Time limits on side -quests are simply unnessesary mechanic.

[Wyck]

It exists solely to annoy players. It does not add anything good and enjoyable to the game. Please either remove it, or give us an option to turn it off.

[Kane5784]

I'm not even sure how the time limit system works exactly. In Act 2 nearly all the side quests and Urban Secrets say they're about to expire as soon as I acquire them.

Does anyone know if these actually run off a time system (i.e. the game tracks how many days have passed), or if they expire after certain main quests or acts?

[elendil]

I think they should have made the distinction more clear:
1) Most quest seem to be act based - you have the entire act time to complete them. It would have been good to get a warning like "this is the last quest in this act, you need to finish side quests now or never".
2) There can also be a hint when you get the quest: if someone invites you to come to a place at afternoon, they mean you need to be there at next afternoon - tracked in ingame time. However the only quests I noticed so far that is like that has to do with a university and attending a lecture there.

Depending on what happens in the story those time limits might be actually meaningful: traveling to another place, a character dying and so on.

[Wyck]

Originally posted by elendil:

I think they should have made the distinction more clear:
1) Most quest seem to be act based - you have the entire act time to complete them. It would have been good to get a warning like "this is the last quest in this act, you need to finish side quests now or never".
2) There can also be a hint when you get the quest: if someone invites you to come to a place at afternoon, they mean you need to be there at next afternoon - tracked in ingame time. However the only quests I noticed so far that is like that has to do with a university and attending a lecture there.

Depending on what happens in the story those time limits might be actually meaningful: traveling to another place, a character dying and so on.

Thing is - game is trying to FOMO you with a messagas about quest about to expire. While in reality - i did all the secondaries i can find in ACT 1 and ACT 2 without any clocks next to the quest names changing.
So i'm too confused how they work now.
Maybe some more clear explanation in in-game Help then?

[wyndhambarnhill]

Just beat the game and yea, they DEF could have explained that better.

[Tozobi]

I am 99% sure that i did get a message after completing a main quest that a specific other side quest was about to expire (the Morana one once I started Act 2), which i assumed meant that completing another main quest meant that the side quest would be gone.

I think a bigger problem is that the game does gimp some quest outcomes if you do not take the optimal order for some main quests, without you being given any clue about what the order is until you play through. For instance: in Act 1, if you do not do the main quest that gets you to the collapsed building and finish it so you can get Lelek first, there is no way to meet Mind check criteria in the quest that takes you to the hotel, so you get several people somewhat angry with the outcome of that one. This is generally OK for side quests where you see that you cannot examine some item and need to get other quests done first so you can get the relevant Salutor and its dimension stats, but for the main quests that was a bit of a letddown.