If we want to feel this adventure as a real Journey then the "coming back to the same camp every night" idea has to go. D&D is very much about a Journey, not only personal for each character but also about travelling and all the challenges that come up when you have to find a place to sleep in a wild and dangerous area.
Right now coming back to the same camp feels not only immersion breaking (because the camp isn't even real, it exists in a parallel dimension) but also feels like a set back, like going back on our own steps. Always the same camp, same beds, etc.
Imagine if the Fellowship of the Ring never left Rivendel and they did small quests from that location and came back every night for dinner and sleep. Boring, right? And at least for me just changing a bit the scenery of the camp once you move to a different chapter doesn't cut it (which is what I anticipate that they are trying to do).
I believe the stationary camp should go away, and we should have something more like Pathfinder Kingmaker where you have to find a suitable place for camping and build improvised tents and fire, watch for danger, etc.
[A bit, well more than a bit, of sarcasm and irony to follow. Just because of the verb choose "Has to". Imperative. Demanding. I want something, and I want it now and as I said.]
Realism. Flying dragons, vampires, half demon races, goblins, hags, undead, ability to talk with corpses and animals.
Yeah. Indeed.
Oh and the Journey. Because you know, explore the map, the wreckage area, the old temple ruins, the druids lair, the swamp, the goblin camp, the blighted village, the high road, the under dark (all of this areas with their own sub areas) that is not a journey.
In a game that, like many others, doesn't count the flowing of time (seriously, the corpses of mobs killed in the crash site are in the exact same condition when the toon moves to the end of early access, and, wasn't for the need to heal and replenish magic and actions slots, a player can explore all the map without the sun falling down, the only time you see the pass of time is the alert the pops up when you click the "camp" button. It asks if you are sure to end the day and turn to the camp.
That is: there's no teleport just the various areas need at max some hours fo journey.
I love the static camp, but a lot of tinkering and adjustment in how the game uses the flow of time is very much needed, so that sometimes they arrive to the camp (both in fast travel or in camp rest) in different parts of the day, and return to the area from where they fast traveled.
Or they could use a simpler solution: mark the camp site with a rune so that the far distance teleporting wouldn't feel so strange, the complexity of the change would be minimal and they could maintain the reasons why they decide to opt for a static camp instead of following the steps of the previous BG in wich you could rest anywhere that is the will to maintain the (in my opinion alienating) fact the all the exploration, fighting, and so on happens in full day, the fact that the camp becames a repository for npcs and non active companions, the chance to let the characters to have a full rest and so the ability to recharge action and spell slots.
Oh before I forgot, indeed Tolkien didn't write all the journey but the main important pit stops.
