r/snowrunner • u/Zero-_-Zero • 15h ago
Discussion Tasks vs contracts
So I’ve beaten the main game the 3 og maps 100%. I took a small break but have recently dived back in to the Kola Peninsula.
On the 3 original maps I had the feeling that contracts were main objectives and tasks were like the side quests. I done them all anyway as I enjoyed them. However upon playing kola I noticed there isn’t many contacts and I got them all completed in less than 15 hours with relative ease. I’m guessing the tasks are the hard part of this map?
I guess my question is does this differ map to map or do the dlcs have more of a task focus from now on.
3
u/rinnethx 15h ago
Kola has maybe the smallest number of tasks, but it's more difficult than most map as terrain, etc., other regions have way more tasks/contracts, you will wish they were made as Kola after you repeat a road 5 times to deliver cargo in the same spot
1
u/Zero-_-Zero 15h ago
Oh I don’t doubt it I just wondered were tasks at the forefront from now on rather than contracts. Not that it really matters I suppose.
Kola hasn’t been too bad so far I’ve just been abusing the lake as a high way and all the really hard to reach spots a scout was normally enough to do the contract. I’m still working my way through the tasks though.
2
u/rinnethx 15h ago
Yea, you can say some tasks are important, biggest one would be the one that unlocks your garage in Imandra, which is also a bit complex
1
u/neon_overload 6h ago edited 6h ago
Tasks are mostly "help a stranger" type missions whereas contracts are the types of work you'd do for a company. So the nature of the region may dictate if there's likely to be companies contracting truck operators. They both contribute to the percentage score for a region in the same way so the game doesn't seem to explicitly prioritise one over the other, other than having the contracts tab come first I guess.
For Kola Peninsula it definitely feels like the developers tried to go for a different feel of gameplay, and that's one of the reasons I like it. More exploration and pathfinding and a shift of focus to smaller tasks rather than big delivery missions requiring a lot of cargo slots. It mirrors the Rift expansion of Taymyr, which I think came out about the same time as Kola. I like them both for introducing that variety.
I see Rift and Kola partly as content that the developers wanted to add to the base game but it didn't make the schedule (Kola would have helped justify the "snow" in the game's title), as well as the the developers having a little more ability and scope to experiment in gameplay style, and I think it paid off. Kola still stands out as being a fairly unique region - and even though Amur has a similar "feel" because the environment is similar, I think Kola's gameplay structure is still fairly unique. Amur is kind of more of a culmination of everything before it I think. Like they were aiming to make a Snowrunner epic.
After Kola, there's definitely some regions that recall the gameplay style of Michigan, though sometimes with some new ideas of their own. A lot of people like the BC region which kind of has a similar feel to Michigan and Wisconsin in a way. And there's ones I haven't played (yet!) like Scandinavia and Austria.
Edit: keep in mind also that logging came after all of this - it wasn't in the base game, or early DLCs like Kola, at release time. As a result, the logging can feel out of place - especially in Michigan where I think the number of logging loads you need to do seems kind of excessive. For anyone on a first playthrough I'd say don't worry about leaving the Michigan logging until later if you feel it's too much of a slog - you will probably find yourself wanting to come back to it later though, and revisiting a region after a long time feels so fresh.
1
u/Zero-_-Zero 2h ago
Thanks for the info I’ve already 100% Taymyr, Alaska and Michigan but I do agree that the logging felt unnecessary and out of place at times.
Looking forward to finishing up kola and making the dive somewhere else. Think I’ll head somewhere a bit sunnier this time though haha.
3
u/PippyHooligan 15h ago
In my experience it's fairly random how many contracts vs tasks there are and the quality of those is variable.
Kola is often praised as being one of the best regions, and it's definitely one of the prettiest/most atmospheric, but for me it was marred by the missions/tasks not being particularly interesting or challenging, and there not being that many of them. Collecting the plane parts was probably the most fun/tricky, but that was over pretty quick.
When the game gets it right the missions/tasks are in harmony with the terrain. When it gets it wrong it seems like an arbitrary slog through endless journeys to the same place and back. Washington for example has a really good opening set of missions, rebuilding a freeway, then seemingly endless back and forth.
So far (I haven't played all the regions), Don has been my favourite for a good balance of enough things to do and a challenging map to do them on. Amur too, though 'challenging map' is putting it mildly.