Can I go freely around the Wastelands or do I have to consider a time limit for quests or regions? I know that right of the start you are confronted with the decision to either help the Agriculture Center or Highpool or neither.

Yet I am asking more in a general sense:

Does the world react to my deeds in the sense that I trigger any progress in a quest; or is time passing in the background without my knowledge, possibly changing certain quests or making them impossible to complete?

2 Answers

In regards to the first start and the choice between of Ag and Highpool the answer is yes. If you do not go to one of them in a reasonable amount of time both of them will be destroyed and you will be in a different main quest storyline where you must set up alternative repeators and radio towers. But one of them is going to be destroyed anyway since you are just 1 group of Rangers. After this, it does not seem to be a time limit and consequences for not following it.

I would advise you to go ASAP to one of those locations. They are not that fun in comparison to others IMHO, but they give valuable scrap,exp and other things.

2

In my current game, I am walking away from the distress call at Leve L'upe Mine, due to an ammo shortage, and I have not suffered any negative quest consequences.

As far as I can tell beyond status effects and water usage, time has no impact on quests.

I took a long route away from the mine and returned later to no noticeable quest effect. I completed the mission and received reward plus new team member.