Level Design: You are going a similar way that Original Sin 2 and Dragon Age 3 went, where you present the whole world as a couple of big open world levels. I personally do prefer smaller levels that are connected over a map. Your design gives a feeling that everything interesting is super close together and that you can't really travel further away. It also makes it difficult to create different environments if you want to stay consistend (and logical). I would prefer something like Dragon Age 1 or Neverwinter Nights 2 - Storm of Zehir with a map, travel, locations, random encounters, hidden locations that can only be revealed with a perception check etc etc. That would feel more like pen and paper and like a big world where not everything is crammed together in one spot. A mix of both ways with some big areas and a lot of small ones might work best.
Fully agreed. I've said it a couple of times already, but it's ridiculous when enemy camps are a rock's throw from each other. Or... anything's a rock's throw away, for that matter. That's a huge hit to believability.
