your head down at the beginning to avoid the enemy swarming before you have a defensive force ready. Ideally I like to keep combat encounters as low-key as possible until I have some air power—then the drive to whack 'em begins. I haven't heard of side quests in RTS, it's pretty linear and focused.

In Far Crys my main strategy is to level up the skill tree and craft the better equipment before I go far. So lots of local side quests and hunting before driving out into the heartland. FC Primal had base building and recuing specialists which buffed abilities—necessary before progressing to encounter the larger animals or enemy camps.

FC New Dawn added leveling up to Level 3 on top of Primal's new mechanics, which you had to do before facing L2 or L3 wildlife or enemies. FC5 triggered more lethal enemy patrols hunting you if you crossed a line, and also air attacks after a second line.

In 4X Civ, there's often an advantage to giving in to early opponent demands rather than refusing and risking a war you're not ready for.

Mostly it's just strategic preparation before getting tactical.

 

[Colif]

I got the idea for this thread when my wife was playing Skyrim and intentionally didn't do the main quest so she wouldn't have to deal with dragon attacks.

I tried that on PS3 about 2 weeks after game was released, they show up anyway (Or used to) as many are tied to regions, not just the main story. Sure, you can ignore one in first starter zone but game won't let you ignore them for long. I was not amused.

Anyone got any other examples of games in which you intentionally (or unintentionally) prevented triggering a next part of the game?

I used to play Test Drive Unlimited 2, I stopped actually doing quests in it pretty early but still played it for a long time, they had a casino dlc where you could win money to buy cars, instead of racing. So I spent a lot of time grinding slot machines as I didn't understand some of the other games. There were some good payouts off them, I earned enough eventually to buy a few houses (Mostly used to store cars) and all the cars I wanted to buy. I couldn't ever get some of the cars as they were tied to winning races but I got enough. I never did finish the "story" in that game as it wasn't needed to have fun.

I used to avoid doing the main quest in Just Cause 2 and just went around destroying stuff randomly but it also won't let you do that for long either.

Some sandbox games just don't like you ignoring the story

One of the bad things about older games is that they don't warn about that sort of thing, so a seemingly harmless quest can suddenly fail a bunch of other quests.

unrelated but it reminds me of how some quests in sacred 2 would fail as you did another one first, game wouldn't tell you that you shouldn't, it was something you had to learn through a few play throughs. Annoying if you trying to finish all the side quests. Its the sort of game you can't ignore main quest entirely in, have to do it to open new areas, but that is really the main purpose of main quest in game. If you ignore main quest... you wouldn't see top half of the map, but you could still see a lot of the game just by exploring alternate routes. Its map is still bigger and more uniquely detailed than most maps I see now. hand drawn.

 

[ZedClampet]

Other than delaying the main questline progression so that I can level up more and get better gear, I can't think of any time I've avoided triggering the next event in a game.

 

[Pifanjr]

Other than delaying the main questline progression so that I can level up more and get better gear, I can't think of any time I've avoided triggering the next event in a game.

When I made the thread, I wasn't talking about just not doing the main quest to level up, but when, for example, not doing the main quest prevents some significant change or event to happen.

Another example is that it's possible to kill the Capra Demon from Dark Souls by throwing dung piles or firebombs into the boss arena without going through the fog barrier. By preventing the trigger that starts the boss fight, you can kill it before it can attack you.

There's plenty more games where you can set up a bunch of traps, for example by laying down mines, right before triggering a (boss) fight, though no examples come to mind right now.

 

[ZedClampet]

When I made the thread, I wasn't talking about just not doing the main quest to level up, but when, for example, not doing the main quest prevents some significant change or event to happen.

Another example is that it's possible to kill the Capra Demon from Dark Souls by throwing dung piles or firebombs into the boss arena without going through the fog barrier. By preventing the trigger that starts the boss fight, you can kill it before it can attack you.

There's plenty more games where you can set up a bunch of traps, for example by laying down mines, right before triggering a (boss) fight, though no examples come to mind right now.

Yeah, I knew what you were talking about. I've just never done it. Part of the reason for that is because I don't play games more than once, so I don't really know when I'm about to trigger something.

 

[Pifanjr]

Yeah, I knew what you were talking about. I've just never done it. Part of the reason for that is because I don't play games more than once, so I don't really know when I'm about to trigger something.

You might've figured something out after dying against a boss several times, like I just found in this old PCGamer article:

(mild spoilers for Divinity: Original Sin 2)

Spoiler

Phil Savage: During the final boss fight of Divinity: Original Sin 2, there's a moment where everything goes Very Bad. When a certain character is reduced to a certain amount of health, they teleport everyone to a different room, spawn more enemies, and just generally flood the entire arena with elemental effects that consistently screwed me over. I think it's a pretty bad fight, and one that I didn't see my team being able to win. But up until that point, DOS2 had been pretty consistent with its systems and spell effects, so I tried a different tactic. I damaged the character just enough to destroy their armour, and then used my summoner to simply turn them into a chicken. Then I focused them down with rogue until the character was down to the threshold where they'd normally cast their fight-progressing spell. The line of dialogue played as normal, but then nothing happened. Because they were a chicken, and chickens can't cast spells. We never moved to the next stage of the fight, so I won the game by killing off everybody in the first, much easier room.

 

[SWard]

Awesome thread idea!

 

[ZedClampet]

You might've figured something out after dying against a boss several times, like I just found in this old PCGamer article:

(mild spoilers for Divinity: Original Sin 2)

Spoiler

Phil Savage: During the final boss fight of Divinity: Original Sin 2, there's a moment where everything goes Very Bad. When a certain character is reduced to a certain amount of health, they teleport everyone to a different room, spawn more enemies, and just generally flood the entire arena with elemental effects that consistently screwed me over. I think it's a pretty bad fight, and one that I didn't see my team being able to win. But up until that point, DOS2 had been pretty consistent with its systems and spell effects, so I tried a different tactic. I damaged the character just enough to destroy their armour, and then used my summoner to simply turn them into a chicken. Then I focused them down with rogue until the character was down to the threshold where they'd normally cast their fight-progressing spell. The line of dialogue played as normal, but then nothing happened. Because they were a chicken, and chickens can't cast spells. We never moved to the next stage of the fight, so I won the game by killing off everybody in the first, much easier room.

Still can't think of anything in particular. But I only got 2 hours of sleep, so maybe it will hit me tomorrow

 

[Colif]

There was a game made recently where all it took to beat almost every pack of monsters was to just back away and they would lose agro and you could just pick them off from range. I don't know its name, I just saw videos of it. I don't know if this worked on bosses, you would hope not but if agro range is so short, maybe.

 

[Colif]

Now I remember its name

and it did work on bosses.