One of the fun things about open-world games that have that sort of "ratchet" mechanism to their world development is that as long as you don't do the story mission that advances the world to the next stage, it's not a problem!

(For instance, in Oblivion the Oblivion Gates don't become a ubiquitous problem until you actually go to Kvatch, however long you dick around before you finally do that. Although you can hear people in the streets talking about how Kvatch has been totally destroyed, which frankly would make my character less inclined to go there than before if he heard about it. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.