Quests - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

[Bostock]

This thread will contain spoilers.

I hardly ever see any discussion of which quests are worth it, which I think is a shame, since they turn up from time to time and often require a lot of effort to fulfill, but sometimes give a big reward for succeeding. A marvelous cost and benefit question -- the meat and potatoes of Civ discussion.

I don't know them all, so I will start by only discussing the ones I know.

GREED -- Take my neighbor's strategic resource? Yes, please! The only trouble is, the very lack of a resource that sparked the quest to "spawn" may be a big obstacle in the way of fulfilling the quest! But there are always longbows and cats... if you can reach them within the time limit. (150 turns on Epic, don't know if it changes with speed.) If you can't, then the question opens up of whether or not it is worth it to make a desperate attack with inferior attackers just to get the resource. And that depends on the reward, which I don't know what it is! (I will find out tonight, though.)

CRUSADE - Take a holy city? Well, it depends. The rewards are a free shrine, free "defenders" in the captured holy city (I was given macemen "defenders" when I succeeded), or 7 free religion spreads. Three macemen was pretty nice -- 315 Epic hammers, I think. Three whatever is pretty nice in general, since you're at war anyway and they're delivered right to the front. They're zero-XP, however. Seven spreads is 420 Epic hammers plus the missionary-turns and upkeep coins needed to do the spreading, but you have to have seven places to put the spreads, and due to OR, I had already diligently spread everywhere. Maybe you also get to spread to rivals, but I didn't want to risk experimenting. A shrine if it's not there yet is also good indeed. So I'd say the reward here is very flexible and quite decent, so the only question is if an attack on the holy city owner is feasible in general. (And what the dang timer is on the quest -- I forget.)

HOLY MOUNTAIN -- lolwut? No. Just no.

BUILD-A-BUNCH-OF-SWORDSMEN: Yes, I think I will. IMO This quest is ironically more valuable if you are not at war yet, since the best reward IMO is free CR1 on your swords, which is invalidated on existing swords if they are already CR1... plus, if you are at war, you want to use your swords, not stockpile them.

HORSE WHISPERING: I don't know the reward on this one, but what I do know is that I find HBR to be a sidetrack and that when I do finally pick it up, I really like having all my horsey production from just 1 or 2 specialized cities. Maybe I just need to meditate on the Way of The Me In Team more, though.

BUILD-A-BUNCH-OF-COLOSSEUMS: To my memory, I only know about this one indirectly; I've never experienced it. Apparently it's an extra happiness per colosseum if you succeed. The person who mentioned it pooh-poohed it, but since you have just put colosseums in all your major cities, you now have Notre Dame. On the downside, you just put *colloseums* in your cities (or to put it another way, you just build *Notre Dame*).

I hope this thread doesn't die on the vine like most of mine since I'm really curious to hear people's thoughts here!

 

[r_rolo1]

GREED -- Take my neighbor's strategic resource? Yes, please! The only trouble is, the very lack of a resource that sparked the quest to "spawn" may be a big obstacle in the way of fulfilling the quest! But there are always longbows and cats... if you can reach them within the time limit. (150 turns on Epic, don't know if it changes with speed.) If you can't, then the question opens up of whether or not it is worth it to make a desperate attack with inferior attackers just to get the resource. And that depends on the reward, which I don't know what it is! (I will find out tonight, though.)

The reward of greed is floor( number of default players of this map size / 2 ) + 1 of the best ( unpromoted: quest units are always unpromoted ) units you can do ATM with that resource... in standart map it is 4.

Dunno about you, but I'll not wage war for getting 4 free maces or chariots

 

[oyzar]

The colosseums one can also give you a free GA, there is an extensive list of quests and their rewards somewhere though...

 

[Hero]

Colosseums quest is good. Free Golden Age if you have Statue of Zeus. Horse Whispering isn't bad either. +1 food from stables is best choice. Classic Literature is my fav. Free scientist in my Great Library city. Greed I never bother with unless I was gonna attack anyway.

 

[oyzar]

I like getting the musketmen quest when i am playing as agressive ethiopia...

 

[r_rolo1]

As I am a nice guy here is the list of quest triggers and effects:

Quest1:
	Blessed Sea
	Prereq: GALLEY or CARAVEL or GALLEON AND State Religion BUDDHISM or CONFUCIANISM or TAOISM AND Minimum number of Landmasses is 2*default number of players for this map size (12 for standard) AND Maximum number of Landmasses you have cities on is 0.5*default number of players for this map size (3 for standard)
	Obsolete: INDUSTRIALISM
	Active/Weight: 85/300
		Aim:
		Have cities on 1.5*default number of players for this map size (10 for standard) landmasses while never switching State Religion
		Result:
1.convert 20 own cities to your state religion
2.gain a temple in every city size 5 or more
3.get on great prophet unit
Quest2:
	Holy Mountain
	Prereq: State Religion JUDAISM or CHRISTIANITY or ISLAM
	Obsolete: INDUSTRIALISM
	Active/Weight: 85/200
		Aim:
		Build 2*default number of players for this world size temples/monasteries (14 for standard), cathedrals count as 4 temples/monasteries to reveal the holy mountain peak 
		Settle at the holy mountain peak to control it
		Result:
1.+1 happy face in all your cities
Quest3:
	Horse Whispering
	Prereq: ANIMAL_HUSBANDRY AND Horse resource
	Obsolete: NATIONALISM or PRINTING_PRESS or EDUCATION or GUNPOWDER or ASTRONOMY
	Active/Weight: 25/500
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size stables (7 for standard)
		Result:
1.you get  default number of players for this world size Horse Archers (6 for standard)
2.All mounted units get the Sentry promotion
3.All stables provide +1 food
Quest4:
	Harbormaster
	Prereq: COMPASS AND Map has at least 40% water tiles
	Obsolete: STEAM_POWER or STEEL or SCIENTIFIC_METHOD or ARTILLERY
	Active/Weight: 25/500
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size harbors (7 for standard) AND half that number +1 caravels (4 for standard)
		Result:
1.All Naval Units gain the Combat 1 promotion
2.All harbors gain +1 gold
3.All Naval Units gain the Navigation 1 promotion
Quest5:
	Classic Literature
	Prereq: WRITING
	Obsolete: NATIONALISM or PRINTING_PRESS or EDUCATION or GUNPOWDER or ASTRONOMY
	Active/Weight: 20/500
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size libraries (7 for standard)
		Result:
1.+2 research in one (triggering) city's library
2.get one ancient era tech
3.IF you control the Great Library wonder gain +1 scientist specialist for this wonder
Quest6:
	Master Blacksmith
	Prereq: City with Forge
	Obsolete: NATIONALISM or PRINTING_PRESS or EDUCATION or GUNPOWDER or ASTRONOMY
	Active/Weight: 25/500
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size forges (7 for standard) while not loosing the city triggering the quest
		Result:
1.1 Copper resource is revealed
2.All Swordsman units gain the Shock promotion
3.IF you have a state religion gain 1 engineer specialist in the triggering city
Quest7:
	Best Defense
	Prereq: ENGINEERING
	Obsolete: RIFLING or RAILROAD or ECONOMICS
	Active/Weight: 30/400
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size castles (7 for standard)
		Result:
1.All Melee units gain the City Garrison 1 promotion
2.gain +3 Attitude with all AIs you have met
3.IF you control the Great Wall gain +25 Espionage points for the Great Wall
Quest8:
	Sports League
	Prereq: CONSTRUCTION
	Obsolete: RADIO or REFRIGERATION or PLASTICS or SATELLITES or ADVANCED_FLIGHT or ECOLOGY
	Active/Weight: 25/500
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size Colosseums (7 for standard)
		Result:
1.+1 happy face for every Colosseum
2.+4 culture for every collosseum
3.IF you control the Statue of Zeus wonder trigger a golden age
Quest9:
	Crusade
	Prereq: State religion but you do not control the Holy City
	Obsolete: None
	Active/Weight: 50/1000
		Aim:
		Declare War on the owner of the Holy City, stay in war until you conquer the Holy City
		Result:
1.get 0.5*default number of players for this world size+1 conscript units (4 for standard)
2.build the shrine for your state religion
3.spread your state religion to  default number of players for this world size cities (7 for standard)
Quest10:
	Greed
	Prereq: BRONZE_WORKING AND lacking either of the following revealed resources: Oil OR Copper OR Iron OR Horse
	Obsolete: if GrowthPercent for the current Game Speed number of turns have ellapsed (100 for normal)
	Active/Weight: 40/300
		Aim:
		Declare War on the owner of the resource triggered, stay in war until you conquer the resource
Result:
1.get 0.5*default number of players for this world size+1 units (4 for standard) with the conquered resource as prerequisite
Quest11:
	War Chariots
	Prereq: THE_WHEEL AND State Religion
	Obsolete: MONARCHY or LITERATURE or CODE_OF_LAWS or AESTHETICS or MATHEMATICS or ALPHABET or HORSEBACK_RIDING or IRON_WORKING or METAL_CASTING
	Active/Weight: 25/200
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size +1 Chariots (8 for standard)
		Result:
1.All Chariot units gain the Combat 1 promotion
2.Spread your state religion to 5 own cities
Quest12:
	Elite Swords
	Prereq: IRON_WORKING AND State Religion
	Obsolete: MACHINERY or FEUDALISM or MUSIC or PHILOSOPHY or CIVIL_SERVICE or THEOLOGY
	Active/Weight: 25/200
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size +1 Swordsmen (8 for standard)
		Result:
1.All Swordsman units gain the City Raider 1 promotion
2. IF running HEREDITARY RULE: All Melee units gain the Drill 1 promotion
Quest13:
	Warships
	Prereq: SAILING and METAL_CASTING AND Map has at least 55% water tiles
	Obsolete: NATIONALISM or PRINTING_PRESS or EDUCATION or GUNPOWDER or ASTRONOMY
	Active/Weight: 35/200
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size Triremes (7 for standard)
		Result:
1.All Trireme units gain the Combat 1 promotion
2.IF you control the Great Lighthouse all harbors gain +2 commerce
Quest14:
	Guns Butter
	Prereq: GUNPOWDER
	Obsolete: RIFLING or RAILROAD
	Active/Weight: 30/200
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size +1 Musketmen (8 for standard)
		Result:
1.All Musketman units gain the Pinch promotion
2.IF Vassalage civic gain 400 gold
3.IF you control the Taj Mahal wonder trigger a golden age
Quest15:
	Noble Knights
	Prereq: GUILDS and HORSEBACK_RIDING
	Obsolete: MILITARY_TRADITION or RIFLING or RAILROAD
	Active/Weight: 15/200
		Aim:
		Build default number of players for this world size +1 Knights (8 for standard)
		Result:
1.All Knight Units gain the Flanking 1 promotion
2.IF Organized Religion civic AND State Religion: spread your state religion to 5 own cities
3.IF you control the Oracle get a free settled great priest in the Oracle city
Quest16:
	Overwhelm
	Prereq: FLIGHT and INDUSTRIALISM AND Map has at least 55% water tiles
	Obsolete: ROBOTICS
	Active/Weight: 35/200
		Aim:
		Build 4 destroyers, 2 battleships, 3 carriers and 9 fighters
		Result:
1.All DESTROYER, BATTLESHIP, CARRIER, FIGHTER and JET_FIGHTER units gain the Combat 1 promotion
2.All harbors gain +5 commerce
3.IF the Manhattan Project has been build pass the Nuke Ban resolution
Quest17:
	Corporate Expansion
	Prereq: own a corporate HQ
	Obsolete: None
	Active/Weight: 70/200
		Aim:
		spread the corporation to default number of players for this world size +1 cities (that did not have it when the quest was triggered) (8 for standard)
		Result:
1.+10 gold for the corporate HQ
Quest18
	Hostile Takeover
	Prereq: own a corporate HQ and do not control at least 1 instance of all resources the corporation uses
	Obsolete: None
	Active/Weight: 80/200
		Aim:
		own all resource types the corporation uses
		Result:
1.+20 gold for the corporate HQ

Courtesy of ori's article on random events

 

[oyzar]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=236727 and here is the article...

 

[Bostock]

The reward of greed is floor( number of default players of this map size / 2 ) + 1 of the best ( unpromoted: quest units are always unpromoted ) units you can do ATM with that resource... in standart map it is 4.

Dunno about you, but I'll not wage war for getting 4 free maces or chariots

Thanks. Four chariots wouldn't tip my decision. Four horsies might tip it a bit more. Four swords a bit more more. Four macemen early in the machinery era, a bit more more more. Four knights too.

In any case, it's just a weight on the scale between war and not-war. The decision to go to war for a resource has great risks and great rewards. Every factor is important. On the other hand, this does seem to kind of pale compared to the risk of possibly starting a war without a vital resource on the one hand, or gaining such a resource on the other.

 

[Joshua368]

In the two times I've gotten the greed quest, I ignored it but the bordering resource ended up culture flipping to me on its own a little while later. Upon which the world got to know my greed was unmatched and I got four new friends.

 

[semirami]

I like the musket quest very much, where you can have goledn age with Taj Mahal, That's 2 free golden ages. Unfortunatelly it is rare. Colloseum quest is also nice, but sometimes you dont have enough cities with sufficient production, while you can build muskets in your HE city really fast. Also I build Taj much more often than SoZ.

I usually skip the stable quest, unless if I have mounted UU. The reward isnt worth.

 

[dubrown]

In general, I never go after a quest that pops up unless it's either:

a: easily done without distracting my main goal atm.
b: is in line with my current goal.

The quest rewards are never any game breakers, sure they'll help a little but you'll do just fine without it.

 

[PaulusIII]

I rarely go much out of my way to fulfill a quest. Greed only goes when I'm planning on an invasion anyway. It might nudge me towards a bit more agression in my plans, though... say if you get the swordsmen quest I want heads to knock after that.

 

[r_rolo1]

For me the worst quest possible is the BS ( Blessed Sea ) one Mainly because someone mesed badly with the check if there were enough landmasses in the quest trigger ( c'mon ... 10 land masses in standart..... try that on continents ) .... Not mentioning that the rewards for such a big effort....

 

[PaulusIII]

For me the worst quest possible is the BS ( Blessed Sea ) one Mainly because someone mesed badly with the check if there were enough landmasses in the quest trigger ( c'mon ... 10 land masses in standart..... try that on continents ) .... Not mentioning that the rewards for such a big effort....

That's the one quest I never completed. 10 different landmasses? Is that even possible?

 

[r_rolo1]

Without crashing the economy... no ( this OFC admiting that you have 10 landmasses to settle )

 

[oyzar]

It is if vassal states are not on.. On archpilago it also works quite well... The reward for the event is actually quite decent, 800 hammers + the time it takes to spread the religion to 20 cities on an archpilago map? Big and small, fractal 70% and 60% sea tectonics, islands are other maps it could work fine on

 

[r_rolo1]

The problem with it IMHO is that it costs atleast 9 setlers ( if you want to do it peacefully ) and 9 settlers >>>> 800 hammers

 

[Bostock]

Thanks again, r_rolo.

Blessed Sea has some huge rewards, and quite flexible, but the requirements sound like such a diplo and settlement-plan straitjacket that it's still probably not worth it unless there are lots of islands around. (These count here as landmasses, right?)

Now that I have the lowdown on Holy Mountain, my new evaluation is: lolwut?!

Horsewhispering does sound pretty good, if not too flexible -- not sure I'd want unpromoted horses or universal sentry horses, but yeah, +1 food per stable sounds cool.

Harbormaster sounds a bit better. Unlike stables, I will be building those harbors no matter what. Navigation 1 on all my naval units sounds pretty good, but if I happen to not need it, a good dozen extra CPT in my empire also sounds alright (though not great). Blanket combat 1 on my navy seems like a bit of a yawner, but I'm not sure.

Classic literature sounds like another good-but-inflexible one: you'll want libraries anyway, and while +2 research is a yawner, and a free ancient (!) era tech likewise, the GL reward sounds pretty good.

Master blacksmith... man, I don't know.

Best Defense sounds like 1 really great reward (+3 attitude per civ -- yes, please) and 2 really lame ones (CG on my attackers?! A measly +25 EP for the GW?!), although I may be misunderstanding the GW bonus. The clincher against it though is that you have to build castles.

Sports league: 1 great reward (GA with the SZ... but then you've just built SZ), 1 good one, one only fit for a culture win, and you're required to do something I normally wouldn't... it does sound lukewarm.

Crusade I've already said my feelings, Greed likewise.

War Chariots sounds good if a chariot rush is feasible (especially a flanking-based one so your existing chariots can get the Combat bonus), all the more so if you have a state religion and there's no urgent need to spam it before the rush (but then, if you're rushing, you really don't have time to spam your religion, so OK). Then again, how often are chariot rushes feasible...

Elite swords, again I've said my opinion in the first post. But I ignored the Drill 1 option there even though I knew about it, because CR1 is pretty great in itself, and meanwhile melee can't get the more important (IIRC) drill 2... until in the far future they are upgraded to gunpowder, but at that point they can get all the drill they want if they have the XP for it. I dunno.

Warships - that's a lotta triremes. Rewarding them with Combat 1 on top is just overkill, you won't use it. +2 commerce per harbor, now we're talking, and the great lighthouse is no SZ... but you have to actually snag the darn thing.

Guns Butter - Sounds great all the way around! Something you might already want to do (sure muskets rather than rifles is unconventional, but hey... and you can always just upgrade them later), there are lots of musket uus, pinch is thinking for the future, and a golden age is... what it is. 400 gold from vassalage... well, not ALL THREE rewards can be good.

Noble knights -- like muskets, but all three options are good.

Overwhelm: I have never played to the modern age (*blush*) so I'm not going to comment on this.

The 2 corporate quests: ditto.

 

[eewallace]

I almost always ignore quests, although I once actually did the holy mountain quest almost by accident. After the quest showed up and I ignored it, eventually my priests announced they had found its location, and it happened to be on a nice little unoccupied island near me, so I finished the quest.

Other than that, I do the ones that involve buildling libraries, forges, or lighthouses, since I'm going to be doing that anyway eventually.

 

[Zanttu]

The ones I've completed:

Classic Literature - This is pretty easy as you will probably build those libraries anyway, and if you have the GL +1 scientist is pretty cool. The only drawback is that the quest obsoletes early.

Best defense - I've done this once as a protective leader for the bonus in relationships

Sports League - Colosseum is a nice building especially when warring or in SE (using culture slider for happiness). The rewards are OK and as you have pretty long time for completing it, I see no reason why not go for it.

Greed - Most of the time I ignore it, but sometimes I just get lucky with it when I'm already going to declare on someone

War Chariots - I got this once as Egypt when I already had 6/8 chariots built and was going to declare war soon... Poor Saladin didn't have a change.

Elite Swords - Good for swords/cats war.