I wish. Act III would be stronger all around if we had more options to choose where we were going to sleep for the night.
I think part of the sense of overwhelm or feeling of repetition and grind I get from Act III, is mainly because the Elfsong Tavern just gets kinda boring. It's also pretty claustrophobic compared to the Lower City camp you get before you rent the room. Act I has unique camps all over the place and this gives nice change of pace as we transition around the different locales.
If Baldur's Gate had a different Tavern for each Waypoint in the Lower City I'm sure it would feel a lot more satisfying by comparison and match the sense of scale we get elsewhere. In Acts I and II if you go underground or into a dungeon you'll get a unique camp, but in Act III it just warps you to the Elfsong, like even if you're down by the beach or in the sewers, with Rivington as the only other option. The chokepoint at Wyrm's Rock between the two main camps can also be frustrating, since it's a funnel.
I also think the Elfsong itself should include a way to get on top of the roof to take in some views. Accessible via a ladder from the main sleeping area or something similar. The game sorta missed the mark by not giving us any form of "Build-a-Camp" or some class strongholds in Act III for the climax. It would have been cool to play house a bit, with a way to set the Camp Companion locations within the camp. Particularly frustrating are the situations where a companion or a hireling is standing somewhere awkward, like with their knees clipping through a coffee table or a vase or whatever. Maybe I want to play musical chairs so my main party is close together and the B teamers are waiting more in the wings. I feel like the Elfsong camp is intended to streamline everything, but I think I could probably come up with something more convenient if it was possible to move the beds/tents around, the chest and the mirror same deal. A cabin on the outskirts of town would also have been nice.
When the player clicks the Long Rest icon in the lower city, it should bring up a list of "Known Taverns" like waypoints, and give us the option to choose a spot for the night from among a few different options.
I also wish there was more to do at the various camps. I don't know maybe a random NPC or Animal to chat it up, a hidden stash here or there (with something other than berries or rags or the occasional bottle of Ithbank hehe.) We get fishing rods but no fishing, even when the river is right there! I don't know, I half expected after finding two fishing rods that this would be a camp theme somehow. Foraging around in the swamp or the Underdark would have been cool, Wyll talks a big game about secret fishing spots and lunkers but I want to see the proof! heheh
Also while discussing camps, it's hard not to mention Withers since he is the main fixture at every camp. I think the idea of hirelings and camp followers that could function like sinks for the leftover kit/equipment would be solid, but the fact that we're stuck with just his zombies is pretty limiting. You have to make you choices based on what's available for Race/Background/Gender-Voice and go with whatever starting equipment vibes there. We recruit a hireling for 200 gp, then change their class for another 100 gp to adjust their attributes and such, so why not just give us a fully custom character for 300 GP and cut out that middle step? Right now you can't recruit a dragonborn hireling either, so all the bases aren't really being covered there.
I still think the game should have an option to skip the Prologue and to start on the beach at the first campsite. I envision an option to "Play Prologue" or "Skip Prologue." If we choose the latter the downside should just be that we don't get that loot or xp. It could play the cutscene of the crash and we just pick up right there, to save about 20-30 minutes on the restartitus. I honestly thing a way to skip ahead even further would be ideal, but the breakpoints aren't as clear. I suppose it could be done in a similar way by Act. I think something like that might be more engaging for MP, where the party can begin the adventure at lvl 4, coming into the campaign a little bit later, just to hit the ground running with the lvl 5 spike. Similar to the Prologue on the Nautiloid which takes us from Level 1 to Level 2, there might be an Act II or Act III introductory chapter that gives an introduction to the Act and takes the party from lvl 4 to lvl 5. Or for Act III maybe something that takes us from lvl 8 to lvl 9, where it just plays some of the story cutscenes like "last week on Baldur's Gate" hehe. This would just be a convenient way to break the game into more manageable chunks for replay or particularly for MP play, where characters could at least launch into things together from a mid point instead of starting a new campaign from the getgo for each session. For a challenge a nerf to the XP and equipment for skipping ahead seems sensible, meaning you might start Act II with some friends, but where everyone is using mundane equipment just skipping over that early itemization, and where the XP awarded is slight behind the power curve compared to a Party that played through the Nautiloid and all the other stuff for like 10 hours. To me that seems like an alright trade-off for convenience on replay, and probably more entertaining from a grab and go type thing. I know there will be a dungeon be gone mod like there always is, but it would be better to have a system in place as part of the base game, that way the narrator can clue us in and the entry points can be framed so that they still feel coherent. If the game was broken into 3 campaign sessions, I imagine Act I would be for parties lvls 2-5, Act II for parties lvls 5-9, and Act III for parties lvls 9 and up. Character creation for each could just provide XP to meet the entry level and a couple hundred gold to buy some basic starting equipment, kinda lowballed for the added challenge there, but with enough to get the essential kit for whatever character concept. I think that would be ideal
