I don't really see any good solution to this. In "reality" there's nothing to stop a group from just leaving and taking a rest if they feel like it. I for sure rested a million times i BG1/2 and it didn't detract from the games. If one really wanted to limit it, there's a few suggestion that keeps coming up.
- Make it cumbersome: Sure, you could make it more cumbersome by making you walk back to town and then back to the dungeon again - however this game has fast travel points. Cumbersome could potentially work if it were really cumbersome, but with fast travel I don't see it will ever be. It'll just be a nuisance, and frustrate a lot of players. Not convinced frustration is the best method to manage camping.
- Non-campable areas You have to leave the area to camp. If it's not a very big area, then see above. If it's a very big area, I'm still not sure that frustration is a good technique to manage rest.
- Chance of encounters I see this coming up again and again, and I've never understood it. It's just a bother. Either the ambushes has to be deadly so you will have to leave (but then they could just make areas unavailable for resting and not have to bother with implementing ambushes), or they'll be manageable and have no impact. Also, it just takes away my play time. Same goes for respawns. I don't want resting dragged out with needless combat.
- Resource limited Make it consume costly rations. I like this. I like hoarding gold, and if it cost a lot to camp I'll avoid it or at the very least limit it. Realistic? Not a bit, but it could work as a game mechanic.
- Fixed places you can rest Designated spots where you can rest during your travels, and no "go to camp" button. So you either have to backtrack or push forward. I think this could work if combined with the point above. Certain safe resting points can be behind hidden doors etc.
Then just remove food entirely and give us 2 or 3 short rests (or limitless on easy difficulty).
